For nearly three months the USGA has worked on the new qualifying conditions for the 2020 US Women’s Open. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the USGA announced in May that the normal sectional and local qualifying would not be feasible. Instead, it has announced extensive exemption categories – 20 in total – for the US Women’s Open, which will be held from December 10-13 at Champions Golf Club in Houston.
“Our guiding principle throughout this process was to put a criteria together that really resembled fields of the past,” said Shannon Rouillard, USGA senior director of championships.
That meant, among other changes, making drastic alterations to how amateurs can get in. “On any given year, we studied the past three years, we’ve averaged 25 amateurs in the field,” Rouillard said. “The majority of amateurs are making their way into the Women’s Open through qualifying, and we certainly couldn’t overlook that fact.”
To help make this year’s field reflect what a US Women’s Open field would look like in a normal qualifying year, a new amateur exemption category was added: the top 20 points leaders in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, who haven’t already qualified, as of November 4.
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Also new, the top two players, not exempt otherwise, from the top 10 of the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, the Cambia Portland Classic and the ShopRite LPGA Classic will qualify, as will the top three, not otherwise qualified, among the top 10 of the KPMG Women’s LPGA Championship.
Without any international qualifying, the top five players on the 2019 moneylists for the LET, the Korea LPGA, the Japan LPGA, and the top three on the China LPGA Tour will be exempt.
Though local and sectional qualifying make the US Women’s Open special, unprecedented times call for unprecedented changes to Major championships.
“We feel it is so important for us to conduct the Women’s Open, and this one especially, with it being a milestone year for the Women’s Open, the 75th anniversary,” Rouillard said. “That really means a lot to us, and we know it means a lot of women’s professional golf as well.”
List of exempt players for the 2020 US Women’s Open:
Winners of the US Women’s Open Championship the past 10 years (2010-2019): Jeongeun Lee6, Ariya Jutanugarn, Sung Hyun Park, Brittany Lang, In Gee Chun, Michelle Wie, Inbee Park, Na Yeon Choi, So Yeon Ryu, Paula Creamer.
From the 2019 US Women’s Open Championship, the 10 lowest scorers and anyone tying for 10th place: Celine Boutier, Jaye Marie Green, Mamiko Higa, Jessica Korda, Jeongeun Lee6, Yu Liu, Ally McDonald, Gerina Piller, So Yeon Ryu, Lexi Thompson, Angel Yin.
Winner of the 2019 US Women’s Amateur Championship: Gabriela Ruffels.
Winners of the 2019 US Girls’ Junior and US Women’s Mid-Amateur Championships and the 2019 US Women’s Amateur Championship runner-up (must be an amateur): Lei Ye, Ina Kim-Shaad. (Albane Valenzuela would’ve also been exempt, but she turned pro.)
Winners of the ANA Inspiration Championship the past five years (2016-2020): Jin Young Ko, Pernilla Lindberg, So Yeon Ryu, Lydia Ko.
Winners of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (five-year exemption) (2016-2019): Hannah Green, Sung Hyun Park, Danielle Kang, Brooke Henderson.
Winners of the Evian Championship the past five years (2015-2019): Jin Young Ko, Angela Stanford, Anna Nordqvist, In Ghee Chun, Lydia Ko.
Winners of the AIG Women’s British Open Championship the past five years (2015-2019): Hinako Shibuno, Georgia Hall, In-Kyung (I.K.) Kim, Ariya Jutanugarn, Inbee Park.
The top 30-point leaders from the 2019 LPGA Race to the CME Globe Final Points: Brittany Altomare, Celine Boutier, Carlota Ciganda, Shanshan Feng, Hannah Green, Nasa Hataoka, Brooke Henderson, Mi Jung Hur, Sung Hyun Park, Eun-Hee Ji, Ariya Jutanugarn, Moriya Jutanugarn, Danielle Kang, Hyo Joo Kim, Sei Young Kim, Jin Young Ko, Jessica Korda, Nelly Korda, Bronte Law, Minjee Lee, Jeongeun Lee6, Yu Liu, Gaby Lopez, Caroline Masson, Azahara Munoz, Su-Hyun Oh, Inbee Park, Lizette Salas, Lexi Thompson, Amy Yang.
Winners of LPGA co-sponsored events, whose victories are considered official, from the conclusion of the 2019 US Women’s Open Championship to the originally scheduled 2020 US Women’s Open Championship (June 1-7): Lexi Thompson, Brooke Henderson, Hannah Green, Sung Hyun Park, Shanshan Feng, Sei Young Kim, Jin Young Ko, Hinako Shibuno, Mi Jung Hur, Jin Young Ko, Hannah Green, Mi Jung Hur, Cheyenne Knight, Danielle Kang, Ha-Na Jang, Nelly Korda, Ai Suzuki, Sei Young Kim, Gaby Lopez, Madelene Sagstrom, Hee Young Park, Inbee Park.
Winner of the 2019 Women’s Amateur Championship staged by the R&A (must be an amateur): Emily Toy.
From Week 11 (March 16, 2020) of the Rolex Rankings, the top 75-point leaders and ties. J.Y. Ko, N. Korda, S.H. Park, N. Hataoka, D. Kang, S.Y. Kim, B. Henderson, M. Lee, L. Thompson, J.E. Lee6, I. Park, H. Shibuno, H.J. Kim, A. Suzuki, C. Ciganda, J. Korda, A. Jutanugarn, S.Y. Ryu, L. Salas, M.J. Hur, H. Green, A. Yang, S. Feng, H.J. Lim, C. Hull, J.Y. Shin, H.J. Choi, B. Altomare, M. Alex, D.Y. Lee, H.N. Jang, A.Y. Cho, S.W. Bae, B. Law, Y. Liu, C. Masson, M. Jutanugarn, E.H. Ji, G. Hall, A. Yin, L. Ko, J. Kupcho, M. Sagstrom, A. Olson, M.J. Park, S.M. Lee, I.G. Chun, M. Pressel, S.H. Oh, S.J. Ahn, M. Inami, A. McDonald, N.K. Madsen, Y. Kawamoto, M. Ueda, J.M. Cho, S.Y. Lee, A. Park, M. Katsu, N.B. Larsen, A. Ernst, A.L. Kim, M. Higa, J. Y2 Kim, C.Y. Park, C. Choi, J. Yan.
Top five LET members from the final 2019 LET Order of Merit and the top five money leaders from the final 2019 Japan LPGA and Korea LPGA Tours: Esther Henseleit, Marianne Skarpnord, Christine Wolf, Nuria Iturrioz, Meghan MacLaren, Ai Suzuki, Hinako Shibuno, Jiyai Shin, Seon Woo Bae, Min-young2 Lee, Hye Jin Choi, Ha Na Jang, Da Yeon Lee, Hee Jeong Lim, A-yean Cho.
Top three money leaders from the 2019 China LPGA Tour: Weiwei Zhang, Yan Liu, Mohan Du.
Special exemptions as selected by the USGA: Brittany Lincicome, Sarah Jane Smith (both received Maternity Extensions).
