There are devotees of the USGA and US Open who are barely able to stomach that the rigorous qualifying gauntlet had to be scrapped because of the coronavirus pandemic. They will say this year’s championship will require at least a mental asterisk because local and sectional qualifying couldn’t be staged and an all-exempt field has to be instituted.
Those are the purists. Pragmatists might argue that the criteria for playing in the US Open at Winged Foot, September 17-20, are as relevant as they’ve ever been.
The USGA announced overnight its one-time exemption categories for the 120th US Open, with the one-day, 36-hole marathon sectional qualifiers having been replaced by season standings, world-ranking positions and good old-fashioned results.
Among the most significant changes to the process: the top 70 in the Official World Golf Rankings – 10 more than normal – as of March 15 automatically qualify (that means, at 61st, you’re in Phil Mickelson); as many as 13 amateurs are guaranteed a spot (including one Australian); top performers around the world and a handful of club professionals will make it; and players on both the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour can earn a position if they play well the rest of the northern summer.
“We see it as a bit of a silver lining,” said John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s senior managing director of championships. “The narrative of the US Open is different without qualifying, but hopefully there’s some chatter around this, some interest. We think there will be.”
Already looking at a field reduced to 144 from 156 because daylight will be at a premium in September, the USGA pored over the makeup of past championships to determine the best way to compose this year’s competition. Usually about half the US Open field is comprised of qualifiers, and amateurs, PGA teaching pros, foreign players and those from other tours needed to be considered, Bodenhamer said.
As an example, there have been at least 10 amateurs in the US Open field over the past decade. Thus, the USGA decided this year to take the top seven points leaders on the World Golf Amateur Rankings, as of August 19, along with the six amateurs who already qualified through their 2019 achievements.
International players are a big part of America’s national championship, and so the top 10 from the five events on the European Tour’s upcoming United Kingdom Swing will qualify, as will the top two finishers on the Japan Tour’s final Order of Merit, and the top season finishers each from the Sunshine, Asian and Australasian tours.
Looking to have up-and-coming players represented, the USGA has awarded positions to the five points leaders in the Korn Ferry’s regular-season points standings, and three more spots to the top three in the three-tournament Korn Ferry Tour Finals.
Everyone sees how thrilled players are when they win a PGA Tour event and know they’re in the Masters. Now, the same thing could happen for the US Open with exemptions that never existed before. The top two players, not otherwise exempt, among the top-10 finishers in five upcoming tour events (Memorial, 3M Open, WGC–FedEx St Jude, Barracuda, Wyndham) will qualify, as will the top three finishers, not already exempt, in the top 10 of the PGA Championship in August.
“That ability to play your way in for some players will be important,” Bodenhamer said. “It’s not qualifying, but qualifying’s not perfect either. There are some good players who don’t make it through qualifying. We feel good about the opportunities we’ve given for people to play their way in. There are a number of different avenues by the time we get to the US Open.”
With qualifying positions in flux because of overlapping categories, Bodenhamer has calculated that seven or eight more players could come from the OWGR beyond the top 70. And even late risers in the rankings might be taken care of, with the alternate list being drawn from the OWGR as of August 23.
Of course, being selected and actually getting to Winged Foot, Bodenhamer said, will be one of the biggest challenges, especially for players coming from outside the US. He said the USGA has worked closely with the PGA Tour and the US government to ensure that players can travel to New York to compete, though it will still be up to the individual to decide if he wants to go through the rigours of quarantine processes here and at home.
Bodenhamer said the USGA is closely monitoring the latest developments with COVID-19 and the PGA Tour before it announces its own protocols for the US Open and US Women’s Open, set to be played from December 10-13 at Champions Golf Club in Houston. The exemption categories for the Women’s Open are expected to be announced next week.
CURRENT EXEMPTED PLAYERS FOR THE 2020 US OPEN
(Players are listed once, though may be exempt in several categories)
US Open champions of the past 10 years
Gary Woodland, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Martin Kaymer, Justin Rose, Webb Simpson, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell
10 lowest scorers from 2019 US Open
Xander Schauffele, Jon Rahm, Chez Reavie, Adam Scott, Louis Oosthuizen, Henrik Stenson, Chesson Hadley
Winner of 2019 US Senior Open Championship
Steve Stricker
Winner of 2019 US Amateur Championship
Andy Ogletree
Runner-up of 2019 US Amateur
John Augenstein
Winner of 2019 US Junior Amateur
Preston Summerhays
Winner of 2019 US Mid-Amateur
Lukas Michel
Winners of the Masters, 2016-2019
Tiger Woods, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, Danny Willett
Winners of PGA Championship, 2015-2020
2020: TBD, Justin Thomas, Jimmy Walker, Jason Day
Winners of the Open Championship, 2015-2019
Shane Lowry, Francesco Molinari, Zach Johnson
Qualifiers from 2019 Tour Championship
Paul Casey, Tony Finau, Kevin Kisner, Hideki Matsuyama, Bryson DeChambeau, Jason Kokrak, Tommy Fleetwood, Matt Kuchar, Sungjae Im, Rickie Fowler, Abraham Ancer, Patrick Cantlay, Marc Leishman, Brandt Snedeker, Corey Conners, Charles Howell III, Lucas Glover
Winner of 2019 The Amateur Championship
James Sugrue
Winner of the 2019 Mark H. McCormick Medal (Men’s World Amateur Golf Ranking)
Cole Hammer
Top 70, Official World Golf Rankings (as of March 15)
Tyrrell Hatton, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Bernd Wiesberger, Kevin Na, Lee Westwood, Billy Horschel, Cameron Smith, Jazz Janewattananond, Victor Perez, Shugo Imahira, Erik van Rooyen, Matt Wallace, Collin Morikawa, Scott Scheffler, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Christian Bezuidenhout, Sunghoon Kang, Bubba Watson, Brendon Todd, Adam Hadwin, Viktor Hovland, Ian Poulter, Tom Lewis, Shaun Norris, Phil Mickelson, Andrew Putnam, Keegan Bradley, Lucas Herbert, Eddie Pepperell, Robert MacIntyre, Kurt Kitayama, Chan Kim, Joel Dahmen
OTHER QUALIFYING CATEGORIES
• Top two, not otherwise exempt, in the top 10 and ties of the 2020 Memorial, 3M Championship, WGC–FedEx St Jude Invitational, Barracuda Championship and Wyndham Championship
• Top three players, not otherwise exempt, in the top 10 and ties of 2020 PGA Championship
• Top 10 aggregate points earners, not otherwise exempt, from the 2020 European Tour United Kingdom Swing
• Top five points earners from Korn Ferry regular season list; top five points leaders from 2020 Korn Ferry Tour Finals
• Top two finishers from the 2019 Japan Golf Tour final Order of Merit
• Top finisher from 2019 Sunshine Tour final Order of Merit
• Top finisher from 2019 Asian Tour final Order of Merit
• Top finisher from 2019 Australasian Tour final Order of Merit
• Top three finishers from 2020 PGA National Professional Championship
• Top seven ranked players from the World Amateur Golf Ranking, as of August 19, 2020
• Special exemptions as selected by the USGA
(Remaining spots in the championship will be filled in order using the Official World Golf Rankings as of August 23, 2020. Once the field is set, the USGA will compile an alternate list for the championship using the OWGR.)
