Phil Mickelson believes it could be a “no sense” for the USGA to pass a recent rule that might stop one other LIV Golf competitor from playing on the US Open.
The foundations previously said golfers must “qualify” for the PGA Tour Championship in addition to the US Open, but have been modified to say “those players who qualified and were eligible”. based on Golf Digest.
Talor Gooch is now ineligible to compete within the PGA Tour Championship after defecting to LIV Golf, and under the brand new USGA rules he can also be ineligible for a US Open waiver.
“Each time we make changes to our criteria, it affects someone and it stinks, but we are able to only look ahead,” USGA CEO Mike Whan told the Golf Channel earlier this week.
Mickelson found Whan’s justification unsatisfactory.
“[Gooch] qualified 9 months ago via the Tour championship”, Mickelson he tweeted on Friday. “3 months ago Whan modified the wording on the eligibility criteria to remove it. The full d–k move made by Whan. He leads our governing body. Sad.”
“The USGA will not be a pga tournament,” Mickelson wrote to a Twitter user which was unsympathetic to Gooch.
“His suspension from the PGA Tour has nothing to do with the USGA. The rule clearly says he qualified through the Tour Championship. He didn’t should play. Whan modified the rule 6 months after the very fact to exclude him. As I said, the ad-k movement.
Earlier this week, Mickelson, who earned a tournament exemption by winning the 2021 PGA Championship, accused the USGA of colluding with the PGA Tour.
“Mike Whan recently modified the wording from ‘qualified’ for the Tour championship to ‘qualified’,” Mickelson tweeted on Tuesday.
“Thus taking away Gooch’s dismissal because he was ineligible to play despite qualifying. It doesn’t make the US open up in any way, nevertheless it does help collude with the Tour.”
Gooch could still qualify for the US Open if he were in the highest 60 on this planet as of May 22, nevertheless it’s an uphill climb.
“It was obviously disappointing because this revised rule only affected one person, which was me,” Gooch told the “73rd Hole Podcast” earlier this month.
“It was frustrating and difficult because LIV remains to be not rewarded with world rating points, so I only have two options to qualify for the US Open: through my world rating which can be very difficult, or after all attempting to undergo the sectional qualifier route.”
Although he won the last two LIV Golf events, those titles don’t count for Gooch, who’s currently ranked exactly sixtieth as LIV tournaments should not included within the OWGR player rankings.