United States Golf Association (USGA) will be looking to introduce stricter guidelines against LIV league golfers it’s Chief Executive Mike Whan said on Wednesday
The moves will make it harder for those who joined LIV Golf to gain entry into the U.S. Open but he does not want to make a knee-jerk reaction on the matter.
The USGA has cleared the way for LIV Golf players to compete in the June 16-19 U.S. Open, arguing it would be unfair to change criteria already established and deny entry to those who already earned a spot in the field.
But Whan reiterated to the media at The Country Club outside Boston that players of the Saudi-funded breakaway series must not assume that they will automatically have a free pass when it comes to future US Open tournaments.
“The question was, could you envision a day where it would be harder for some folks doing different things to get into a U.S. Open? I could,” said Whan. “Will that be true? I don’t know, but I can definitely foresee that day.
Given LIV, which lured players with the promise of big money, has only played one out of eight scheduled events in its inaugural season, Whan felt it was too soon to discuss potential changes to entry criteria for future U.S. Open fields.
“It would be a lot of hypotheticals for me to get what LIV is going to be by the time we’re talking about this next year,” said Whan.
“But as we would do any year, we’re going to definitely reevaluate field criteria. We would any year. We will take a look at what the landscape looks like
“I didn’t mean to send some sort of tremor that everything is going to change tomorrow, but when asked the question, could you foresee, of course, I could foresee. What exactly that may or may not look like will depend on what happens to the landscape.”
The PGA Tour has already suspended members who signed up to play with LIV Golf and warned others who make the jump will face the same fate but Whan feels it is best if the USGA holds off on taking any drastic measures against the LIV golfers for now.
