Phil Mickelson blasts USGA boss after U.S. Open exemption rule change alters Talor Gooch’s status

Talor Gooch’s status for the 2023 U.S. Open in June at The Los Angeles Country Club is unsure in wake of a USGA rule change on exemptions affecting LIV golfers for the development all the way through its annual evaluate, and six-time main champion and fellow LIV golfer Phil Mickelson is not satisfied. Mickelson, exempt into the U.S. Open after profitable the 2021 PGA Championship, scrutinized the USGA and its CEO, Mike Whan, on social media Friday. 

While Gooch certified for the Tour Championship, he used to be no longer eligible to play at East Lake because of his defection from the PGA Tour to LIV. The USGA later dominated that both qualification and eligibility for the Tour Championship had been essential to ensure that a participant to obtain a U.S. Open exemption based totally off that match on my own. Gooch later instructed the 73rd Hole podcast that the rule change had stuck him off guard. 

Golfweek reported a USGA spokesperson, by way of electronic mail, wrote, “the change was not made retroactively, but rather as a part of our annual review process and included within several other changes made to the criteria for the upcoming 2023 [U.S. Open] championship.” That clarification didn’t suffice for Mickelson, alternatively, who adamantly defended Gooch on social media whilst firing photographs on the USGA. 

Gooch, who become LIV Golf’s first back-to-back winner in April, ranks 60th in the Official World Golf Rankings. The best 60 avid gamers as of each May 22 and June 12 are exempt into the sphere, which places him proper at the cutline will have to he handle or strengthen his score by means of both of the ones dates. 

LIV Golf positioning, alternatively, does no longer these days lead to Official World Golf Rankings issues for collaborating avid gamers. That approach the one alternative for Gooch to earn issues prior to the U.S. Open is all the way through the second one main of the season: the 2023 PGA Championship later this month at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York. Gooch completed in a tie for twentieth ultimate May when the development used to be held at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma.