(Reuters) – The United States Golf Association (USGA) said on Tuesday that golfers playing in the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational Series event this week will still be able to compete in the U.S. Open.
Six-times major champion Phil Mickelson and former world number one Dustin Johnson are among the exempt golfers for the June 16-19 U.S. Open who are competing this week at Centurion Club outside London.
The USGA said its field criteria was set prior to entries opening earlier this year and it would not be appropriate or fair for those who have earned a spot — both via exemption and qualifying — to change that criteria once established.
“Regarding players who may choose to play in London this week, we simply asked ourselves this question — should a player who had earned his way into the 2022 U.S. Open, via our published field criteria, be pulled out of the field as a result of his decision to play in another event? And we ultimately decided that they should not,” the USGA said in a statement.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Toby Davis)
