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Jon Rahm’s withdrawal from the U.S. Open means LIV Golf will be represented by 12 players who will compete at Pinehurst this week. However, that number could be slightly higher next year if the USGA follows through on its plan to reassess the current status quo.
The PGA Tour has spent the past two years weathering the storm that began to rage when LIV Golf started poaching talent in 2022, and it’s becoming increasingly hard to ignore the impact the schism has had on major tournaments that are void of some notable names who probably would’ve been competing if they hadn’t defected to the rival league.
Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, and Martin Kaymer all earned exemptions to this year’s U.S. Open thanks to their previous victories at the tournament. Phil Mickelson and Cameron Smith also got an automatic bid thanks to respective recent wins at the PGA Championship and British Open, while Tyrrell Hatton qualified by making it to the FedEx Cup Championship in 2023 before fleeing to LIV.
However, most of their colleagues had to compete in the U.S. Open qualifiers that led to Dean Burmester, David Puig, and Eugenio Chacarra making the cut (Sergio Garcia was also a last-minute addition as an alternate), while Joaquin Niemann, Patrick Reed, Talor Gooch, and dozens of others ended up on the outside looking in when everything was said and done.
According to ESPN, USGA CEO Mike Whan admitted the organization has already had conversations about tweaking the current rules to give LIV Golf players an easier path to the U.S. Open while speaking with reporters on Wednesday, saying:
“We’re going to talk about it this offseason, whether or not there needs to be a path to somebody, or somebodies, that are performing really well on LIV that can get a chance to play in that way.
I think we are serious about that. Exactly what that looks like and how that’ll curtail, I’m not just being coy, we haven’t done that yet.”
At the end of the day, I think most golf fans would agree majors are better when they feature the best golfers in the world regardless of what their affiliation is, so while I’m curious to see what the approach will be when it comes to granting exemptions, this seems like a pretty welcome change.