GOLF WARS: Phil Mickelson Described The USGA's Decision To Negate Talor Gooch's Exemption Into The US Open As A "D!*k Move"
So let me paint the picture here of the situation at hand before we dive in.
Talor Gooch joined LIV last May as one of the first guys to make the jump. Prior to doing so, Talor was having a banner year on the PGA Tour, including winning the RSM Classic in November 2021. By doing so, he had accumulated a truckload of FedEx Cup points. Enough, in fact, to outlast the barrage of points given out during the FedEx Cup playoffs and still be in the Top 30 in the standings. Why does the Top 30 matter? Well, that's the magic number to qualify for the Tour Championship at East Lake. Qualification for the Tour Championship leads to numerous benefits moving forward, including exemption into the next year's majors.
When Augusta National came out in December and declared that they would be honoring qualifications for their 2023 tournament regardless of Tour status, it was assumed the rest of the majors would follow suit. And for the most part, they did. On the Wednesday before the Masters Tournament started, Chairman Fred Ridley announced a minor tweak to the language of one of their 2024 tournament qualification stipulations from "qualified for the Tour Championship" to "qualified and are eligible for the Tour Championship".
The difference between the two seems small, but it closed a potential loophole for a player like Gooch in the future. Gooch "qualified" for the 2022 Tour Championship, but he was "ineligible" for it given his suspension by the PGA Tour for having joined LIV. So long story short, the Masters sent a message that they weren't going to pull the rug out on anyone already believing they had qualified for 2023, but had drawn a line in the sand moving forward.
The PGA Championship and the R&A (that oversees the Open Championship) are also honoring the Tour Championship exemption much like Augusta National. The USGA... not so much. They made the change to their criteria much like Augusta did, but they are making that effective ASAP... meaning Gooch's exemption into the US Open vanished for 2023.
US Open qualifying is already up and running, and Gooch has missed the boat on that. So his only way in is by being in the OWGR Top 60 on either May 22nd or June 12th. Given that there are no OWGR points on the LIV Tour, his ranking has tumbled despite having won LIV's last two individual events. Guess where he's ranked right now? Yep, exactly 60th place.
That doesn't mean he's shit out of luck. He's eligible for the PGA Championship in a couple weeks, which is virtually his only opportunity to boost his ranking and stay inside that magic top 60 number. He can certainly still do it... but the fact that he's gotta work for something he already thought he'd earned is the issue at hand.
That brings us to Phil's comments. Their CEO, Mike Whan, has come out publicly and said that Gooch wasn't personally targeted by the exclusion. Here's his exact quote via Sports Illustrated:
“We didn't sit down and talk about Talor Gooch,” USGA CEO Mike Whan told Sports Illustrated Monday during a visit to LACC. ”We made subtle changes to a few places on our field criteria and have every year.”
Whan considered the change a clarification and nothing more, so according to him there is no "Gooch Rule" at the USGA.
“There are a lot of reasons a player may not be eligible for a Tour event and most of those would make us stop and at least question,” Whan says. “So going forward let’s make that really clear.”
Ok great, things have been made clear for the future. But Gooch not having been targeted... that's a bit hard to believe. I suppose it could be factual to say he wasn't personally targeted... I don't imagine Whan and the folks at the USGA were cackling in their board room saying "haha! fuck that guy Gooch! That'll show him!"... but it's pretty clear and obvious what they're looking to accomplish here. It's a pretty clear and concise way to box out players in Gooch's exact circumstance. It'd be crazy NOT to feel slighted in Gooch's shoes, especially after the pre-eminent governing body (let's call a spade a spade, Augusta National runs the world) made sure to honor their previous commitment and not change things retroactively.
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That's where Phil is coming from here. It's a fuck you to LIV Golf as a whole. And that's certainly the USGA's prerogative, and not a sentiment I totally disagree with. But I have a tough time reconciling the notion that the USGA is posturing as a top tier tournament with the fact that they swerved to directly box out a guy who is so clearly obviously and totally a top player in the world. Especially when the other top tournaments have followed Augusta National's lead.
If all the majors had gotten together late last year and decided LIV Golf was not welcome effectively immediately and treated things that way, I would've respected it. Wouldn't have liked it because it would have diminished the quality of the majors, but at least there would have been some uniformity and clarity on where the golf powers that be stood. But to go rogue on this one... not a great look for the USGA imo.
There's not a lot I agree with Phil on with these days, but I have to say he's right on this one. If I was Talor Gooch... I'd be saying the same. Bit of a d!*k move.