USGA CEO Mike Whan: Appropriate to allow suspended PGA Tour golfers to play U.S. Open, but future uncertain

BROOKLINE, Mass. — USGA CEO Mike Whan said the governing body felt it was appropriate to allow players who were suspended by the PGA Tour for competing in the rival LIV Golf Invitational Series to play in this week's U.S. Open, but added that he could foresee a day when it's more difficult for them to qualify.

Whan, speaking at a news conference on Wednesday at The Country Club outside Boston, said the USGA will continue to monitor the professional golf landscape while evaluating its qualifying criteria for future U.S. Open tournaments.

«I could foresee a day,» Whan said. «Do I know what that day looks like? No, I don't. To be honest with you, what we're talking about [LIV Golf] was different two years ago, and it was different two months ago than it is today. We've been doing this for 127 years, so I think [the USGA] needs to take a long-term view of this and see where these things go. So we're not going to be a knee-jerk reaction to kind of what we do.»

On Thursday, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan indefinitely suspended 17 players for competing in LIV Golf's inaugural event outside London. The players included past U.S. Open winners Dustin Johnson, Martin Kaymer and Graeme McDowell. Monahan said the players were punished for competing in a rival circuit without a conflicting-event release. The first LIV Golf event coincided with the RBC Canadian Open in Ontario.

Seven of those players, including Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen, Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson, are competing in the U.S. Open this week.

Two other players — 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed and 2020 U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau — have also announced they're joining LIV Golf and plan to play in its first event in the United States, which is scheduled