Thousands of players began their journey to the U.S. Open this week, with local qualifiers taking place in Houston and North Carolina. And according to the Washington Post, Harold Varner III is among the players from the Saudi-funded LIV Golf who have filed an entry, including Sergio Garcia, Matthew Wolffand Marc Leishman. 32-year-old Varner is a force to be reckoned with and won the PIF Saudi International in February 2022.
However, several notable players have decided not to enter the tournament, including Louis Oosthuizen, who was the runner-up at Torrey Pines in 2021 and Chambers Bay in 2015. Without filing a U.S. Open entry, Oosthuizen’s only other avenue to the Los Angeles Country Club is to win the PGA Championship next month, but he is not currently in the PGA field and is unlikely to receive an invitation as he is ranked No. 136 in the world.
Other players who have chosen not to enter include Bubba Watson, Paul Casey, Charles Howell III, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Charl Schwartzel, and Talor Gooch, who is currently ranked No. 57 in the world. Gooch would need a big finish in the PGA Championship to have a chance of qualifying for the U.S. Open, but he must first gain entry to the PGA Championship, and special invitations have not yet been announced.
Kerry Haigh, the chief championships officer for the PGA, has said that he would “absolutely” consider LIV Golf players in trying to put together the best field for Oak Hill on May 18-21. Among the players from Saudi-funded LIV Golf who have entered are Sergio Garcia, Matthew Wolff, Marc Leishman, and Harold Varner III.
Garcia has signed up for the first 36-hole sectional qualifier in Dallas on May 22, the Monday before Colonial. The former Masters champion has played in every U.S. Open starting with Pebble Beach in 2000, and the last time he had to go through qualifying was in 2011, when he advanced in a 7-for-4 playoff.
The R&A takes the top 50 from the May 22 ranking for the British Open, and the deadline for entering is not until June 1. The USGA has accepted a record 10,187 entries, breaking the previous mark of 10,127 accepted in 2014 when the U.S. Open was held at Pinehurst No. 2.
The USGA said 52 players are exempt from qualifying, and Ryan Fox and Tommy Fleetwood are also locked in but not yet announced, from the European tour points list last year. It appears to be on target for its goal of having roughly half of the 156-man field come from 36-hole qualifying.
In other news, Ryan Gerard and Nicolai Hojgaard of Denmark have accepted special temporary membership on the PGA Tour, along with Akshay Bhatia, who reached that status a month ago. They can take unlimited sponsor exemptions for the remainder of the season and can get full PGA Tour cards if their FedEx Cup points are equivalent to No. 125 at the end of the season. The tour is moving to a calendar season starting in 2024, which means that while temporary members are not eligible for the postseason (unless they win), they now have as many as seven tournaments in the fall to keep playing. The top 125 in the FedEx Cup is not decided until November after the RSM Classic.
Gerard began his run as a Monday qualifier for the Honda Classic, finishing fourth, which got him into Puerto Rico, where he tied for 11th. Hojgaard received an exemption to the Dominican Republic event and was the runner-up.
