Talor Gooch and the Fine Print of Major Championship Qualifying
More Weekly Read: LIV Golf's Ongoing OWGR Battle | Fore! Things
Talor Gooch has been playing some solid golf as part of the LIV Golf League, having now captured consecutive tournaments in Australia and Singapore. He’s also made headlines for saying the United States Golf Association "retroactively changed" the exemption for the U.S. Open, for which he is not in the field.
Gooch, who won the LIV Golf Adelaide event and was in contention in Singapore over the weekend, said on the 73rd Hole Podcast that he expected the USGA to follow the Masters and the British Open in honoring existing criteria that gave an exemption to those players who "qualified for" the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship—or in the British Open’s words those who finished in the top 30 of the final FedEx Cup standings.
He did all of that but was not allowed to play in the Tour Championship. He was ineligible due to a PGA Tour suspension that came into play when he played in the first LIV Golf event without getting a release.
"Obviously, I was suspended from the Tour and wasn’t able to play but my body of work for the season, up to being banned from the Tour, was good enough to get me into the Tour Championship and so I was glad that Augusta recognized that because, historically, up until this last year, if you make it to the Tour Championship, it gets you into The Masters, the U.S. Open and the British Open," Gooch said.
"So when Augusta came out and made that decision, I was very optimistic that everybody else would follow suit."
It’s true that Augusta National did not change its qualification criteria for 2023—but has for 2024. It typically does so on the eve of the Masters and then that is in play for the following year. In this case, it did tweak its language going forward, meaning that had the same wording been in place, Gooch would not have qualified under that category. He made it via the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking at the end of 2022.
The USGA didn’t "retroactively" change their criteria. They announce exemption categories for the coming year in February and in doing so changed the wording. Here is a rundown of the exemption categories for the three majors that use the Tour Championship/FedEx Cup for qualification. (The PGA Championship does not have a season-ending FedEx Cup category.)
Masters for 2023: "Those qualifying for the previous year’s season-ending Tour Championship."
Masters for 2024: "Those qualifying for and eligible for the previous year’s season-ending Tour Championship."
U.S. Open for 2022: "Those players qualifying for the season-ending 2021 Tour Championship."
U.S. Open for 2023: "Those players who qualified and were eligible for the season-ending 2022 Tour Championship."
British Open for 2023: "Top 30 players from the final 2022 FedEx Cup points list."
Gooch finished 29th in the final FedEx Cup standings despite not playing a regular PGA Tour event after the Charles Schwab Cup in May. He did receive points for his T34 finish at the Open.
Later, he was part of a lawsuit seeking an injunction to let him play in the FedEx Cup playoffs, which a Northern California court tossed just days prior to the start of the playoffs in Memphis.
So here’s the deal: there was always a question as to whether or not the major championships were going to accommodate LIV Golf members. In one way or another, they have all said they would uphold existing exemptions earned through the various means, such as winning or high finishes in majors, the OWGR, or the FedEx standings.
But it appears that Gooch is the lone instance where a previous exemption is not being honored as it applies to the U.S. Open. Yes, the USGA has every right to change its categories.
And we can also argue semantics. Gooch qualified for the Tour Championship but did not play. Both the Masters and the U.S. Open could have simply ruled that not playing due to be ineligible disqualified him. But the Masters waited to change that terminology; the U.S. Open did not, impacting only Gooch. The British Open criteria leaves no room for interpretation.
Gooch can still get into the U.S. Open via the top 60 in the world as of May 22 or June 12. He is teetering on falling out now but said last week that he’s been given an invitation to the PGA Championship, which ends on May 21. A strong showing there would get him in the U.S. Open.
One mystery: Why didn’t Gooch make himself eligible for final qualifying, which will take place at 10 sites, including several in the U.S. on June 5? The USGA said he did not submit an application by the April 12 deadline.