LIV Golf's Phil Mickelson blasts USGA boss!

Phil Mickelson has slammed the USGA's decision to not give Talor Gooch an exemption into the U.S. Open field.

03 May 2023

LIV Golf's Phil Mickelson has slammed USGA CEO Mike Whan over Talor Gooch's lack of a U.S. Open exemption in a tweet on Wednesday.

This all came about after Talor Gooch went on a podcast in April and said that the USGA had retroactively changed their U.S. Open criteria so that he was no longer eligible.

Gooch, who recently became LIV Golf's first back-to-back winner with victories in Adelaide and Singapore, discovered he was no longer eligible for the season's third major championship due to new specifications with the wording.

The 32-year-old explained on the 73rd Hole podcast that the USGA's qualification criteria once stated that you just needed to qualify for the Tour Championship to earn exemption into the U.S. Open, but ahead of the 2023 tournament, they added that you need to be eligible for it as well, which Gooch is not.

Gooch pointed out that he appears to be the only one who is affected by the change.

The USGA later reportedly denied Gooch's accusations that the changes were made retroactively.

However, Mickelson doesn't seem too convinced. He wrote in a tweet Wednesday:

"Mike Whan recently changed the wording from “qualified”for the Tour championship to “eligible.” Thereby taking away Gooch’s exemption since he wasn’t eligible to play even though he had qualified.This doesn’t make the US open better in any way but does help collude with the Tour"

Mickelson was responding to a tweet by the account "Flushing It," which had commented on an article posted by Golf Channel:

Mike Whan: “I hope [Gooch] gets in but we’re not going to change our criteria and I’m not concerned about the quality of the U.S. Open field”
They’re not going to “change criteria” to let Talor in, but are happy to do it to remove his exemption after it’s earned. Poor form, imo. https://t.co/LnlV5GBSc2
— Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) May 2, 2023