Talor Gooch was set to play in the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club, but a rule change by the United States Golf Association (USGA) will now prevent him from doing so.
The USGA slightly changed the language to several rule exemptions that would qualify certain golfers for the U.S. Open, which is the third major of the year.
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“Those players who qualified and were eligible for the season-ending 2022 Tour Championship.”
The most crucial part of this sentence is “were eligible for,” and Gooch, who was suspended by the PGA Tour and thus not eligible for the Tour Championship after defecting to LIV Golf, will not be able to play in the U.S. Open.
Gooch called the move “frustrating and tough” earlier this week on the 73rd Hole Podcast (via Golf.com):
“Unfortunately, the USGA decided to go in a different direction, and they retroactively changed that rule, and basically the rule now within the USGA states you have to qualify for the Tour Championship and also be eligible to play, which was obviously disappointing because that changing the rule, it affected one person, which was me. And so that was frustrating and tough.”
The USGA said it annually reviews exemption criteria and provided more clarity to the Tour Championship Exemption specifically.
As for the other majors, Gooch may be in the same situation. For example, the Masters revised their language regarding the Tour Championship exemption in the same way the USGA did for the U.S. Open.
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Gooch is coming off what was arguably the best performance in LIV Golf’s short tenure thus far. Last weekend in Australia, he shot back-to-back 62s to take a ten-stroke lead well into the third and final round. He would end up taking home the win, although he would shoot +1 in the final round and beat Anirban Lahiri by three strokes.
As of writing, he also has the lead in the current Singapore LIV event, with a 1 shot lead after firing a 64.
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