The 2023 U.S. Open has been circled on the calendar for golf fans across the country.
The anticipation has been building for years with the historic Los Angeles Country Club making its U.S. Open debut as a venue, but last week’s bombshell news of the partnership between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund – the controversial financial backer for LIV Golf – to create a new global golf entity sent shockwaves through the golf world. As if the third men’s major championship of the season needed any more intrigue.
Given the state of professional golf, here are four questions for this week’s U.S. Open at LACC.
More: U.S. Open leaderboard, hole-by-hole tour
Will the PGA Tour-Saudi news overshadow the U.S. Open?
Yes and no. As we saw this week at the RBC Canadian Open, pre-tournament press conferences will be dominated by the partnership.
Defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick and Rory McIlroy took questions in Canada, but with LIV players like Brooks Koepka and Cameron Smith, along with PGA Tour stars such as Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler all set to face the media, the discussion is sure to continue.
A lot of players have reacted passionately to the news, which overshadowed the RBC like a rain cloud for the first two days. But when tees went in the ground and balls flew through the air, the golf was the main focus.
Not only does this week boast a better field – with all due respect to those who competed in Canada – but a historic, exclusive club like LACC should refocus the attention of the fans and media. If a PGA Tour event can block out the noise for four days, a major championship surely can.
How should we expect LIV players to fare?
Given how the Masters and PGA Championship turned out, you’d have to guess pretty well.
Three LIV players finished in the top six at the Masters, and two more followed suit at the PGA Championship, including the winner Brooks Koepka. The 33-year-old is looking to become the first player to win both the PGA Championship and U.S. Open in the same year on two different occasions. He’s currently one of just three to accomplish the feat once, joining Jack Nicklaus (1980) and Tiger Woods (2000). Talk about good company.
The U.S. Open field will feature the fewest amount of LIV players in a men’s major championship so far this season, with 15 set to compete this week including a quartet of past champions in Bryson DeChambeau (2020), Koepka (2017, 2018), Dustin Johnson (2016) and Martin Kaymer (2014).
Will this be the last U.S. Open played with professional golf divided between the Tour and LIV?
Depends who you ask. Nobody knows what professional golf will look like in six months, let alone six weeks. Dozens of questions still need answers, so let’s put on our speculation caps for this one.
Major championships don’t need any extra juice, especially a tough test like the U.S. Open, but the split between the PGA Tour and LIV has added some spice to the majors over the last year and a half.
If the deal is approved and this new global golf entity forms, the game would assumedly be unified again, though the terms for players returning to the Tour from who left for LIV have yet to be finalized.
LIV players qualified for the U.S. Open a myriad of ways, but a main point of entry is being inside the top 60 in the Official World Golf Ranking. Players who left for LIV haven’t been earning points and have since plummeted in the OWGR, and it’s unclear when LIV players will return to the Tour or how many events it will take for them to regain their previous status in the world ranking.
If players still can’t earn a spot via one of the 24 different qualification criteria the USGA currently offer – a subject that can change, just ask Talor Gooch – there’s always open qualifying, which is how four players earned spots in this year’s field. All of that is to say, if things go according to plan, it’ll be easier for players who left for LIV to play their way into next year’s field.
