USGA CEO says whether Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson could receive invites to play in the US Open

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Neither Phil Mickelson nor Tiger Woods are qualified to play in the US Open at Shinnecock Hills in June.

Nor have Mickelson or Woods registered for US Open qualifying.

So there is a very real prospect that the two golfing greats will both not be playing in a major championship for the second straight time.

Tiger Woods has won three US Open titles throughout his illustrious career, while Phil Mickelson doesn’t have any victories to his name, but he has finished runner-up a record six times.

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Mickelson is only a US Open win short of completing the career Grand Slam.

It seems like the chance of winning all four majors has passed the 55-year-old by now. But could he be given another shot this year at Shinnecock Hills, the venue of one of his six runner-up finishes?

Whether Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson could receive invites into the US Open

USGA CEO Mike Whan has been speaking to Golf Central’s Eamon Lynch about the upcoming US Open Championship at Shinnecock Hills.

And with Woods and Mickelson currently not in the field for the tournament, Whan responded when asked by Lynch whether he would consider giving both players exemptions, or either of them for that matter.

“You probably know this more than anyone Eamon, because you’re probably a better student of the game than I am, but we’re fairly stingy in the world of exemptions,“ Whan explained.

*“*We don’t believe in sponsor invites.

*“*We pretty rarely give somebody a path where we’re the most open championship in the game, meaning that, you know, about half of our field comes through qualifying.

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*“*So if you want to play in the US Open, and you have the desire to play in the US Open, we give a lot of paths for that.

*“*Do we treat Tiger a little different because of Tiger’s background is a little different? Of course, we do, and we really look at your USGA resume, first and foremost.

*“*I’m not ashamed to say that we realize that great champions have been with us a long time.

*“*New players are going to be great champions going forward, but because we’re so open, because it’s not a closed network to get into the championship.

*“*In fact, it’s quite an open network. There are 10,200 people trying to make it to one of these 156 tee times.

“That’s one of the things that’s the special sauce between us and the US Open, and we plan to keep that special sauce that special.“

A US Open without Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson looks likely

Mike Whan has made it very clear that the USGA are not keen on handing out exemptions into their showpiece championship.

It’s highly unlikely that Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson will be handed exemptions to play in the US Open this year.

However, Woods’ USGA resume is incredibly impressive, with nine titles to his name including three US Opens and three US Amateurs.

He holds the record with Bobby Jones for the most USGA titles ever won. Meanwhile, Mickelson has one USGA victory to his name – the 1990 US Amateur.

Given Tiger Woods’ current situation, it’s highly unlikely that he would be fit to play in the US Open anyway, while Phil Mickelson would be far less likely to receive an invite to begin with than the 15-time major champion.