LIV's 'lost' Oakmont opportunities
Leishman is among 47 to get through 'longest day' as some LIV mates no-show
Marc Leishman is one of just three LIV players to get through U.S. Open qualifying (Lauren Sopourn/Getty Images)
LIV Golf understandably wants to see its players get into the major championships and perform once they get there. It has been among the major talking points since the league — then an invitational series — debuted this week three years ago in London.
Since then, it has seen Brooks Koepka (2022 PGA Championship) and Bryson DeChambeau (2024 U.S. Open) win majors since becoming part of LIV Golf. And recent major champions such as Cam Smith and Jon Rahm signed shortly after winning majors.
It hasn’t hurt that DeChambeau has contended in five of the last six majors and that Rahm was tied for the lead with eventual champion Scottie Scheffler on the back nine Sunday at the PGA Championship last month.
But what doesn’t help is LIV players who don’t even try to get in them.
We’re talking about the players who didn’t attempt to qualify for next week’s U.S. Open, and specifically those who were entered in a final qualifying site Monday at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Maryland — which is in close proximity to the LIV Golf Virginia event that begins this Friday at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club.
LIV players David Puig, Bubba Watson, Matt Jones, Thomas Pieters, Ben Campbell, and Lee Westwood were all entered in the 36-hole qualifier that saw four players make it to next week’s U.S. Open at Oakmont. All withdrew before starting. Marc Leishman was the only LIV golfer who advanced out of any of the 10 qualifiers on Monday, beating fellow LIV golfer Sebastian Muñoz in a playoff for the last spot. Muñoz is the first alternate and stands a decent chance of getting in. Peter Uihlein finished a shot behind them and is second alternate.
Now, to be fair, it’s possible that injuries could be in play for some of them. And LIV players are contractually obligated to play this week’s event. But you can’t complain about lack of access to the majors and then skip opportunities to qualify for them.
Unless there is an injury reason, there’s no excuse for skipping. In fact, for a league that touts its players as being among the best in the world, it should be doing better than getting just one of 21 players signed up in the U.S. Open field (before alternates are added) out of golf’s “longest day.”
It definitely doesn’t help when guys don’t even try (and we’re not even talking about guys like Ian Poulter or Charles Howell who didn’t even sign up). Watson, Jones, Pieters and Campbell were not in the PGA Championship last month and had not competed in a month, since LIV’s last event in South Korea.
They had the opportunity to get to the Washington D.C. metropolitan area early, play a practice round or two at Woodmont and get ready for an important qualifier that would not only perhaps help them but bolster LIV’s stature. And with a starting field of 74 players in Rockville — many of whom were amateurs, club pros or middling pros — the idea of beating them out for a spot was not remote. In fact, as good as they are, a good day gets them to the U.S. Open.
Instead they didn’t bother, which certainly seems worse.
Leishman — who qualifies for his first major start since leaving for LIV Golf two years ago — joins previous May 19 qualifiers Carlos Ortiz and Jinichiro Kozuma as the only LIV golfers to make it into the field at Oakmont via 36-hole final qualifying. His addition brings the guaranteed number of LIV-affiliated golfers in the U.S. Open to 13.
The 13 LIV players heading to Oakmont include: four former U.S. Open champions DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson, Koepka and Rahm (Spain); three recent major winners Phil Mickelson and Cam Smith (Australia); two OWGR top-60 exempt players Tyrrell Hatton (England) and Patrick Reed; top LIV exempt invitee Joaquin Niemann (Chile); reigning U.S. Senior Open champion Richard Bland (England); and the three qualifiers Kozuma (Japan), Leishman (Australia) and Ortiz (Mexico).
In all, 28 LIV golfers who at least signed up for qualifying did not make it through. That list includes past major winners Sergio Garcia, Watson and Graeme McDowell as well as Abraham Ancer, Dean Burmester, Campbell, Talor Gooch, Branden Grace, Lucas Herbert, Sam Horsfield, Jones, Fredrik Kjettrup, Jason Kokrak, Anirban Lahiri, Danny Lee, Tom McKibbin, Adrian Meronk, Muñoz, Mito Pereia, Pieters, Puig, Brendan Steele, Caleb Surratt, Cameron Tringale, Uihlein, Harold Varner, Lee and Yubin Zhang.
Max Homa had to carry his own big bag after splitting with caddie Bill Harke to day before 36-hole qualifier (Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Homa endures painful qualifying miss
More than 10,202 applicants signed up to try to qualify for the U.S. Open and 65 players booked spots at Oakmont via final qualifying at 13 worldwide venues in the last two weeks.
On Monday in what has been dubbed golf’s “longest day,” 47 spots into next week’s U.S. Open were locked up at 10 North American sites. Among the prominent players who failed to qualify was American Ryder Cupper Max Homa.
Homa’s excruciating struggles to regain the form that’s won him six PGA Tour events continued in the Columbus, Ohio, qualifier at Kinsale Golf & Fitness Club. Carrying his own bag for 36 holes after breaking up with his second caddie this year after the Memorial Tournament, Homa slipped into a 5-for-1 playoff when he three-putted the 18th hole in a bogey-bogey finish.
In the playoff with Rickie Fowler, Eric Cole, Chase Johnson and Cameron Young, it was Young who birdied the first extra hole from 12 feet to earn the spot at Oakmont. He’s rallied just to get into the playoff with three birdies in his last four holes. When the rest kept playing to determine the alternate who will likely get in, Homa four-putted to kill his chances.
“I’d much rather talk about the golf instead of all the questions about the caddie,” Homa told the Associate Press, refusing to talk about what happened with his bagman Bill Harke. “I’m good. Just hoofed it 36.
“It’s going to probably be heartbreaking, but it’s all right. I haven’t carried my bag 36 holes in a while so I’m a little tired.”
In the other Ohio qualifier in Springfield, Zac Blair won a 4-for-1 playoff for the last spot by beating John Peterson, a former PGA Tour player who retired and then was reinstated as an amateur.
Three of the five spots from the Atlanta qualifier went to amateurs, led by 17-year-old medalist Mason Howell’s bogey-free 18-under 126 at Piedmont Driving Club. He will be joined in the field at Oakmont by Jackson Koivun of Auburn, who already has locked up a future PGA Tour card via PGA Tour University Accelerated, and Florida State sophomore Tyler Weaver.
Homa was among a lot of pretty familiar names who failed to qualify: Stewart Cink; Zach Johnson; Webb Simpson; Padraig Harrington; Jason Dufner; Matt Kuchar; Keith Mitchell; Rickie Fowler; Kurt Kitayama; and Nicolai Højgaard;
Newly minted professionals via PGA Tour University — Luke Clanton, David Ford, and Gordon Sargent — all missed out in the qualifier in Ontario, Canada. Last year’s low amateur Neal Shipley also failed to qualify as did world No. 1 junior Miles Russell.
Two players from Virginia’s NCAA runner-up team ended up reaching the U.S. Open. Ben James made it through the Canoe Brook qualifier in New Jersey for the second straight year while Bryan Lee made it our of the Rockville, Md., qualifier.
In one of two qualifiers that finished on Tuesday because of weather delays, Austen Truslow claimed the last spot in a playoff over Florida sophomore Luke Poulter, the son of LIV Golf’s Ian Poulter. The younger Poulter shot 65 to get into the playoff and still could get into Oakmont as first alternate. His father didn’t even try to qualify.
U.S. Open final qualifiers
Canoe Brook Country Club (North & South Courses), Summit, New Jersey: James Nicholas, Chris Gotterup, Roberto Diaz and Ben James (a)
Duke University Golf Club, Durham, North Carolina: Zach Bauchou, Alistair Docherty, Alvaro Ortiz, Emilio Gonzalez, Trent Phillips, George Kneiser and Chandler Blanchet
Emerald Dunes Golf Club, West Palm Beach, Florida: Justin Hicks, Philip Barbaree Jr, Frankie Harris (a) and Austen Truslow
Kinsale Golf and Fitness Club, Columbus, Ohio: Erik Van Rooyen, Bud Cauley, Lanto Griffin, Justin Lower, Harrison Ott and Cameron Young
Lambton Golf & Country Club, York , Ontario, Canada: Kevin Velo, Niklas Norgaard, Matt Wallace, Thorbjorn Olesen, Mark Hubbard, Victor Perez and Emiliano Grillo
Piedmont Driving Club, Atlanta, Georgia: Mason Howell (a), Jackson Buchanan, Tyler Weaver (a), Jackson Koivun (a) and Will Chandler
Springfield Country Club, Springfield, Ohio: Grant Haefner, George Duangmanee, Maxwell Moldovan and Zac Blair
Valencia Country Club, Valencia, California: Preston Summerhays (a), Riley Lewis, Zachery Pollo (a) and Joey Herrera
Wine Valley Golf Club, Walla Walla, Washington: Matt Vogt (a) and Brady Calkins
Woodmont Country Club (North Course), Rockville, Maryland: Ryan Mccormick, Trevor Cone, Bryan Lee (a), Marc Leishman
Previous final qualifiers conducted May 19:
Bent Tree Country Club, Dallas, Texas: Rasmus Neergaard Petersen, James Hahn, Adam Schenk, Lance Simpson (a), Cameron Tankersley (a), Carlos Ortiz, Johnny Keefer
Tarao Country Club (West Course), Shiga Prefecture, Japan: Yuta Sugiura, Scott Vincent and Jinichiro Kozuma
Walton Heath Golf Club (Old and New), Surrey, England: Jordan Smith, Frederic Lacroix, Jaokim Lagergren, Guido Migliozzi, Sam Bairstow, Jacques Kruyswijk, Edoardo Molinari and Andrea Pavan
New name for the LIVers. The Koran Ferry Tour.