USGA rules: No exemption without major
Steve Stricker always thought it was a long shot, and he recently was reminded that the USGA is tight when it comes to special exemptions for the U.S. Open.
“I wrote them quite a while back and asked for one, and they politely called me and declined,” Stricker said.
The U.S. Open will be played in Wisconsin this year for the first time, June 15-18 at Erin Hills, a little more than an hour east of where Stricker lives in Madison. Stricker is a 12-time winner on the PGA Tour who reached as high as No. 2 in the world.
He didn’t think that was enough to warrant a special exemption, but his brother-in-law and agent, Mario Tiziani, told him it was worth a shot.
The U.S. Open gave an exemption last year to two-time champion Retief Goosen. Before that, it gave exemptions to Vijay Singh and Tom Watson in 2010 at Pebble Beach. The last player awarded an exemption without having won a major? Aaron Baddeley in 2000 when he was a 19-year-old amateur at Pebble Beach.
Stricker, the U.S. captain for the Presidents Cup this year, still hopes to be at Erin Hills.
He’s just trying to figure out the best path.
Stricker turned 50 in February and has been splitting time on both tours. He has top 10s in his three starts on the PGA Tour Champions, including a runner-up finish to Tom Lehman in Arizona. He tied for 16th in the Masters earlier this month, his best finish in four starts on the PGA Tour.
Stricker is playing the Zurich Classic this week with Jerry Kelly (they tied for eighth last week at the Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf), which won’t help his cause toward the U.S. Open because no world ranking points are awarded since it is being played as a team event for the first time.
After a week off, he will be at The Players Championship and then the Regions Tradition, the first of five majors on the PGA Tour Champions. And then he’s undecided. The following week is the Senior PGA Championship, which is the same week as Colonial.
“I’m leaning toward Colonial,” Stricker said. “I still want to be relevant. I can still compete out there, it’s a good course for me and I won there.”