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Article on the USGA's criteria for fielding the Women's US Open

worst_shot_ever

worst_shot_ever

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Interesting read, I thought, at the GolfChannel site:



Women's Open field comes under scrutiny
By RANDALL MELL
Senior Writer, GolfChannel.com

The U.S. Women’s Open begins this week with the strength of its field under scrutiny.

Michelle Wie and Natalie Gulbis didn’t make it under the U.S. Golf Association’s new exemption criteria. Neither did LPGA veteran Wendy Ward and rookie Vicky Hurst.

But 29 amateurs will tee it up when play begins Thursday at the Saucon Valley Country Club’s Old Course in Bethlehem, Pa.

When the USGA released its new exemption criteria earlier this year, red flags went up in the offices at the LPGA, an intensely interested bystander in the national championship’s makeup.

“There were some top LPGA players and marquee names not in the field, and I voiced my concern about that,” said Jane Geddes, the LPGA’s senior vice president of tournament operations and player services. “I understand that after you win a U.S. Women’s Open, people don’t ask you what the field was like, but I’d like to believe that the U.S. Women’s Open is one of the most prestigious championships, if not the most prestigious, and that you are competing against the best players at the moment. I’m not sure this new criteria lends itself to that.”

Geddes is a former LPGA player whose 11 titles include the 1986 U.S. Women’s Open.

The U.S. Women’s Open is conducted by the USGA. The LPGA had no input in how exemptions were devised, but Geddes’ role dictates that she protect the interests of LPGA players. She voiced concerns about the USGA’s criteria when the new exemptions were released, before it became clear Wie, Gulbis and other LPGA members weren’t going to make the field.

“What I voiced was less about the specifics of the criteria, more about the spirit of making sure we have the best field possible on a world stage,” Geddes said. “I know that’s what the players want. It’s my job to make sure the USGA knows what my opinion is.”

The most significant changes to the USGA’s new exemption criteria were in how it used the LPGA’s money list.

Before this year, the USGA offered exemptions to the top 40 players on the season-ending money list from the previous year, plus the top 35 on the money list as of June 1 of the current year. This year, changes were implemented so that the top 50 off the final 2008 money list were exempt, plus the top 10 on the money list as of June 1, 2009.

Essentially, the changes meant more players from the previous year got exemptions with fewer getting them in the current year.

“Obviously, we want the world’s best players in the field, but that can become a subjective issue,” said Mike Butz, the USGA’s deputy executive director.

Butz said the changes were designed to exempt the most consistently exceptional performers over a period of time.

With the shrinking women’s schedule, USGA officials became concerned that the LPGA was playing just 11 regular events before the June 1 money list criteria kicked in for the current year. By comparison, the PGA Tour played 23 events prior to June 1.

“The women used to play 15 events (by June 1),” Butz said. “There was a question whether it was right to exempt the top 35 off just 11 events.”

If the USGA were still using top 35 in money from the current year, Wie, Gulbis, Ward and Hurst would have made the field.

Wie’s an LPGA rookie who didn’t become a member until this year, but she’s enjoying a solid first season. She tied for third Sunday at the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic, her second consecutive top-10 finish and fifth of this season. She’s 12th on this week’s money list and ranked No. 25 in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.

Gulbis is 33rd on the money list and 39th in the world rankings and top five among gate attractions.

“I felt badly for our players,” Geddes said. “Certainly, Michelle Wie and Natalie Gulbis are two of our top players, not just marquee players.

“We tend to error on the side of who’s playing well now. By July, we can get a read on who’s playing well now.”

Wie, Gulbis, Ward and Hurst had chances to play their way into the U.S. Women’s Open through sectional qualifiers but failed to advance.

The USGA uses the Official World Golf Ranking for men as part of its exemption criteria for the U.S. Open. Those rankings have evolved since their inception 23 years ago and become a widely accepted measure.

The Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings are not used by the USGA, mostly, Butz said, because they’re still so young. The women’s rankings were implemented in 2006.

Had the USGA used the top 50 in the world rankings as of May 25 of the current year, as they do for the men, both Wie and Gulbis would be in this week’s U.S. Women’s Open field, but new issues would be brought into play. Four Japanese LPGA players and a Korean LPGA player not currently exempt would bump somebody out.

Neither the USGA nor the LPGA is ready to implement the world rankings.

“We have to go where we are more comfortable, but I would say we are getting closer (to using the world rankings),” Butz said. “Obviously, as we go through the year we will take a look at how it all plays out.”

The USGA also made changes this year to only exempt top 15 finishers and ties from last year’s U.S. Women’s Open. Previously, the top 20 and ties were exempt. Scotland’s Catriona Matthew is the only player to lose a spot in the field based on that change, but Matthew’s presence was doubtful anyway. She gave birth in mid-May to her second child and has yet to tee it up in an event since the birth.

Butz said the USGA will re-examine its exemption criteria, as it does every year, when its Championship Committee meets in October.
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The key for me is that they are taking players from other tours almost as readily as they are taking LPGA players. Its crazy.

Then they are basically saying if you are a rookie you have to qualify.
 
Any time the #12 player on the LPGA money list (and #36 ranked player in the world) isn't in the U.S. Open, something is wrong.

EDIT: And why don't they use world rankings? Because the system is "young"? That doesn't mean it's wrong.

What really motivated this change?
 
Not that I agree with the USGA on their criteria, but it looks like this is in part another of those consequences that follow from an empty Tour schedule:

With the shrinking women’s schedule, USGA officials became concerned that the LPGA was playing just 11 regular events before the June 1 money list criteria kicked in for the current year. By comparison, the PGA Tour played 23 events prior to June 1.
Click to expand...
 
worst_shot_ever said:
Not that I agree with the USGA on their criteria, but it looks like this is in part another of those consequences that follow from an empty Tour schedule:
Click to expand...

15 vs. 11 for the LPGA.

The USGA felt the need to hack the exemptions in the current year from 25 to 10 based on 4 less tournaments? Redonkeyless. It sounds like a post-decision rationalization to me. When were the USGA changes implemented vs. when was it known there would be 4 less tournaments. Didn't the Ginn and Stanford tournies get lost at the beginning of the year at the last minute? Wouldn't the USGA changes have been made already?

Sorry, not buying it. The USGA doesn't make changes like this on the spur of the moment. They take years with their changes. There's some other reason.
 
Does anyone know where to find a list of the players in the Open and how they got in?

The USGA site just has a list.
 
It was on the LPGA site this morning Harry, I thought. It had the list and then underneath how they got in.
 
Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place:
LPGA.com

EDIT: Hey, how did my url get automatically converted to a name? New mod Hacker?
 
Its not there now....hmmm
 
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