2022 U.S. Open golf preview and criteria
BOSTON, MA – The 2022 United States Open Championship is the 122nd U.S. Open, the national open golf championship of the United States. It is a 72-hole stroke play tournament scheduled for June 16–19 at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, a suburb west of Boston. It is the club's fourth U.S. Open (1913, 1963, 1988).
- Formats and exemption criteria
a. Format
The U.S. Open is a 72-hole stroke play tournament similar to other majors and regulars. If players were tied at the end of the final round, the champion will be determined in a two-hole aggregate playoff (which introduced in 2018, replacing the 18-hole playoff on Monday from 1946 until 2017 that replaced the 36-hole playoff on Sunday from 1895 to 1941), and if still tied after playoff, it will determined again through the sudden-death playoff.
b. Exemption criteria
The field for the U.S. Open is made up of players who gain entry through qualifying events and those who are exempt from qualifying. The exemption criteria include provision for recent major champions, winners of major amateur events, and leading players in the world rankings. Qualifying is in two stages, local and final, with some players being exempted through to final qualifying.
As with all editions of the U.S. Open, eligibility to play is under the sole jursdiction of the United States Golf Association to the exclusion of the PGA Tour, Professional Golfers' Association of America or any other organization. In early June 2022, several exempt players resigned or were suspended from the PGA Tour in order to compete in the LIV Golf Invitational Series, which held its inaugural event in England one week prior to the U.S. Open. The USGA subsequently confirmed that those players would remain eligible to play in the U.S. Open.
This list details the exemption criteria for the 2022 U.S. Open and the players who qualified under them.
1. Recent winners of the U.S. Open (2012–2021)
2. The leading ten players, and those tying for tenth place, in the 2021 U.S. Open
3. The winner of the 2021 USGA men's championships: U.S. Senior Open, U.S. Amateur¹, U.S. Junior Amateur¹ and U.S. Mid-Amateur¹
4. Runner-up of 2021 U.S. Amateur¹
5. Recent winners of the Masters Tournament (2018–2022)
6. Recent winners of the PGA Championship (2017–2022)
7. Recent winners of The Open Championship (2017–2021)
8. Recent winners of The Players Championship (2021–2022)
9. The winner of the 2021 BMW PGA Championship
10. All players who qualified for the 2021 Tour Championship
11. Winners of multiple PGA Tour events from the 2021 U.S. Open to the start of the 2022 tournament²
12. The winner of the 2021 Amateur Championship¹
13. The winner of the Mark H. McCormack Medal in 2021¹
14. The winner of the 2020 Olympic Gold Medal
15. The leading 10 points winners from the "European Qualifying Series" who are not otherwise exempt³
16. The leading player from each of the 2020–21–22 Asian Tour, 2021–22 PGA Tour of Australasia and 2021–22 Sunshine Tour Orders of Merit
17. The leading 60 players on the Official World Golf Ranking as of May 23, 2022
18. The leading 60 players on the Official World Golf Ranking if not otherwise exempt as of June 6, 2022
19. Special exemptions
20. Players who qualified from eleven final qualifying events held on May 23 and June 6, 2022, respectively (nine of which were in the United States)
Notes:
¹Players qualifying in this category must remain an amateur through the conclusion of the U.S. Open.
²Events must carry full-point allocation towards the FedEx Cup.
³The European Qualifying Series consists of four tournaments: Betfred British Masters, Soudal Belgian Open, Dutch Open and Porsche European Open.
Follow the U.S. Open golf scoring coverage and updates on USOpen.com
Follow U.S. Open on social media:
- Twitter: @USOpenGolf
- Instagram: @USOpenGolf
U.S. Open official sponsors
- Official timekeeper: Rolex
- Official transportation partner: Lexus
- Official banking partner: American Express
- Official logistic partner: Deloitte
- Official television broadcaster: National Broadcasting Company (NBC)
