US Open chief hints at future major exemptions for LIV Golf stars after US PGA Championship invites

Seven LIV players were recently afford invites into the upcoming US PGA Championship at Valhalla

Talor Gooch was one of seven LIV players to earn an invite to next week’s US PGA Championship (Getty Images)

USGA CEO Mike Whan hinted that he may soon explore a pathway for LIV players to gain direct entry into the US Open.

The admission comes hot off the heels of the US PGA Championship’s surprise decision to extend last-minute invites to seven LIV players ahead of next week’s major at Valhalla.

LIV’s own Brooks Koepka will be seeking to defend the major he won last year at Oak Hill, but will now be joined by Talor Gooch, Joaquin Niemann, Patrick Reed, Dean Burmester, Adrian Meronk, Lucas Herbert and David Puig.

However, with the Saudi-backed circuit abandoning their bid to receive world ranking points earlier in the year, many of their players face an uphill battle to qualify for the four biggest events on the golfing calendar.

While anybody - including LIV players - is free to attend open qualifiers to play their way into the US Open, Whan has now suggested that the tournament may explore a formal pathway for LIV players if they continue to remain a separate entity from the rest of golf’s ecosystem.

Mike Whan may look to formalise a pathway for LIV players into the US Open (Getty Images)

“If you asked me a year ago, ‘What’s it going to be like in three months?’ I would have confidently given you an answer. I would have been confidently wrong,” Whan told Golfweek.

“If LIV stays as a separate entity and keeps the quality of players that it’s got, can I envision a pathway to the U.S. Open through LIV? I can, but I’d like to see what the final product is, and we’re just not exactly sure we know that yet.”

Any potential plans for a new pathway will remain up in the air as Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which bankrolls LIV, remains locked in negotiations with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour over a potential deal to unite the rival factions.

At the Players Championship in March, Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said that talks were accelerating but that “several key issues” remain unresolved, while new DP World Tour chief executive Guy Kinnings admitted only last month that all three parties have still yet to formally sit down together for talks.