USGA changes the way golfers qualify for annual championships

In an effort to continuously enhance and evolve the competitor experience, the USGA announced significant modifications to its amateur championship qualifying model for the first time in more than 20 years.

These changes, which will take effect for the organization’s four premier amateur championships beginning in 2024, will allow the events to retain their openness while ensuring that high-caliber players are provided ample opportunity to earn a spot in the field and that qualifying can be conducted at the highest level among growing entries and field sizes.

In 2022, the USGA accepted 44,737 total entries and collaborated with AGAs to conduct a combined 678 qualifiers across 15 championships.

The most significant revisions for 2024 are to the U.S. Amateur, which will move from a one-stage, 36-hole qualifying format to a two-stage qualifying format with 45 18-hole local qualifying sites and 19 18-hole final qualifying sites. Other adjustments include:

Exemptions for state, AGA, regional and national amateur champions based on established criteria and historical WAGR event power rankings; Expansion of World Amateur Golf Ranking® (WAGR) exemption category to top 100 ranked players (previously 50); Establishment of local exemptions, which include top finishers in USGA championships, state/AGA amateur championships and top 600 WAGR players.

Changes to the other championships’ qualifying structures are outlined below:

U.S. Women’s Amateur: Modest reduction in qualifying sites through the establishment of geographic rotations; Exemptions for state, AGA, regional and national amateur champions based on established criteria and historical WAGR event power rankings; Expansion of WAGR exemption category to top 50 players (previously 25).

U.S. Junior Amateur / U.S. Girls’ Junior: Alignment of qualifying structure to encourage AGAs to conduct joint or concurrent qualifying;

Exemptions for state, AGA, regional and national junior amateur champions based on established criteria and historical WAGR event power rankings; U.S. Junior Am expansion of WAGR age-filtered exemption category to top 100 (previously 85); U.S. Girls’ Junior expansion of WAGR age-filtered exemption category to top 50 (previously 40).

There will also be a lowering of Handicap Index® limits across all four championships and modifications to the performance policy that will be announced later. Determinations on the individual state, AGA, regional and national championships that will be part of the 2024 exemption criteria will be published prior to the release of entries for each respective championship.