DUBLIN, Ohio — The Memorial Tournament honored Grayson Murray in a pre-tournament ceremony as the two-time PGA Tour winner who died by suicide on May 25 had qualified for the tournament field by virtue of his Sony Open victory in January.
Murray, 30, who died at his Florida home after withdrawing from the Charles Schwab Challenge, was also exempt for next week’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 as he was among the top 60 in the Official World Golf Ranking as of May 20.
The OWGR in a statement said it is still listing Murray “for the time being as a golf community mourns his loss.”
At No. 61 in the rankings, Murray could move back into the top 60 after the Memorial Tournament due to the system’s formula which ranks on the basis of events played in exactly the last two years.
If that happens, the United States Golf Association is prepared to remove him from their ranking criteria if it were to impact another player who might otherwise have qualified via the top 60 exemption category, which will be used to help fill the field on Monday.
“Grayson was fully exempt into the U.S. Open via exemption category F-21 (Top 60 in the Official World Rankings as of May 20, 2024) and his spot has been returned to qualifying per the protocols in place when an exempt player is no longer competing in the championship,” the USGA said in a statement.
Casey Jarvis, who was the first alternate after the England final qualifier on May 20, has been moved into next week’s field.
Exemption category F-22 is top-60 ranked players as of June 10. “Grayson Murray will be removed from OWGR list used to determine the top 60 ranked players,” the statement said.
Adam Scott, who lost in a playoff and is the first alternate from the Springfield, Ohio, qualifier, is 60th in the OWGR but not competing in the Memorial Tournament. His divisor in the OWGR formula allows for the possibility that he would move up, but seven of the next nine players behind Scott in the OWGR are in the Memorial field and have the potential to move into the top 60.
The U.S. Open field is currently at 150 players. Robert MacIntyre, who won the RBC Canadian Open on Sunday, moved to 39th and will get a spot via the June 10 exemption category.
That leaves five openings for players who move into the top 60 OWGR and are not otherwise exempt. If those spots go unfilled—it’s more than likely there will be three or four open—the USGA uses an undisclosed allocation list for players who are alternates via its 13 qualifying sites.
BOB HARIG
Bob Harig is a golf writer for SI.com and the author of the book “DRIVE: The Lasting Legacy of Tiger Woods,” which publishes in March and can be ordered here.
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