Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods Have Registered for the U.S. Open

Wednesday was the close of entries, with Tiger and Phil among 48 fully exempt players who were required to submit an application in order to play.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are among the 48 fully exempt players who have registered for the 122nd U.S. Open, to be played June 16-19 at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Wednesday was the close of entries, and the United States Golf Association announced that it received 9,265, the sixth-highest in tournament history. Local qualifying begins April 25 and 11 final qualifiers – one in Japan, one in Canada and nine in the United States – will take place in May and June, with nine being played on June 6, the week prior to the tournament.

For Woods and Mickelson, their entries were procedural; all players were required to submit an application by the deadline in order to play.

Woods is among 12 past champions to enter and he is exempt via his 2019 Masters victory. Mickelson’s PGA Championship win last year gave him a five-year exemption.

Both players’ status for the event remains unclear.

Woods, 46, is coming off a 47th-place finish at the Masters, where he announced he would play the British Open in July but left in doubt next month’s PGA Championship as well as the U.S. Open as he continues to recover and rehabilitate injuries suffered in the car crash 14 months ago that kept him out until the Masters.

Mickelson, 51, has not played since the Saudi International tournament in early February in the midst of the fallout from his comments about the PGA Tour and the possibility of joining or collaborating with a rival league backed by Greg Norman called the LIV Golf Invitational Series. Mickelson, a three-time winner of the Masters, missed the tournament last week for the first time in 30 years.

Players not otherwise exempt can still earn that distinction by being among the top 60 in the Official World Golf Ranking as of May 23 and again on June 6. The winner of the PGA Championship next month or any multiple winners on the PGA Tour not otherwise exempt will also earn a place.

This will be the fourth playing of the U.S. Open at The Country Club, the last coming in 1988 when Curtis Strange defeated Nick Faldo in an 18-hole playoff. The club also hosted the 1999 Ryder Cup won by the United States.

The PGA Championship, which will be played May 19-22 at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is accepting entries through April 22. Both Woods and Mickelson are expected to be on that list as well.