Four NYS Champions To Earn USGA Exemptions in 2024

February 27, 2024

JAMESVILLE, N.Y. – The United States Golf Association (USGA) has made significant changes to qualifying for four of their most prestigious championships: the U.S. Amateur, the U.S. Women’s Amateur, the US Junior Amateur, and the US Girls’ Junior Amateur.

Included in those changes are (4) exemptions for future champions of notable 2024 NYSGA Championships:

Over the past three years, the four NYSGA championships have achieved a World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) in the top half among all Amateur Golf Associations in the country, which made them eligible for the exemptions.

“We are excited about the USGA’s decision to recognize our state champions with these exemptions,” said Andrew Hickey, NYSGA Assistant Executive Director. “It speaks to the quality of competitive golf in the Empire State that four of our championships qualified to send the winners to the national championships. This will only help us to continue attracting the best players in the state to participate in our championships.”

Along with the addition of new exemption categories, the USGA is making a significant revision to U.S. Amateur Qualifying for this year. It will change from a one-stage, 36-holes-in-a-day to two stages of qualifying at 18 holes each, with 45 Local Qualifying sites feeding 19 Final Qualifying sites. 

Under their new local exemption criteria, the top-3 finishers from the 2024 NYS Men’s Amateur will be exempt from local qualifying for the following year (2025). The Men’s Am winner, who is exempt into the 2024 U.S. Amateur, will also be exempt from local qualifying the following year.

According to the USGA, all events will be evaluated each fall for the following year, utilizing the three-year rolling average of their World Amateur Golf Ranking® (WAGR) power ranking. Thus, events which become WAGR ranked in 2024 will have the option to meet the respective threshold for an exemption into 2025 USGA championships. 

Other revisions for these USGA championships included adjustments of WAGR-ranked exemptions: 

  • U.S. Amateur: expansion of WAGR exemption category to top 100 ranked players (previously 50)
  • U.S. Women’s Amateur: expansion of WAGR exemption category to top 50 ranked players (previously 25)
  • U.S. Junior Amateur: expansion of WAGR age-filtered exemption category to top 100 ranked players (previously 85)
  • U.S. Girls’ Junior: expansion of WAGR age-filtered exemption category to top 50 ranked players (previously 40)

For more information on the USGA’s changes to qualifying, click here.

If you have any questions about these new exemptions, contact the NYSGA at (315) 471-6979

« Back to Listing