More Tickets Should Be Available For Merion 2030: USGA Employee Charged With Ticket Fraud

From the Department of Justice press release:

Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced that Robert Fryer, 39, of Perkasie, PA, was charged by Information with one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, four counts of mail fraud, and 10 counts of wire fraud related to a scheme to embezzle and pocket fraudulent proceeds from the unauthorized sale of United States Open Championship (“U.S. Open”) tickets, one of four major championships for golf.

Even prosecutors know The Players is not a major.

On a more serious note, the charges against Fryer come just weeks after his superiors have left USGA jobs and new CEO Mike Whan inherits a major black eye for the organization. But the USGA did get this nice mention from prosecutors:

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael S. Lowe. Investigators appreciate the cooperation of the USGA in connection with this investigation.

According to his Zoominfo page, Fryer has long worked in ticket operations of some kind, including prior to his nine years at the USGA. He has waived his right to be charged by a grand jury, leading to speculation a guilty plea may be in the works. The potential jail time for the theft of over $3 million worth of tickets is 300 years.

Fryer is believed to have netted more than $1 million from the scheme that involved using UPS and working in conjunction with two other Pennyslvania men beginning at Merion’s 2013 U.S. Open.

Brokers acquired thousands of tickets to each year's golf championship by buying tickets from Fryer, sometimes in person and other times through mail, investigators said. The alleged scheme allowed the brokers to circumnavigate the USGA's rule that prevented bulk ticket of more than 20 tickets to any single buyer. 

One of the brokers Fryer worked with regularly emailed the Bucks County man prepaid, UPS shipping labels that Fryer allegedly would use to send the tickets to the broker or directly to customers, federal prosecutors said. 

Around 23,000 tickets were stolen by Fryer over the years.

The USGA issued a statement to Golfweek clarifying Fryer’s employment status—he’s no longer there—and how the scheme was carried out under a “legacy” system which, as of 2020, cannot be repeated.

The USGA implemented a new ticketing platform starting in 2020 and recently engaged an external expert to review our ticketing processes and controls to help prevent this type of activity from occurring and ensure best practices and security protocols are employed for our championship ticketing.