posted Jun 30, 2008

Mcilroy wouldnt have had to qualify had he stayed as an amateur, he would have qualified as defending amateur, but because he has turned pro now he does not have that exception, so he has to qualify.

correct me if i am wrong, but im fairly sure they are the rules

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posted Jun 30, 2008

Is the scoring at Open qualifying some sort of secret!!
I've checked everywhere on the web to no avail.......

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posted Jun 30, 2008

Just looking at the Open Championship entry form on www.randa.org. The leading amateur from last year's championship doesn't have any exemption for this year's championship. The 2008 amateur champion does get an exemption, while the previous five amateur champions are only exempt from regional qualifying.

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posted Jun 30, 2008

You can get live scoring for the qualifying at Sunningdale via the Open website www.opengolf.com. Here's the link to the scoring page: http://scores.opengolf.com/scores.sps?pageid=10&iTourNo=2008005&iTourId=1&optsel=pos

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posted Jun 30, 2008

Ouch! Darren Clarke +4.

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posted Jun 30, 2008

Thanks Andrew...........

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posted Jun 30, 2008

Great to see such a fantastic round from Olly this afternoon. Just hope he sneaks in.

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posted Jun 30, 2008

I think the issue with using links courses all started when the American players decided they couldn't be bothered coming over to qualify, as these quirky, windy courses don't seem to be their cup of tea in many cases. Given how many spots are now available around the world it means that the Final Qualifying offers up very few, I think this is a real shame for the reasons suggested above and the fact that people are put off even attempting to qualify given that the odds are stacked against them.

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posted Jul 2, 2008

GREAT TO SEE PHILLIP ARCHER QUALIFIED FOR THE BRITISH OPEN WELL DESERVED

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posted Jul 5, 2008

To answer the question, it doesn't matter, if you assume that the purpose is to acclimatise to play.

Firstly, most players who automatically qualify for the Open do so by virtue of rankings or achievements elsewhere of which very few would have anything to do with links golf. Therefore people qualifying from a links course would be in the minority.

Note though that there is absolutely final qualifying a week or two before the Open which would usually be on a local links course.

Sunningdale was final qualifying for Europe and there would have been previous rounds to that. If you want to take your argument to its fullest, all qualifying tournaments anywhere should be links golf which is impractical. Qualifying at Walton Heath for the US Open didn't do Michael Campbell or Nick Dougherty any harm in the last couple of years. I believe Ben Curtis had little to zero experience of links golf while Todd Hamilton would not have had much. And while many average American golfers see their participation in the Open as a family holiday to 'Europe' the top ones still perform well as do some lesser known ones.

I don't think the Open just pandered to non-travelling Americans by taking qualifying around the world. The European Tour/R&A has taken up the mantle of a global (non-North America) golf organisation and by having qualifying around the world it ensured the Open's status as the true 'Open' tournament for all-comers. Our 'merrican friends are now copying that for the US Open.

Anyway, better things to do, but you might as well say that you can only play in the Ryder Cup if you have achieved something in a matchplay tournament...

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