Ireland’’s Paul McGinley and Scot Colin Montgomerie sealed their places in the US Open Championship at Pinehurst next month by climbing into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking after last weekend’’s BMW Championship.
McGinley, second to Argentina’’s Angel Cabrera at Wentworth Club, climbed 28 places to World Number 40 to guarantee an exemption to the second Major Championship of the season. Montgomerie produced a final round 66 to finish 11th over the West Course and do just enough to progress to World Number 50 and earn a start in the Championship where he has twice finished runner-up.
The conclusion of the BMW Championship also saw Welshman Stephen Dodd, England's Steve Webster and Swede Peter Hanson qualify for The Open Championship in July as the three leading non-exempt players on The European Tour Order of Merit.
Dodd won the Volvo China Open last November and the Nissan Irish Open this month and will be playing in The Open for the first time since 1989 when he played as an amateur.
Webster and Hanson captured their first European Tour titles as well at the Telecom Italia Open and the Jazztel Open de España en Andalucia respectively. Hanson will also line-up in The Open for the first time while Webster is making a habit of qualifying for The Open at St Andrews, his two previous appearances in The Open both being at the home of golf in 1995, where he won the Silver Medal as leading amateur, and in 2000.
