The European Tour Membership has been handed an end of season incentive after The R&A announced a 50 per cent increase in automatic qualifying spots to The Open Championship via the Order of Merit.
The R&A has increased the number of available places at The 2009 Open Championship at Turnberry from 20 to 30 from both The 2008 European Tour Order of Merit and the 2008 PGA Tour Money List. The rule change means that all 30 players who qualified for the Tour Championship in the United States will earn places at Turnberry, as will the top 30 from The European Tour’s Order of Merit following the season-ending Volvo Masters in November.
The change in qualifying criteria also further increases the competition for the leading positions on The European Tour next season, when the Order of Merit is replaced by The Race to Dubai and will see the top 60 players compete in the season finale US$10million Dubai World Championship.
Peter Dawson, Chief Executive of The R&A, said: “The R&A continues to monitor the ever-changing golfing world and our Championship Committee aims to reflect this in the exemptions into The Open Championship.”
A number of other changes have been made to the exemption categories; International Final Qualifying - Europe will have a smaller field with 96 players playing for 10 places in The Open Championship; the field for IFQ - America will be 78 with 8 places available; IFQ Australasia and IFQ Africa will each have 3 places available.
The dates for International Final Qualifying are as follows:
IFQ – Africa
Royal Durban Golf Club, Durban, South Africa
3 – 4 February 2009
IFQ – Australasia
Kingston Heath Golf Club, Melbourne, Australia
10 February 2009
IFQ - Asia
Sentosa Golf Club, Sentosa, Singapore
TBC
IFQ – America
Gleneagles Country Club, Plano, Texas, USA
25 May 2009
IFQ - Europe
Sunningdale Golf Club, England
8 June 2009
