The Open Qualifying Series returns to the DP World Tour this summer with nine places at the The 151st Open available across the Betfred British Masters Hosted by Sir Nick Faldo, Made in HimmerLand and Genesis Scottish Open.
Each event will see three spots at Royal Liverpool Golf Club up for grabs for the top three players not already exempt who make the cut.
The three events are among 15 in nine countries, with a total of 34 places available on the PGA TOUR, DP World Tour, Asian Tour, Japan Golf Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia and Sunshine Tour.
Three PGA TOUR events are included in the schedule, including the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, the Wells Fargo Championship and The Memorial Tournament presented by Workday. Each event will offer three qualifying places.
In Asia, a total of ten places will be available through The World City Championship presented by the Hong Kong Golf Club on the Asian Tour, the Mizuno Open on the Japan Golf Tour and the KOLON Korea Open, which is co-sanctioned by the Korean Golf Association and Asian Tour.
Johnnie Cole-Hamilton, Executive Director – Championships at The R&A, said, “We have created an exciting schedule of events which takes in many regions around the world and provides the chance for golfers to earn a place in The Open at Royal Liverpool.
"We are grateful to our colleagues at the professional tours for their support and look forward to seeing who emerges from each event to book a sought-after place in the Championship this year.”
In a change to previous criteria, qualifying places will now be awarded to the leading players who make the cut and are not already exempt as of the closing date of entries for The Open on June 1.
Any golfer earning a qualifying place who then becomes exempt under one or more categories before the closing date of entries will result in that place being awarded to the next non-exempt golfer, which will determined by a reserve list for each event played before June 1.
Dan Bradbury, Sami Välimäki,Christian Bezuidenhout, Haydn Barron, Alejandro Cañizares and Min Woo Lee have already earned their places at Hoylake via The Qualifying Series at the Joburg Open and ISPS HANDA Australian Open respectively.
The number of places at Final Qualifying has also been increased by four to provide a minimum of 16 places through events being held at Burnham & Berrow, Dundonald Links, Royal Cinque Ports and West Lancashire on July 4.
The R&A has also confirmed the exemption categories for The 151st Open.
A new exemption has been added for elite amateur golfers in which the player who accumulates the most points awarded by the World Amateur Golf Ranking in the St Andrews Links Trophy, The Amateur Championship and European Amateur Championship will earn a place in The Open.
The Ryder Cup and Presidents’ Cup exemption, which rotated each year, has been removed while the Asia-Pacific Diamond Cup exemption is not included for 2023 as the event will not be played this year.
The Betfred British Masters Hosted by Sir Nick Faldo takes place at The Belfry June 29-July 2, with the Made in HimmerLand held the following week and the Genesis Scottish Open - the third Rolex Series event of the season - returning to The Renaissance Club July 13-16.
The 151st Open will be held from July 20-23.
For the full list of exemptions, click here.
