The 152nd Open at Royal Troon this summer will see some modifications to the exemption categories, according to the R&A, although LIV Golf players won’t see any changes specifically.
The champions’ exemption category will see a change starting in 2024, when the winner will remain exempt until they turn 55. However, players who are now exempt due to being past champions, such as Paul Lawrie, the winner in 1999, will be permitted to compete in the Claret Jug event until they are 60 years old.
In the meanwhile, players participating on the Sunshine Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia, Japan Golf Tour, Asian Tour, and Japan Golf Tour will have the chance to qualify via the International Federation Ranking list thanks to a new exemption. Places in The Open will be given to the top five golfers on that ranking as of the entry deadline.
The International Federation Ranking List is presently led by Japan’s Keita Nakajima (Japan Golf Tour), with Andy Ogletree, a player for LIV, in second place due to his current leadership on the Asian Tour Order of Merit.
The other players with currency that would be granted exemptions are Takumi Kanaya of Japan (Japan Golf Tour), Australian David Micheluzzi (PGA Tour of Australasia), and South African Ockie Strydom (Sunshine Tour).
There is also an exemption for the Africa Amateur champion, which South African Altin van der Merwe filled in Ayrshire following his title victory at Leopard Creek last month.
Michael Hendry, a resident of New Zealand, is also receiving a medical exemption after a major illness prevented him from competing in the Royal Liverpool tournament last year.
Several players from LIV Golf, notably Phil Mickelson, who engaged in a titanic battle with Henrik Stenson at Troon in 2016, Jon Rahm, Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, and Bryson DeChambeau, are now exempt from playing in the season’s last major.
The following LIV Golf players—Tyrrell Hatton, Dean Burmester, Adrian Meronk, Joaquin Niemann, Louis Oosthuizen, and David Puig—have secured berths without needing to qualify.
Greg Norman, the CEO and commissioner of LIV Golf, made the announcement on Tuesday that the breakaway circuit is no longer aiming to obtain points for its tournaments on the Official World Golf Ranking.
Bob MacIntyre, who placed in the top 30 of the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai last year, is the other Scot on the current exemption list for The Open, alongside Lawrie.
This week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, the fourth leg of The Open Qualifying Series, also offers a chance to play at Royal Troon.
With 36 players in the field on that list and just 59 participants in the most recent PGA Tour Signature event, the top player at Bay Hill in Florida who isn’t already exempt will earn a berth. This is a fantastic opportunity for someone.
Not MacIntyre, though, nor fellow Scots Martin Laird or Russell Knox, who are competing in this week’s Puerto Rico Open, the other event on the US circuit, as they are ineligible for those Signature Events.
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