After 117 players advanced from regional qualifying for the 2023 Open Championship, just 16 spots are left to fill the field for the final men’s major of the year next month in Royal Liverpool, July 20-23.
One LIV Golf player will look to earn his spot the hard way, just as he did for the U.S. Open, while another will end a nearly three-decade streak of competing in his national open.
Sergio Garcia has entered final qualifying, while Lee Westwood will miss his first British Open in 28 years. Westwood was also recently denied entrance to the Senior Open due to unpaid DP World Tour fines related to his move to the Saudi Arabia-backed circuit. Ian Poulter has also elected not to enter final qualifying. The Telegraph was first to report.
Garcia will play a 36-hole qualifier on Tuesday, July 4, between a pair of LIV Golf League events in Spain (June 30-July 2) and London (July 7-9). In fact, of the 52 players to tee it up this season for LIV, 21 have entered final qualifying across the four sites:
Dundonald Links
Jason Kokrak
Sebastian Munoz
Andy Ogletree
Carlos Ortiz
Peter Uihlein
Royal Cinque Ports
Dean Burmester
Branden Grace
Wade Ormsby
David Puig
Charl Schwartzel
Brendan Steele
Kieran Vincent
Royal Porthcawl
Laurie Canter
Matt Jones
Anirban Lahiri
Marc Leishman
Cameron Tringale
West Lancashire
Sergio Garcia
Graeme McDowell
Mito Pereira
Scott Vincent
Other notable names to enter final qualifying include Alex Fitzpatrick, Aaron Wise and Matt Wallace at West Lancashire, Thomas Detry at Royal Cinque Ports and Matt Kuchar, Michael Block and Mackenzie Hughes at Dundonald Links.
Tiger Woods underwent ankle surgery shortly after the Masters in April and hasn’t played on the PGA Tour since. And it doesn’t sound like he’ll be back anytime soon.
According to Bob Harig of Sports Illustrated, Woods will not be in the field for the 2023 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, July 20-23.
“We have been advised that he won’t be playing at Hoylake,” said Mike Woodcock of the R&A via email to SI.
Woods is a three-time Champion Golfer of the Year: 2000 and 2005 at St Andrews and 2006 at Royal Liverpool. The 15-time major champion played in the 150th edition of the Open last year, but missed the cut at the Old Course.
Notable LIV golfers exempt include Cam Smith, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka.
Martin Slumbers and the R&A have been an open book in regard to the impending decision on whether LIV Golf members would be allowed to play in the Open.
Then, at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in October, Slumbers reiterated his message to Golf Digest: “We’ll go public in January/February with what we are going to do with regard to LIV golfers. But if you want a guide, go back to what I said in July. We’re not banning anyone. We are not going to betray 150 years of history and have the Open not be open.”
He’s kept his word.
The R&A has officially announced that qualifying LIV members will be allowed to play in the 151st edition at Royal Liverpool in July.
[pickup_prop id=”32051″]
As it stands now, some of the notable LIV golfers exempt into the tournament include Cam Smith, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed.
“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,” said Johnnie Cole-Hamilton, the R&A’s executive director of champions. “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.”
The Open is now the third major championship to announce LIV participation is approved, joining the Masters and U.S. Open.
[afflinkbutton text=”Book your trip to Royal Liverpool today” link=”https://www.golfbreaks.com/en-us/vacations/liverpool-and-southport/royal-liverpool-golf-club/?cid=999739926&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=golfweek&utm_campaign=uk_best_trips_q3_22_gw”]
The traditional links courses find spots of honor on this ranking of the best classic courses in Great Britain and Ireland.
Welcome to Golfweek’s Best 2023 rankings of the Top 50 classic courses in Great Britain and Ireland – built before 1960 – as determined by Golfweek’s Best raters.
The members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged to produce a final rating for each course. Then each layout is ranked against others in Great Britain and Ireland to produce the final rankings.
“If the game is not played with high value and respect, I have no chance to grow the game.”
The 151st Open Championship is in 264 days. We’re a long way from the opening tee shot at Royal Liverpool, a venue last visited in 2014 where now world No. 1 Rory McIlroy captured his Claret Jug.
However, we won’t have to wait that long to hear the R&A’s plans for LIV Golf members.
Fast forward three months and his message remains the same.
“We’ll go public in January/February with what we are going to do with regard to LIV golfers. But if you want a guide, go back to what I said in July. We’re not banning anyone. We are not going to betray 150 years of history and have the Open not be open,” Slumbers told Golf Digest this week at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship hosted by the R&A, the Asia-Pacific Golf Federation and the Masters.
“What we will do is ensure that there are appropriate pathways and ways to qualify. I’m looking forward to seeing Cam Smith tee up around 9:40 a.m. on the first day of the Open next year. The Open needs to set itself aside from what’s going in terms of disagreements and make sure we stay true to our principle, which is to have the best players in the world competing.”
Martin Slumbers, the CEO of The R&A and Secretary of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, speaks to the media during his pre-tournament news conference ahead of the 150th Open at St Andrews in St Andrews, Scotland. (Photo: David Cannon/Getty Images)
Smith, the current Champion Golfer of the Year, is now a member of the Greg Norman-led circuit backed by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund.
At St. Andrews earlier this year, Norman was excluded from the Champions Challenge and Champions dinner.
“With everything that was going on, it was clear to me that there was a reason why he wanted to be there this year,” Slumbers said. “If he had been there, it would have been about noise. The Open has to be distinct from all that. I didn’t want to have noise between two rival tours and two big personalities. It would have overshadowed what was happening that week.
“I wanted the 150th Open to be special and perfect. I didn’t want other issues going on around it, ones that would have undermined it in the eyes of the public. I was very polite and very deferential to Greg. I asked him to understand my perspective. And I did so privately. I did not make it public. I never said anything and never commented on it.
“That week was supposed to be about the first event in our game’s history reaching its 150th playing. On arguably the greatest course in the world. I was never going to lose focus on that.”
In regards to our fractured game, Slumbers understands the consequences of splitting the talent pool.
“To me, this is not about ‘them and us.’ I have no issue with the players. People play for a living. I note that Saudi Arabia wants to invest a lot of money in the game I love and care about,” he said. “That’s a good thing. But I want to preserve the pathways and meritocracy on which our game is built. Sport without that isn’t sport. So I want to make sure we have the best players competing week in and week out.
“If the game is not played with high value and respect, I have no chance to grow the game. Maybe the consequence of where we are is that we only get to see all of the very best players together four times a year. So we’ll enjoy it four times a year.”
Looking ahead to 2023, just to make you feel a bit better about how far we are from meaningful golf, the Masters begins in 158 days.
Want to cross an item off the sports-vacation bucket list?
The 150th Open Championship has come and gone, and while Cam Smith will likely be reveling in the volume of the Claret Jug for days to come, the fans of links golf turn their attention to 2023.
It doesn’t get much better than the Old Course at St. Andrews for the British Open, but the 151st playing of the Open Championship will provide a worthy successor at Royal Liverpool.
[afflinkbutton text=”Book your trip to the 2023 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool” link=”https://www.golfbreaks.com/en-us/tournaments/the-open-2023/?cid=999739896&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=golfweek&utm_campaign=british_open_2023_q3_22_gw”]
Holylake Links at Royal Liverpool Golf Club has provided some signature major winners including Walter Hagen, Bobby Jones, and more recently a couple of guys named Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
McIlroy won the most recent Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, cruising to a wire-to-wire win in 2014. Perhaps a familiar setting is just what Rory needs to earn another Gold Medal as the Champion Golfer of the Year.
Royal Liverpool packages include tickets and hotel accommodations for Thursday and Friday, tickets and hotel accommodations for Saturday and Sunday and tickets and hotel accommodations to all four days of the 2023 Open Championship.
Book the trip of a lifetime to enjoy the oldest major in golf, explore beautiful North West England, and maybe even play a round at the prestigious Royal Birkdale or Royal Lytham & St. Annes, two other nearby Open Championship courses.
For more information, click here or call +1 843 242 7779.
[afflinkbutton text=”2023 Open Championship ticket packages” link=”https://www.golfbreaks.com/en-us/tournaments/the-open-2023/?cid=999739896&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=golfweek&utm_campaign=british_open_2023_q3_22_gw”]
[afflinkbutton text=”Book your round at Royal Liverpool” link=”https://www.golfbreaks.com/en-us/vacations/liverpool-and-southport/royal-liverpool-golf-club/?cid=999739926&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=golfweek&utm_campaign=uk_best_trips_q3_22_gw”]
[afflinkbutton text=”For more information call +1 843 242-7779″ link=”https://www.golfbreaks.com/en-us/tournaments/the-open-2023/?cid=999739896&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=golfweek&utm_campaign=british_open_2023_q3_22_gw”]
We occasionally recommend interesting products, services, and gaming opportunities. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. Golfweek operates independently, though, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.
How does St. Andrews, site of this week’s Open Championship, stack up against the rest of the course rota?
Each of the 10 layouts on the modern British Open course rota score highly in Golfweek’s Best ranking of top classic golf courses built before 1960 in Great Britain and Ireland, as would be expected. But that doesn’t mean they all are equals.
Check out the rankings of each course on the modern rota below. The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce these rankings, and they are included for each course below.
Want to play St. Andrews, Carnoustie, and Royal Troon all on the same trip? Yeah…we thought so.
The 2022 British Open is just weeks away and the entire golf world is gearing up to go back home to The Old Course at St. Andrews.
We will all be glued to the coverage of the 150th Open Championship later this month, and most golf fans will daydream about playing St. Andrews and that fantasy golf vacation they’ve been putting off for years.
It’s time to turn those daydreams into reality. Along with our friends from Golfbreaks, Golfweek has compiled five spectacular U.K. golf vacations including trips to England, Northern Ireland and Scotland to play some of the oldest and most famous courses in the world.
We occasionally recommend interesting products, services, and gaming opportunities. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. Golfweek operates independently, though, and this doesn’t influence our coverage
The R&A has confirmed the dates and venues for the Open Championship in 2023 and 2024.
Though it doesn’t come as much of a surprise, the R&A has confirmed the dates and venues for the Open Championship in 2023 and 2024. The 151st Open will be played at Royal Liverpool from July 20-23, 2023 while Royal Troon will host the following championship July 18-21, 2024.
The announcement comes after the R&A juggled the rescheduling of this year’s lost Open Championship. The 149th Open remains on the books at Royal St. George’s and will be played July 15-18, 2021. That allows the 150th Open Championship to still take place at St. Andrews in 2022.
“We have been working closely with Royal Liverpool and Royal Troon and the relevant local agencies to reschedule the Championships,” Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of The R&A, said in a release. “We are grateful to everyone involved at the clubs and at our partner organizations for supporting our plans and showing flexibility to adapt their own schedules. We can now look forward to seeing the world’s best players competing at these outstanding links courses in 2023 and 2024.”
When the Open heads to Royal Liverpool in 2023, it will be for the 13th time – and the first since Rory McIlroy lifted the Claret Jug there in 2014. Most recently, the top amateurs competed there in September 2019 for the Walker Cup. The Americans carried off a win on foreign soil for the first time since 2007.
The Open will return to Royal Troon, site of Henrik Stenson’s memorable final round duel with Phil Mickelson in 2016, for the 10th time.
