SYDNEY: Double Major winning Rory McIlroy may have no concern for some time in being exempt into golf’s oldest major but it has not stopped him lending his support to the new Open Championship qualifying
series.
The R & A has abandoned a series of 36-hole International Final Qualifiers around the globe and instead selected four national open’s (Australian, Irish, French and Scottish) plus a number of other events including two on the PGA Tour where players can now gain entry into the Open Championship through a 72-hole tournament.
“It’s a great new idea and a much better opportunity for players to try and qualify for the Open. Staging a 36-hole qualifier, as the R & A has been doing for a few years now, on the Monday ahead of a regular tournament is not the ideal preparation heading into a tournament like the Irish Open, so to merge qualifying into a 72-hole event makes more sense,” said McIlroy
yesterday. AFP
