The third major championship of the year is on the horizon with the 2014 British Open now less than two weeks away. The 156-player field is almost full, but an additional 13 players will be given the chance to compete for the Claret Jug. Like the U.S. Open, the Open Championship welcomes a wide and diverse field with players from all over the world earning their way into the event.
2014 British Open Championship field: Final qualifiers nearly set for Hoylake
With the start of the 2014 British Open less than two weeks away, the 156-player field is nearly set with just 13 open spots up for grabs.
Andrew Redington
The top players in the world didn’t need to do much additional work to earn their bids to Royal Liverpool. The top 50 players in the Official World Golf Rankings are given automatic entry. The same is true for the top finishers of the postseasons on both sides of the Atlantic -- the European Tour’s Race to Dubai and the PGA Tour’s FedExCup from the previous year.
Essentially, if a player played good golf in the prior year, he is locked into a bid for the Open. While the U.S. Open gives automatic entry to the previous champions of the last 10 years, previous champions of the British Open who are 60 or younger are automatically qualified should they choose to play. So while John Daly won the Open Championship nearly 20 years ago and hasn’t played well enough to qualify otherwise, he’ll be back in the field after sitting out last year due to an elbow injury.
In all, there are nearly 30 ways to qualify for the Open, including local qualifying. A dozen players played their way into the field through local qualifying with many more earning bids through international qualifying. The final 13 spots will be handed out based on the results from the PGA Tour and European Tour. Players who finish in the top 12 of the Greenbrier Classic, French Open, John Deere Classic and Scottish Open could receive bids. A total of 11 bids will be given in those four events with at least two alternates to be added. Those bids will be awarded as part of the new Open Championship Qualifying Series. Instead of the traditional 36-hole qualifiers, players gain entry by performing in PGA Tour and European Tour events.
Here is a complete look at the 143 qualified players and how they gained entry. Many players are exempt in multiple ways, but this list includes just the first method in which they gained entry into the field.
2014 Open Championship field |
Previous champions 60 or younger |
Phil Mickelson |
Ernie Els |
Darren Clarke |
Louis Oosthuizen |
Stewart Cink |
Padraig Harrington |
Tiger Woods |
Todd Hamilton |
Ben Curtis |
David Duval |
Paul Lawrie |
Mark O'Meara |
Justin Leonard |
John Daly |
Nick Faldo |
Mark Calcavecchia |
Sandy Lyle |
Previous champions with a top 10 finish since 2009 |
Tom Watson |
Top 10 and ties from 2013 Open |
Henrik Stenson |
Ian Poulter |
Adam Scott |
Lee Westwood |
Zach Johnson |
Hideki Matsuyama |
Hunter Mahan |
Francesco Molinari |
Top 50 of the OWGR on May 26 |
Matt Kuchar |
Bubba Watson |
Rory McIlroy |
Jason Day |
Sergio Garcia |
Justin Rose |
Jordan Spieth |
Jim Furyk |
Dustin Johnson |
Jason Dufner |
Luke Donald |
Jimmy Walker |
Graeme McDowell |
Charl Schwartzel |
Thomas Bjorn |
Keegan Bradley |
Victor Dubuisson |
Patrick Reed |
Miguel Angel Jimenez |
Martin Kaymer |
Jamie Donaldson |
Brandt Snedeker |
Graham DeLaet |
Webb Simpson |
Bill Haas |
Jonas Blixt |
Stephen Gallacher |
Rickie Fowler |
Ryan Moore |
Gary Woodland |
Harris English |
Joost Luiten |
Matt Jones |
John Senden |
Russell Henley |
Chris Kirk |
Matt Every |
Ryan Palmer |
Top 30 in the 2013 Race to Dubai |
Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano |
Richard Sterne |
Thongchai Jaidee |
Matteo Manassero |
Peter Uihlein |
Brett Rumford |
Branden Grace |
David Howell |
Mikko Ilonen |
Gregory Bourdy |
Tommy Fleetwood |
Bernd Wiesberger |
Chris Wood |
Paul Casey |
Non-qualified players in the top 20 of the Race to Dubai on June 30 (up to five) |
Pablo Larrazabal |
Shane Lowry |
George Coetzee |
Rafa Cabrera-Bello |
PGA Champions since 2009 (Masters, U.S. Open winners from last 5 years already exempt above) |
Y.E. Yang |
Final 30 Qualifers for FedExCup's 2013 TOUR Championship |
Nick Watney |
Billy Horschel |
Roberto Castro |
Kevin Streelman |
Brendon de Jonge |
Boo Weekley |
D.A. Points |
Non-qualified players in the top 20 of the FedExCup on June 23 (up to five) |
Brendon Todd |
Kevin Na |
Members of the 2013 Presidents Cup teams |
Angel Cabrera |
Marc Leishman |
2013 winner of the Asian Tour Order of Merit |
Kiradech Aphibarnrat |
2013 winner of the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit |
Dawie van der Walt |
2013 Japan Open winner |
Masanori Kobayashi |
Top non-qualified players from the 2013 Japan Golf Tour money list (up to two) |
Hyung-Sung Kim |
Non-qualified players from 2014 Japan Golf Tour money list on June 23 (up to two) |
Koumei Oda |
Yusaku Miyazato |
British Senior Open winner |
Mark Wiebe |
British Amateur winner |
Bradley Neil (a) |
European Amateur winner |
Ashley Chesters (a) |
Local Qualifying |
Matthew Southgate |
Chris Rodgers |
An Byeong-Hun |
Marc Warren |
Jamie McLeary |
Paul McKechnie |
Paul Dunne (a) |
Oliver Fisher |
Rhys Enoch |
John Singleton |
Christopher Hanson |
Oscar Floren |
Non-qualified players ranked highest in OWGR (up to 10) |
Kevin Stadler |
J.B. Holmes |
K.J. Choi |
Erik Compton |
Charles Howell III |
Brooks Koepka |
Chesson Hadley |
Freddie Jacobson |
Anirban Lahiri |
Scott Stallings |
International Final Qualifying - Australia |
Bryden Macpherson |
Rhein Gibson |
International Final Qualifying - Africa |
Jin Jeong |
Justin Walters |
International Final Qualifying - Thailand |
Hiroshi Iwata |
Cheng-Tsung Pan (a) |
Ashun Wu |
Yoshinobu Tsukada |
International Final Qualifying - Japan |
Dong-Kyu Jang |
Juvic Pagunsan |
Hyung-Tae Kim |
Tomohiro Kondo |
International Final Qualifying - Quicken Loans National |
Shawn Stefani |
Charley Hoffman |
Ben Martin |
Brendan Steele |
International Final Qualifying - Irish Open |
Matthew Baldwin |
Danny Willet |
Edoardo Molinari |
International Final Qualifying - Greenbrier Classic |
Billy Hurley III |
George McNeill |
Chris Stroud |
Cameron Tringale |
International Final Qualifying - French Open |
Michael Hoey |
Robert Karlsson |
Victor Riu |
International Final Qualifying - John Deere Classic |
TBD |
International Final Qualifying - Scottish Open |
TBD |
TBD |
TBD |
Alternates |
TBD |
TBD |
See More:
