2220 players enter 2004 British Open
BY iseekgolf.com | European PGA Tour | 2004 British Open | General | 15 Jun 2004
A total of 2220 players from around the world have entered for The Open Championship that will be played at Royal Troon from 15–18 July.
This figure includes approximately 450 of the top 500 in the Official World Golf Rankings that, for the first time, are being used for entry into International Final Qualifying and not simply for Open exemption categories.
International Final Qualifying has been or will be played on five continents and with 12 players already qualified from Africa, Australasia and Asia, a further minimum of 24 will come from IFQs in America and Europe on Monday 28 June. The IFQs at Congressional and Sunningdale each have fields of 120 players.
Approximately 1650 players have entered the 16 Regional Qualifying competitions on Monday 5 July and the changes in the structure of qualifying will now allow in the region on 20 players to progress from each venue to Local Final Qualifying on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 July at Glasgow, Irvine, Turnberry Kintyre and Western Gailes.
In announcing the figures Michael Tate, Director of The R&A said: “We are delighted with the size and quality of The Open entry and in particular with the standard of players who wished to compete in International Final Qualifying. We introduced IFQ with the aim of making it as easy as possible for top ranked non-exempt players to attempt to qualify on their own continent. The fields in IFQ certainly justify their introduction while there has been no reduction in the number of players entering Regional Qualifying or Local Final Qualifying.”
Source – R&A
