2008 Open Championship
| File:Open championship.jpg | |
| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Dates | July 17 - 20, 2008 |
| Location |  Southport, England |
| Course(s) | Royal Birkdale Golf Club |
| Tour(s) | PGA Tour PGA European Tour |
| Statistics | |
| Par | 70 |
| Length | 7,173 |
| Field | 156 players |
| Cut | TBD |
| Prize fund | TBD |
| Winner's share | TBD |
| Champion | |
| TBD | |
| TBD | |
The 2008 Open Championship will be the 137th Open Championship, played from July 17 to July 20 2008 at Royal Birkdale. Pádraig Harrington is the defending champion after defeating Sergio García in a playoff to take the title.
Television coverage will be provided by ABC and TNT in the United States, while coverage in the UK will once again be provided by the BBC.
Field
About two thirds of the field each year consists of players that are fully exempt from qualifying for the Open. Below is the list of the exemption categories and the players who are exempt. Each player is classified according to the first category by which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses. Some categories are not shown as the all players in that category had already quaified from an earlier category:[1]
1. First 10 and anyone tying for 10th place in the 2007 Open Championship
K.J. Choi (7,15,19), Stewart Cink (7,19), Ben Curtis (3,4), Ernie Els (3,4,5,7,15,19), Sergio García (5,7,14,15), Richard Green, Pádraig Harrington (3,4,5,7), Hunter Mahan (7,15,19), Andrés Romero (5,7), Steve Stricker (7,15,19), Mike Weir (7,19)
2. Past Open Champions born between 20 July 1942 and 19 July 1948
(Eligible but not competing: Tony Jacklin, Johnny Miller, Tom Weiskopf)
3. Past Open Champions aged 60 or under on 20 July 2008
Mark Calcavecchia (15), John Daly, David Duval (4), Todd Hamilton (4), Paul Lawrie (4), Tom Lehman, Justin Leonard (7), Sandy Lyle, Greg Norman, Mark O'Meara (4), Tom Watson (28) (Eligible but not competing: Nick Faldo, Tiger Woods)
4. The Open Champions for 1998-2007
5. First 20 in the PGA European Tour Final Order of Merit for 2007
Ángel Cabrera (7,11,19), Paul Casey (7), Nick Dougherty, Niclas Fasth (7), Retief Goosen (7,11,19), Anders Hansen (6), Søren Hansen (7), Peter Hanson, Grégory Havret, Søren Kjeldsen, Colin Montgomerie, Justin Rose (7,15), Henrik Stenson (7), Richard Sterne (7), Graeme Storm, Lee Westwood (7)
6. The BMW PGA Championship winners for 2006-2008
David Howell, Miguel Ángel Jiménez (7)
7. The first 50 players on the Official World Golf Rankings for Week 21, 2008
Robert Allenby, Stephen Ames (14), Stuart Appleby (19), Woody Austin (15,19), Aaron Baddeley (15), Tim Clark, Luke Donald, Jim Furyk (15,19,23), J. B. Holmes, Trevor Immelman (12,19), Zach Johnson (12,15,19), Robert Karlsson, Martin Kaymer, Anthony Kim, Phil Mickelson (12,13,14,15,19), Geoff Ogilvy (11,15,19), Sean O'Hair, Rod Pampling, Ian Poulter, Jeff Quinney, Rory Sabbatini (15,19), Adam Scott (15,19), Vijay Singh (13,15,19), Brandt Snedeker (15), Toru Taniguchi (24), Scott Verplank (15,19), Boo Weekley, Oliver Wilson (Eligible but not competing: Shingo Katayama)
8. First 3 and anyone tying for 3rd place, not exempt having applied above, in the top 20 of the 2008 PGA European Tour Order of Merit on completion of the 2008 BMW PGA Championship
Richard Finch, Graeme McDowell, Damien McGrane
9. First 2 European Tour members and any European Tour members tying for 2nd place, not exempt, in a cumulative money list taken from all official PGA European Tour events from OWGR Week 19 up to and including the Open de France and including the U.S. Open
29 June 2008
10. The leading player, not exempt having applied above, in the first 5 and ties of each of the 2008 European Open and the 2008 Barclays Scottish Open.
6 and 13 July 2008
11. The U.S. Open Champions for 2004-2008
Michael Campbell
12. The U.S. Masters Champions for 2004-2008
13. The U.S. PGA Champions for 2003-2007
Shaun Micheel
14. The U.S. PGA Tour Players Champions for 2006-2008
15. Top 20 on the Official Money List of the 2007 PGA Tour
Charles Howell III (19)
16. First 3 and anyone tying for 3rd place, not exempt having applied above, in the top 20 of the Official Money List of the 2008 PGA Tour on completion of the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial
Bart Bryant, Ryuji Imada
17. First 2 PGA Tour members and any PGA Tour members tying for 2nd place, not exempt, in a cumulative money list taken from The Players Championship and the five PGA Tour events leading up to and including the 2008 AT&T National
6 July 2008
18. The leading player, not exempt having applied above, in the first 5 and ties of each of the 2008 AT&T National and the 2008 John Deere Classic
6 and 13 July 2008
19. Playing members of the 2007 Presidents Cup teams
Lucas Glover, Nick O'Hern, David Toms
20. First place on the 2007 Asian Tour Order of Merit
Liang Wen-Chong
21. First 2 on the Order of Merit of the PGA Tour of Australasia for 2007
Craig Parry, David Smail
22. First place on the Order of Merit of the Southern Africa Sunshine Tour for 2007
James Kingston
23. The Canadian Open Champion for 2007
24. The Japan Open Champion for 2007
25. First 2 on the Official Money List of the Japan Golf Tour for 2007
Brendan Jones, Hideto Tanihara
26. The leading 4 players, not exempt, in the 2008 Mizuno Open Yomiuri Classic
Michio Matsumura, Prayad Marksaeng, Yoshinobu Tsukada, Azuma Yano
27. First 2 and anyone tying for 2nd place, not exempt having applied (26) above, in a cumulative money list taken from all official Japan Golf Tour events from the 2008 Japan PGA Championship up to and including the 2008 Mizuno Open Yomiuri Classic
Hiroshi Iwata, Shintaro Kai
28. The Senior British Open Champion for 2007
29. The 2008 Amateur Champion
Reinier Saxton
30. The U.S. Amateur Champion for 2007
(Colt Knost turned professional and forfeited his invitation.)
31. The European Individual Amateur Champion for 2007
Benjamin Hebert (A)
International Final Qualifying
- Africa: Joshua Cunliffe, Darren Fichardt, Douglas McGuigan, Hennie Otto
- Australasia: Peter Fowler, Brad Lamb, Ewan Porter, Andrew Tampion
- Asia: Adam Blyth, Danny Chia, Chih-Bing Lam, Angelo Que
- America: 30 June 2008
- Europe: 30 June 2008
Local Final Qualifying 8 July 2008
- Hillside
- Southport and Ainsdale
- West Lancashire
Summary of rounds of play
The Open Championship is played over four days with an 18 hole round being played each day, for a total of 72 holes plus practice rounds. Everyone outside the top 70 and ties and outside ten strokes of the leader will be "cut" after 36 holes.
References
- ^ "Exempt Players". OpenGolf. Retrieved 2008-06-16.