The Open Championship is organised by the R&A, and is included in the PGA Tour, European Tour, and Japan Golf Tour calendars under the major championships category. The tournament is a 72-hole (4 rounds) stroke play competition held over 4 days, with 18 holes played each day. Play is in groups of three for the first two days, and groups of two in the final two days. Groupings for the first two days are decided by the organisers, with each group having one morning, and one afternoon tee time. On the final two days, players tee off in reverse order of aggregate score, with the leaders last. After 36 holes there was a cut, after which the top 70 and ties progress through to compete in the third and fourth rounds. In the event of a tie for the lowest score after four rounds, a four-hole aggregate playoff will be held to determine the winner; this will be followed by sudden-death extra holes if necessary until a winner emerges.
The 2023 event will be the 13th Open Championship played at Royal Liverpool.[1] The most recent was in 2014, when Rory McIlroy won the event by two strokes for his third major title.
Field
The Open Championship field is made up of 156 players, who gained entry through various exemption criteria and qualifying tournaments. The criteria included past Open champions, recent major winners, top ranked players in the world rankings and from the leading world tours, and winners and high finishers from various designated tournaments, including the Open Qualifying Series; the winners of designated amateur events, including The Amateur Championship and U.S. Amateur, also gained exemption provided they remain an amateur. Anyone not qualifying via exemption, and had a handicap of 0.4 or lower, can gain entry through regional and final qualifying events.
Most exemption criteria remained unchanged from previous years; changes included the removal of exemptions for recent Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup players,[2] and a new exemption for amateur golfers.[3]
Criteria and exemptions
Each player is classified according to the first category in which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses.[4]
1. The Open Champions aged 60 or under on 23 July 2023
The Open Qualifying Series (OQS) for the 2023 Open Championship consists of 11 events. Places are available to the leading players (not otherwise exempt) who make the cut. In the event of ties, positions go to players ranked highest according to that week's OWGR. Unlike in previous years, if a player who has qualified through OQS becomes exempt through other criteria before 1 June, the next highest non-exempt finisher from that OQS event will become exempt.[5]
^ abWyndham Clark initially qualified through the Wells Fargo Championship, but after he subsequently qualified through category 4, his OQS spot was reallocated to Brendon Todd.
^ abcHarris English and Kurt Kitayama initially qualified through the Arnold Palmer Invitational, but after both subsequently qualified through category 4, their OQS spots were reallocated to Ben Griffin and Trey Mullinax.
^ abcdefgPlayers must remain amateurs in order to be exempt under this category.
^Bennett forfeited his exemption by turning professional.
^Nakajima forfeited his exemption by turning professional, but subsequently qualified through the Open Qualifying Series.