This page lists the criteria used to determine the field for the 2024 Open Championship and the players who qualified.
The Open Championship field is made up of 157 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. The previous Order of Merit exemptions for the Asian Tour, Japan Golf Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia, and Sunshine Tour were replaced by a category based on the Official World Golf Ranking's International Federation Ranking List, and a new exemption was added for the winner of the Africa Amateur Championship; it was also announced that winners of the 2024 Open and future editions will remain exempt through age 55, instead of through age 60 as with previous winners.
Criteria and exemptions Each player is classified according to the first category in which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses.
1. The Open Champions aged 60 or under on 21 July 2024 (for all Champions up to 2024)
Stewart Cink Darren Clarke John Daly Ernie Els Todd Hamilton Brian Harman (3,4,5,13) Pádraig Harrington Zach Johnson (3) Justin Leonard Shane Lowry (3,5,7) Rory McIlroy (3,4,5,6,13) Phil Mickelson (3,11) Francesco Molinari (3) Collin Morikawa (3,5,11,13) Louis Oosthuizen Cameron Smith (3,12) Jordan Spieth (3,5,13) Henrik Stenson (3) Tiger Woods (10)
Ben Curtis, David Duval, and Paul Lawrie did not play.
2. The Open Champions aged 55 or under on 21 July 2024 (for all Champions from 2024)
3. The Open Champions for 2013–2023
4. Top 10 finishers and ties in the 2023 Open Championship
Jason Day (5,13) Tommy Fleetwood (5,6,13) Emiliano Grillo (13) Max Homa (5,13) Matthew Jordan Tom Kim (5,6,13) Jon Rahm (5,6,9,10,13) Shubhankar Sharma Sepp Straka (5,13) Cameron Young (5)
5. Top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) for Week 21, 2024
Ludvig Åberg An Byeong-hun Akshay Bhatia Keegan Bradley (13) Sam Burns (13) Patrick Cantlay (13) Wyndham Clark (9,13) Eric Cole Corey Conners (13) Bryson DeChambeau (9) Austin Eckroat Harris English Tony Finau (13) Matt Fitzpatrick (6,9,13) Rickie Fowler (13) Lucas Glover (13) Tyrrell Hatton (6,13) Russell Henley (13) Nicolai Højgaard (6) Viktor Hovland (6,13) Im Sung-jae (13) Stephan Jäger Kim Si-woo (13) Chris Kirk Kurt Kitayama Brooks Koepka (11) Min Woo Lee (6) Hideki Matsuyama (10) Denny McCarthy Matthieu Pavon (6) J. T. Poston Xander Schauffele (11,13) Scottie Scheffler (10,12,13) Adam Schenk (13) Nick Taylor (13) Sahith Theegala Justin Thomas (11) Will Zalatoris
6. Top 30 in the final 2023 Race to Dubai rankings
Alexander Björk Jorge Campillo Ryan Fox (7) Daniel Hillier Ryo Hisatsune Rasmus Højgaard Romain Langasque Thriston Lawrence Joost Luiten Robert MacIntyre Adrian Meronk Vincent Norrman Thorbjørn Olesen Yannik Paul Victor Perez Marcel Siem Jordan Smith Sami Välimäki Matt Wallace
Sebastian Söderberg did not play.
7. Recent winners of the BMW PGA Championship (2021–2023) Billy Horschel
8. Top five players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2024 Race to Dubai Rankings through the BMW International Open
Laurie Canter Nacho Elvira Ewen Ferguson Matteo Manassero Jesper Svensson
9. Recent winners of the U.S. Open (2019–2024) Gary Woodland
10. Recent winners of the Masters Tournament (2019–2024) Dustin Johnson
11. Recent winners of the PGA Championship (2018–2024)
12. Recent winners of The Players Championship (2022–2024)
13. Top 30 players from the 2023 FedEx Cup points list Taylor Moore
14. Top five players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2024 FedEx Cup points list through the Travelers Championship
Christiaan Bezuidenhout Tom Hoge
15. Winner of the 2024 Visa Open de Argentina Mason Andersen
16. Top five players from the OWGR's International Federation Ranking List as of closing date
Kazuma Kobori Keita Nakajima Andy Ogletree David Puig Ryan van Velzen
17. Winner of the 2023 Japan Open Golf Championship Aguri Iwasaki
18. Winner of the 2023 Senior Open Championship Alex Čejka
19. Winner of the 2024 Amateur Championship Jacob Skov Olesen (a)
20. Winner of the 2023 U.S. Amateur Nick Dunlap
21. Winner of the 2024 European Amateur Tommy Morrison (a)
22. Recipient of the 2023 Mark H. McCormack Medal Gordon Sargent (a)
23. Winner of the 2023 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship Jasper Stubbs (a)
24. Winner of the 2024 Latin America Amateur Championship Santiago de la Fuente (a)
25. Winner of the 2024 Open Amateur Series Calum Scott (a)
26. Winner of the 2024 Africa Amateur Championship Altin van der Merwe (a)
27. Medical exemption Michael Hendry
Open Qualifying Series The Open Qualifying Series (OQS) for the 2024 Open Championship consists of 12 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. 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.
Location Tournament Date Spots Qualifiers South Africa Joburg Open 26 Nov 2023 3 Dan Bradbury, Dean Burmester, Darren Fichardt Australia ISPS Handa Australian Open 3 Dec 2023 3 Rikuya Hoshino, Joaquín Niemann, Adam Scott Malaysia IRS Prima Malaysian Open 18 Feb 2024 3 Denwit Boriboonsub, John Catlin, Wang Jeung-hun United States Arnold Palmer Invitational 10 Mar 2024 1 Brendon Todd Japan Gateway to The Open Mizuno Open 26 May 2024 3 Yuto Katsuragawa, Ryosuke Kinoshita, Koh Gun-taek Canada RBC Canadian Open 2 Jun 2024 3 Ben Griffin, Mackenzie Hughes, Maverick McNealy United States Memorial Tournament 9 Jun 2024 1 Adam Hadwin Korea Kolon Korea Open 23 Jun 2024 2 Kim Min-kyu, Song Young-han Netherlands KLM Open 23 Jun 2024 2 Joe Dean, Guido Migliozzi Italy Italian Open 30 Jun 2024 2 Sean Crocker, Tom McKibbin United States John Deere Classic 7 Jul 2024 2 Pan Cheng-tsung, Davis Thompson Scotland Genesis Scottish Open 14 Jul 2024 3 Richard Mansell, Alex Norén, Aaron Rai
Final qualifying Regional qualifying events were held on 24 June at 15 locations. Final qualifying events were played on 2 July at four locations, with a minimum of 16 total places available.
Location Spots Qualifiers Burnham & Berrow 4 Abraham Ancer, Dominic Clemons (a), Charlie Lindh, Justin Rose Dundonald Links 4 Ángel Hidalgo, Sam Hutsby, Jack McDonald, Liam Nolan (a) Royal Cinque Ports 4 Luis Masaveu (a), Jaime Montojo (a), Elvis Smylie, Matthew Southgate West Lancashire 4 Dan Brown, Matty Dodd-Berry (a), Sam Horsfield, Masahiro Kawamura
Notes
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