Watson won't lose his Open spot after all

Published on Monday 16 November 2009 21:55

THE performances by Tom Watson and Greg Norman in the last two Open Championships have led the R&A to introduce a new exemption category ahead of next year's St Andrews event.

Any past Open champions who finished in the top ten in any of the previous five Open Championships will now be exempt, effectively providing them with a five-year exemption.

The move comes in the wake of Watson and Norman both rolling back the years in the event, the former losing out in a play-off to Stewart Cink at Turnberry and the latter having led going into the final round at Royal Birkdale last year before finishing third.

Now 60, Watson would have lost his past champions exemption next summer under the old rules, but that will not now be the case.

"We have introduced this as a direct response to seeing two of our great Open champions, both in their 50s, challenging to win our championship these last two years," explained Peter Dawson, the R&A chief executive.

"We rightly reduced the age of exemption for past champions from 65 to 60 in 2007 and our intention was never to remove players still at the top of their game from competing in The Open."