2024 Open Championship
Organisation
The 2024 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 four days, with 18 holes played each day. Play will be 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 organizers, with each group having one morning and one afternoon tee time. On the final two days, players will tee off in reverse order of aggregate score, with the leaders last. After 36 holes there will be 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 three-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.
Venue
The 2024 event will be the 10th Open Championship played at Royal Troon. The most recent was in 2016, when Henrik Stenson won the event by three strokes for his first 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. 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
- Stewart Cink
- Darren Clarke
- John Daly
- David Duval
- 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 and Paul Lawrie did not enter.
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 (12)
- Nick Taylor (13)
- Sahith Theegala
- Justin Thomas (11)
- Will Zalatoris
6. Top 30 in the final 2023 Race to Dubai rankings
7. Recent winners of the BMW PGA Championship (2021–2023)
8. Top five players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2024 Race to Dubai Rankings through the BMW International Open
- 7 July
9. Recent winners of the U.S. Open (2019–2024)
10. Recent winners of the Masters Tournament (2019–2024)
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
14. Top five players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2024 FedEx Cup points list through the Travelers Championship
15. Winner of the 2024 Visa Open de Argentina
16. Top five players from the OWGR's International Federation Ranking List as of closing date
17. Winner of the 2023 Japan Open Golf Championship
18. Winner of the 2023 Senior Open Championship
19. Winner of the 2024 Amateur Championship
20. Winner of the 2022 U.S. Amateur
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
25. Winner of the 2024 Open Amateur Series
- Calum Scott (a)
26. Winner of the 2024 Africa Amateur Championship
27. Medical exemption
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 | |
Scotland | Genesis Scottish Open | 14 Jul 2024 | 3 |
Final Qualifying
Regional qualifying events were held on 24 June at 15 locations. Final Qualifying events will be played on 2 July at four locations, with a minimum of 16 total places available.
Location | Spots | Qualifiers |
---|---|---|
Burnham & Berrow | 4 | Dominic Clemons (a), Justin Rose, 2 spots TBD |
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 |