Quality field to revive Open

THE Women's Australian Open championship is no longer on its deathbed.After two years in suspension, the tournament will be revived next February with at least $500,000 in prizemoney and a European Tour co-sanction which will ensure a world-class field.
Golf Australia announced yesterday that the sponsor of the men's Open, financial services group MFS, had played saviour by committing to a four-year multi-million-dollar sponsorship of the women's event.
The championship will be held at Royal Sydney Golf Club from February 1-4, strategically scheduled to fall the week after the Australian Open tennis and the week before the richest women's golf event in the country, the Ladies' Masters.
New executive chairman of the Australian Opens, Paul McNamee, promised to bring the same carnival atmosphere to the women's event that he will initiate with the men's event at the same course in November.
His plans include a twilight schedule to allow spectators to attend after work on the first two days of the tournament.
McNamee cannot yet guarantee that seven-time major winner, Queenslander Karrie Webb, will compete but he and other officials are "hopeful" of her attendance.
Webb, who has won the Masters title five times, has been very loyal to local tournaments despite her international success over the past decade.
Her manager, Tony Bouffler, said she would not consider her schedule for the summer until after this year's major tournaments conclude with the British Open in August.
McNamee will accompany Masters promoter Bob Tuohy to the British Open to make a joint sales pitch to the world's leading female players.
Drawcards Annika Sorenstam of Sweden and England's Laura Davies are former winners of the Masters title. Korean-born teenager Helen Oh is the first automatic qualifier for the Open after winning the Australian amateur title in Perth last weekend.
"I don't care what sport it is, the Australian Open title is a most prestigious title to win," McNamee said.
"It's just been asleep for a couple of years."
The revival of the women's Open is the second step in McNamee's long-term strategy to re-invigorate professional golf in Australia.
It comes just weeks after he announced that Greg Norman would return to the men's Open for the first time in five years.
"We have 44 women on golf tours around the world but there hasn't been a women's Open for two years. That was something that needed to be corrected," McNamee said.
"Men can't compete with women in the glamour stakes and we need to be contemporary and fashionable because we are competing with reality television."
McNamee is negotiating with the Seven Network to telecast the tournament.
He said the decision to hold both championships at one course would help Golf Australia reduce the cost of staging the events, and was a strategy he was keen to pursue.
"Logistically, that works very well in getting costs down, and that's been one of the obstacles to the growth of professional events here," McNamee said.

New Zealand's First US Open Winner

Monday, November 7, 2005
A Sweet Victory For The Kiwi
Pinehurst, N.C. – This being NASCAR country, the folks around here are used to seeing plenty of thrills and spills.
That’s what the final round of the 2005 U.S. Open looked like: a race with pileups at every turn and enough dents to make an insurance adjuster go nuts. But in the end, one golfer navigated around the wreckage and through to the checkered flag. It just wasn’t the player most expected to cross the finish line first.
Michael Campbell, of New Zealand, who had not survived the weekend in his last four U.S. Open appearances and owned no top-10s in a major since the 1995 British Open at St. Andrews, navigated his golf game beautifully through every treacherous nook and cranny of the 7,214-yard, par-70 Pinehurst No. 2 layout on Sunday. His brilliant 1-under 69 gave him a two-stroke victory over world No. 1 Tiger Woods, making him the first player from his country to secure the U.S. Open title.

Glitch Tended To In First British Open Battle of Sexes

Following publication this morning of the entry form for the 2006 Open Championship, a clash of dates has come to light which will affect the availability of women eligible to play in Regional Qualifying, originally planned for July3.The final day's play in the 2006 US Women's Open at Newport CC, Newport, Rhode Island is scheduled for July 2 and it is clearly anticipated that the majority of women golfers eligible to enter Regional Qualifying will be competing at this event.Accordingly, The R&A will adjust the dates of the 2006 Regional Qualifying Competition to allow eligible women golfers to compete.The R&A apologises for this oversight and an announcement of adjusted Regional Qualifying dates will be made as soon as possible.

Sexual Equality First Time Ever At British Open

For the first time entry conditions for The Open include a qualification route into the Championship for women. The entry form for the 135th Open Championship, to be played at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake in July next year, will be published on this website.R&A Chief Executive, Peter Dawson, said: "Our Championship Committee pledged to review entry conditions and to assess how women golfers might compete on equal terms with men for a place in The Open. As a result, I am delighted that a qualification route has now been established for the best women players to gain access to the Championship, competing alongside men on the same courses and from the same tees."Male professional golfers and male amateurs (whose playing handicaps do not exceed scratch) may now be joined at Regional Qualifying by the top five women and ties from each of the four major championships in the womens game. In addition, any women meeting the entry requirements for International Final Qualifying, Local Final Qualifying and The Open itself can enter at these stages directly.The new eligibility rules conform to two guiding principles set down by the Championship Committee - that entry to The Open should be based on playing ability irrespective of gender and that the strength and quality of the Championship and qualifying fields should be maintained at the highest level.Female golfers eligible to compete in Regional Qualifying for the 2006 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake (20-23 July 2006) are the top five and ties from the 2005 Weetabix Womens British Open Championship, the 2006 Kraft Nabisco Championship, the 2006 McDonalds LPGA Championship and the 2006 US Womens Open Championship.The Weetabix Womens British Open Championship is staged after The Open and therefore the 2005 top five and ties eligible to enter Regional Qualifying for the 2006 Open Championship are: 1st - Jeong Jang (Korea); 2nd - Sophie Gustafson (Sweden); tied 3rd - Young Kim (Korea) and Michelle Wie (USA); tied 5th - Cristie Kerr (USA), Liselotte Neumann (Sweden) and Annika Sorenstam (Sweden).Exemptions from Regional, Local Final and International Final Qualifying have been expanded to include the leading player who finishes in the first 10 and those tied for 10th place, not exempt, from the 2006 Open de France and the 2006 Buick Championship. As before, exemption is also given to the leading player, not exempt, in the 2006 Smurfit European Open, the 2006 Barclays Scottish Open, the 2006 Western Open and the 2006 John Deere Classic where the "first 10 and ties" requirement also applies.Closing dates for entries are: International Final Qualifying (IFQ) Africa - January 5, 2006; Australasia - January 19, 2006; Asia - March 23, 2006; and all other entries - June 1, 2006. The Open Championship entry fee is unchanged at £110.