Officials leave door Open to women
Officials admit it would be difficult to deny teenage phenomenon Michelle Wie - or another woman golfer entry if they qualified.
That is not as farfetched as it seemed before 14-year-old Wie missed the cut by a single stroke in the US Tour's Sony Open in Hawaii in January.
A place in the Open at Troon this July is offered to the leading non- exempt player in both the Western Open and the John Deere Classic in America and Wie could be invited to play in them.
Earlier this month Hootie Johnson, chairman of Augusta National, said the club would be delighted to see Wie compete in the Masters if she qualified.
And yesterday, Peter Dawson, chief executive of the Royal and Ancient Club, stated: "If a woman qualifies we would have a difficulty because our entry form says male golfers.
"We've talked about it and I think it's a long way off, but our attitude is 'never say never'.
In a bid to prevent a repeat of the situation which saw Mark Roe disqualified when two shots off the Open lead last year, a new scoring system will be in operation.
Roe had just completed a third round 67 at Sandwich, when it was discovered that he and playing partner Jesper Parnevik had not exchanged scorecards on the first tee.
The blunder was not spotted by officials in the recording area and so this year a computer will be more prominent so players can check their scores and the group's scores will also be projected onto a wall.
The name of the player will also be in larger print and scoring officials to whom the players hand their cards will be members of the Royal and Ancient Club, the game's ruling body, rather than host club members.
Players will also be asked to check that it is their name on the scorecard.
Prize money will be a record £4m (€6m) up £100,000 on last year.
The winner will receive a cheque for £720,000, £20,000 more than Ben Curtis earned for his shock victory at Sandwich last summer.
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