Record number enter for Open

A record 2,499 entries have been received for next month’s Open championship at St Andrews.

The figure beats the previous record – for the 2000 Open over the Old Course - by 18.

A total of 101 players are currently exempt and 55 more will come either from qualifying or from a number of categories still to be decided such as the leading non-exempt players in the European and Scottish Opens and in the US Tour’s Western Open and John Deere Classic.

That is the event to which Michelle Wie has been invited to play and she is bound to attract attention to see if she can become the first woman to qualify for the Open in its 145-year history.

The 15-year-old probably requires a top-10 finish to have any chance, however.