Monty happy for women to qualify
Colin Montgomerie, runner-up in the Open in July, has no objections to the possibility of Michelle Wie or any other woman appearing alongside him in next year’s championship at Hoylake.
But it is a different matter when it comes to regular European Tour events.
“As long as women have a qualifying system good luck to them,” stated the Order of Merit leader at the Madrid Open, where he resumed this morning needing to improve on an opening 73 to survive the halfway cut.
“What we complain about is when they are invited to play.”
Laura Davies played on the circuit last year and finished next-to-last, but it was a co-sanctioned event in Australia and as the visitors the European Tour did not feel they were in a position to stop the local sponsors inviting her.
A month later, however, the tour’s players’ committee met and took the stance they were against women being offered a place which could go to one of their members.
Montgomerie, part of that committee, was interested to hear the changes to the Open announced yesterday by the Royal and Ancient Club.
For the first time in a championship which dates back to 1860 women are eligible to enter, but the chances of any of them making it to Hoylake are remote.
Those who finish in the top five in any of the women’s four majors can enter the 18-hole local qualifying at one of 16 courses around Britain and Ireland at the start of July.
If successful in that – this year 1,700 players competed for 286 spots – there would still be the 36-hole final qualifying to negotiate.
The odds on survival are even longer at that stage. Just 12 places in the Open were on offer this summer from a field of 384 split across four courses.
Wie’s intention to play in more US Tour events also opens the door to her to try to get to Hoylake another way. She played in the John Deere Classic this season, for example, and the leading non-exempt player there qualifies.
However hard it is, the bottom line is that the blanket ban on women has been ended by the all-male R&A and it is a move welcomed by Tessa Jowell, secretary of state for culture, media and sport and also women’s minister. “This is a big step forward for women in golf and sport in general,” she said.
“It makes the Open truly open for the first time. Golf is finally moving with the times and I want to see this attitude extended to the clubhouse next.
“Champions in any sport shouldn’t be decided by gender; it is about who is the best – plain and simple.
“If women are good enough to compete with men, archaic barriers shouldn’t get in the way.”
Montgomerie’s main focus for the time being is trying for a record eighth European money list title.
He moved out in front of US Open champion Michael Campbell with his third-place finish in last week’s American Express world championship in San Francisco, but had trouble on the bumpy Club de Campo greens yesterday afternoon.
The 42-year-old Scot was hoping for better conditions this morning as he tried to close a nine-stroke gap on leaders Mark Roe and Robert Karlsson.
They were both out late in the second round, as were third-placed pair Darren Clarke and Raphael Jacquelin – and Seve Ballesteros, who in his first tour event for nearly two years needs a miracle to survive the cut after his 77.
It left the 48-year-old last-but-two of the 120-strong field.
