McIlroy lends support to new British Open Championship qualifying series

Northern Irish golf ace Rory McIlroy has lent his support to the new qualifying series of the British Open Championship despite being exempt from golf's oldest major.

The R and A has abandoned a series of 36-hole international final qualifiers around the world and instead selected four national opens (Australian, Irish, French and Scottish) plus a number of other events including two on the PGA Tour where players can now gain entry into the Open Championship through a 72-hole tournament.

According to Sport24, the 2013 Australian Open is the first of the new qualifiers and with the top three place-getters inside the top-10 at the close of the event, and not otherwise exempt, will earn a place in next year's Open Championship at Hoylake, England.

Hailing the new qualifiers as a 'great idea', McIlroy, who has moved within two shots of the lead on the second day of the Australian Open, said that the qualifiers provide a much better opportunity for players to try and qualify for The Open, adding that to have three spots available into The Open in events like the Irish Open is a big lift for the players.

McIlroy further said that staging a 36-hole qualifier, as the R and A has been doing for a few years now, on the Monday ahead of a regular tournament is not the ideal preparation heading into a tournament like the Irish Open, for which merging qualifying into a 72-hole event makes more sense.

McIlroy is not only looking for a first success this season but if triumphant in Sydney he will be only the second European to lift the Stonehaven Cup, the report added.