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.
