This page lists the criteria used to determine the field for the 2023 Open Championship and the players who qualified.
The Open Championship field is made up of 156 players, who gained entry through various exemption criteria and qualifying tournaments. The criteria included past Open champions, recent major winners, top ranked players in the world rankings and from the leading world tours, and winners and high finishers from various designated tournaments, including the Open Qualifying Series; the winners of designated amateur events, including The Amateur Championship and U.S. Amateur, also gained exemption provided they remain an amateur. Anyone not qualifying via exemption, and had a handicap of 0.4 or lower, can gain entry through regional and final qualifying events.
Most exemption criteria remained unchanged from previous years; changes included the removal of exemptions for recent Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup players, and a new exemption for amateur golfers.
Criteria and exemptions Each player is classified according to the first category in which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses.
1. The Open Champions aged 60 or under on 23 July 2023
Stewart Cink Darren Clarke (20) John Daly Ernie Els (2) Pádraig Harrington Zach Johnson (2) Shane Lowry (2,4,5,6) Rory McIlroy (2,3,4,5,12) Phil Mickelson (2,10) Francesco Molinari (2) Collin Morikawa (2,4,10,12) Louis Oosthuizen Cameron Smith (2,3,4,11,12) Jordan Spieth (2,3,4,12) Henrik Stenson (2)
Ben Curtis, David Duval, Todd Hamilton, Paul Lawrie, Justin Leonard, and Tiger Woods (9) did not enter.
2. The Open Champions for 2012–2022
3. Top 10 finishers and ties in the 2022 Open Championship
Patrick Cantlay (4,12) Bryson DeChambeau (8) Tommy Fleetwood (4,5) Brian Harman (4,12) Viktor Hovland (4,5,12) Dustin Johnson (9) Cameron Young (4,12)
4. Top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) for Week 21, 2023
Abraham Ancer Keegan Bradley Sam Burns (12) Wyndham Clark (8) Corey Conners (12) Jason Day Harris English Tony Finau (12) Matt Fitzpatrick (5,8,12) Rickie Fowler Ryan Fox (5) Emiliano Grillo Tyrrell Hatton (5,6) Russell Henley Lucas Herbert Tom Hoge (12) Max Homa (12) Billy Horschel (6,12) Im Sung-jae (12) Kim Si-woo Tom Kim Chris Kirk Kurt Kitayama Brooks Koepka (8,10) Lee Kyoung-hoon (12) Hideki Matsuyama (9,12) Adrian Meronk (5) Taylor Moore Joaquín Niemann (12) Séamus Power Jon Rahm (5,8,9,12) Patrick Reed (9) Justin Rose Xander Schauffele (12) Scottie Scheffler (9,11,12) Adam Scott (12) Sepp Straka (12) Sahith Theegala (12) Justin Thomas (10,11,12)
Will Zalatoris (5,12) did not enter.
5. Top 30 in the final 2022 DP World Tour Rankings
Adri Arnaus Richard Bland Ewen Ferguson Rasmus Højgaard Pablo Larrazábal Thriston Lawrence Hurly Long Robert MacIntyre Guido Migliozzi Alex Norén Thorbjørn Olesen Adrián Otaegui Yannik Paul Victor Perez Thomas Pieters Richie Ramsay Shubhankar Sharma Callum Shinkwin Jordan Smith Connor Syme
6. Recent winners of the BMW PGA Championship (2019–2022)
Danny Willett
7. Top five players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2023 Race to Dubai through the BMW International Open
Alexander Björk Jorge Campillo Romain Langasque Joost Luiten Marcel Siem
8. Recent winners of the U.S. Open (2018–2023)
Gary Woodland
9. Recent winners of the Masters Tournament (2018–2023)
10. Recent winners of the PGA Championship (2017–2023)
11. Recent winners of The Players Championship (2021–2023)
12. The top 30 players from the 2022 FedEx Cup points list
Talor Gooch J. T. Poston Scott Stallings
13. Top five players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2022–23 FedEx Cup points list through the Travelers Championship Nick Taylor
14. Winner of the 2022 Visa Open de Argentina Zack Fischer
15. Winner of the 2022–23 PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit David Micheluzzi
16. Winner of the 2022–23 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit Ockie Strydom
17. Winner of the 2022 Japan Open Golf Championship Taiga Semikawa
18. Top two players on the 2022 Japan Golf Tour Official Money List
Kazuki Higa Rikuya Hoshino
19. The top player, not already exempt, on the 2023 Japan Golf Tour Official Money List through the BMW Japan Golf Tour Championship Mori Building Cup Hiroshi Iwata
20. Winner of the 2022 Senior Open Championship
21. Winner of the 2023 Amateur Championship Christo Lamprecht (a)
22. Winner of the 2022 U.S. Amateur Sam Bennett
23. Winner of the 2023 European Amateur José Luis Ballester (a)
24. Recipient of the 2022 Mark H. McCormack Medal Keita Nakajima
25. Winner of the 2022 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship Harrison Crowe (a)
26. Winner of the 2023 Latin America Amateur Championship Mateo Fernández de Oliveira (a)
27. Winner of the 2023 Open Amateur Series Alex Maguire (a)
Open Qualifying Series The Open Qualifying Series (OQS) for the 2023 Open Championship consists of 11 events. Places are available to the leading players (not otherwise exempt) who make the cut. In the event of ties, positions go to players ranked highest according to that week's OWGR. Unlike in previous years, if a player who has qualified through OQS becomes exempt through other criteria before 1 June, the next highest non-exempt finisher from that OQS event will become exempt.
Location Tournament Date Spots Qualifiers Ref. South Africa Joburg Open 27 Nov 2022 3 Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Dan Bradbury, Sami Välimäki Australia ISPS Handa Australian Open 4 Dec 2022 3 Haydn Barron, Alejandro Cañizares, Min Woo Lee United States Arnold Palmer Invitational 5 Mar 2023 3 Ben Griffin, Trey Mullinax, Davis Riley Hong Kong World City Championship 26 Mar 2023 4 Michael Hendry, Kho Taichi, Kim Bi-o, Travis Smyth United States Wells Fargo Championship 7 May 2023 3 Michael Kim, Denny McCarthy, Brendon Todd Japan Gateway to The Open Mizuno Open 28 May 2023 4 Kensei Hirata, Takumi Kanaya, Keita Nakajima, Kazuki Yasumori United States Memorial Tournament 4 Jun 2023 3 Lee Hodges, Andrew Putnam, Adam Schenk South Korea Kolon Korea Open 25 Jun 2023 2 Seungsu Han, Kang Kyung-nam England Betfred British Masters 2 Jul 2023 3 Daniel Hillier, Gunner Wiebe, Oliver Wilson Denmark Made in HimmerLand 9 Jul 2023 3 Nacho Elvira, Kalle Samooja, Marc Warren Scotland Genesis Scottish Open 16 Jul 2023 3 An Byeong-hun, Nicolai Højgaard, David Lingmerth
Final Qualifying Final qualifying was played on 4 July at four locations, with 117 players who advanced from regional qualifying events (held on 26 June at 15 locations) as well as those exempt from regional qualifying.
Location Spots Qualifiers Dundonald Links 4 Connor McKinney (R), Marco Penge, Graeme Robertson (R), Michael Stewart Royal Cinque Ports 5 Thomas Detry, Branden Grace, Martin Rohwer, Antoine Rozner, Charl Schwartzel Royal Porthcawl 5 Laurie Canter, Oliver Farr, Jazz Janewattananond, Brandon Robinson-Thompson, Matthew Southgate West Lancashire 5 Kyle Barker, Tiger Christensen (a), Alex Fitzpatrick, Matthew Jordan, Matt Wallace
Notes
References