DP Qualifying Series for Open Championship

Dean Burmester, 34, originally from Zimbabwe and a player for LIV Golf, won the Joburg Open, thus opening the qualifying season for the Open Championship. Together with Darren Fichardt and Dan Bradbury, he secured a ticket to Royal Troon, one of the most important tournaments in the world.

Overall, the Qualifying Series guarantees 13 places to players who are not already qualified for the Open Championship, which will be held from 17 to 21 July 2024. In addition to the Joburg Open, four other tournaments pave the way for the competition: the ISPS Handa Australian Open, the KLM Open, the Italian Open and the Genesis Scottish Open, which will assign the last available places the week before the competition.

Players participating in these tournaments will have the opportunity to qualify and demonstrate their talent on the playing field.

Open Championship, schedule

For completeness of information, it should be noted that even overseas four tournaments will allow a total of six places to be assigned for the Royal Troon: the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, the RBC Canadian Open, the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday and the John Deere Classic.

Furthermore, three tournaments in the Far East area will be crucial for the 152nd Open Championship, but at the moment the dates and clubs where they will take place have not yet been made official. The tournament was first played in October 1860 at Prestwick Golf Club on the west coast of Scotland, with eight participants competing in a single day over a distance of 36 holes.

The competition was born as an attempt to identify the new golf champion following the death of Allan Robertson, considered the best player of his era and who passed away in 1859; the first winner was Willie Park Sr., who beat Tom Morris Sr.

by two shots. The following year the tournament also became open to non-professional players. From 1871 the Open was not organized by Prestwick Golf Club alone, but the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers of Muirfiled were added; the Royal and Ancient Golf Club became the only organizer of the tournament since 1920.

In 1892 the competition was extended to 72 holes, while two years later the first edition of an Open outside Scotland was held, at the Royal St George’s Golf Club, in England; in 1898 the cut was introduced after two laps of the field.

The tournament has always been played since 1860 except for four occasions: in 1871, when no agreement was reached on the new prize for the champion; between 1915 and 1919 due to World War I, between 1939 and 1946 due to World War II, and in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic; it has, as of 2023, 151 editions.