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the John Deere, or is the best finisher not in the Open Field next week. Does she get the invite to play in the British? I don't know what the R&A's rules are for women, especially if they earn their way in. But according to ABC, the top finisher this week not already in the British goes over to Hoylake.

don't see why not , the invitation was earned, should that happen. would the news media go nuts or what?

The R&A recently changed the entry qualification for the Open to make it explicitly possible for a woman to play. Wie and Sorenstam both considered entering the qualifying events but chose not to.

So if Wie wins the John Deere, she's in at Hoylake.

And she plays from the mens tees.

If she finishes high enough to qualify , everyone here will be delighted to see her take part, mainly to watch her golf ,partly to laugh at the fact a teenage girl whipped so many of America's finest men.............

She would almost definetely have to win to be in. There are hardly any big names in this tournament everyone who is already into the British is already over there. It is uncommon for the player who wins the JD to already be in the British so the winner most likely will be in.

Wie & Sorenstam decided not to enter because the qualifier was the day before the Women's Matchplay Championships, so they would have had to give up the matchplay if they played in the qualifier.

I doubt Sorenstam would have entered anyway. Wie probably would have entered if it fitted well with her schedule.

There were 4 Open qualifiers this week, as well as the one in the US in the last couple of weeks (at Congressional I think) that was cancelled.

The US one was right before the ladies' match play, not sure what the ladies' tour has on this week though. I suppose Wie and Sorenstam didn't want to travel to the UK for a longshot chance to qualify for the Open.

leaguegolf and junglej,

Wie and Sorenstam could not have just turned up at one of these qualifiers that were on.

Players had to qualify for these qualifiers. The qualification for these qualifiers was on the day before the Womens Matchplay Championships.

^^ so you have to qualify to qualify to qualify for the open

Cool, guys, thanks for the answers. I know the odds are way against it, but I was just curious. With the lack of big names in the JD, I think Michelle's got a decent shot of at least making the cut.

Yep, just like the US Open.

Of course guys with status like a certain ranking or placing on a money list bypass the first qualifier.

I sincerely doubt the cut will be significantly different due to the lower quality of the field. What difference would it make? One stroke maybe, if that.

If she wins, we will never hear the end of it. Every talk show and news channel will have wie on it for months.

The Drama ... oh... the Drama!!! . . . . . . . . .

The only qualifier that was open to Annika and Michelle was held the day before the Matchplay.

Here is the way it is done:
ROUTE 1:
- There are international qualifiers held all over the world. However these are open to "players holding Official World Golf Ranking pointage who have not gained exemption into the Championship by any other qualification". As Michelle and Annika have no ranking points in "official pga tours" events, they weren't allowed to go this route.
Maybe Michelle will have gained ranking points by the next Open Championship, but that may not be enough:
"If the entry exceeds 120, the players with the highest world ranking will gain the places".

So that's why they couldn't do international qualification.

ROUTE 2
- Go through 2 stages of local qualifying.

Originally this was to be held Monday 3 July, the day after US Womens Open. (Actually the day the playoff was on).
The R&A moved the date to Wednesday 5 July, to try to facilitate the women. All women who finished in the top 5 of any major in the previous year could enter local qualifying under new rules.
However, all the high ranked women were playing the Womens Matchplay on Thursday 6 July, so they would have had to play, hop on a plane to the Matchplay and play there the next morning.

Then they would have had to go back to Britain on Monday 10 or Tuesday 11 July, to play final round qualifying assuming they qualified for this.
Had they played and won the womens matchplay they would have had to play 36 holes on Saturday and 36 holes on Sunday.
So maybe a 36 holes qualifier in Britain on Monday or Tuesday didn't sound too appealing to them.

Thanks for the question. I knew most of it, but it was interesting finding the exact dates which I wasn't sure of and which really showed that the women didn't have a chance unless they gave women's matchplay a miss instead.