Keith Mitchell ‘Shocked’ To Be Out of The Open With New Qualifying Rules

A story has surfaced today regarding the Open Championship field – and who has and hasn’t made the cut for the week.

He explained on Gravy & The Sleeze podcast that he was ranked 53rd in the world and came out to the UK with the intention of playing the Scottish and the Open the following week.

Surprisingly, you won’t see Keith Mitchell tee it up at Royal Liverpool this weekend for @TheOpen. But why?

He explains to Colt & Drew on Gravy & The Sleeze.@K_m_Mitchell | @ColtKnost | @thesleezyman pic.twitter.com/n17O5XlvBJ

— SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio (@SiriusXMPGATOUR) July 18, 2023

He missed the cut at the Scottish Open and then discovered he was the fifth alternate going into Open week.

It turns out Mitchell found out he was a victim of a new ranking system with more spots being made available to qualifiers across the world, and a high world ranking was not going to be enough to get him into the field:

“A tight field would have been [including] the upper 60s [of the OWGR]…They just put more spots in random qualifying tournaments across the globe this year than they normally do. They were keeping track of the field size and then adding as they went. They filled zero spots off the world ranking.”

The conclusion was that many spots had been placed in random qualifying events throughout the year – where usually the top 70 in the official world golf rankings would be automatically included.

He explained how shocked he was to the guys – especially after making the cut in all three majors this year!

The first round of The 151st Open Championship begins tomorrow from Hoylake at Royal Liverpool.

Cover Image via Titleist