Former champion Tom Watson will be able to play in the British Open beyond next year after the exemption rule was amended by the Royal & Ancient golf club.
Five-times former champion Tom Watson will be able to play in the British Open beyond next year after the exemption rule was amended by the Royal & Ancient golf club on Monday.
The new rule states that any past champion finishing in the top 10 in any of the five previous years gains a five-year exemption, meaning the 60-year-old American's runner-up finish this year guarantees him entry until 2014.
Watson would have been spared from qualifying next year anyway under the old rules which guaranteed former winners an exemption until the age of 60. However that would have been his last year with an automatic spot.
Twice Australian champion Greg Norman, 54, finished third last year.
"We have introduced this exemption as a direct response to seeing two of our great Open Champions, both in their 50s, challenging to win our championship these last two years," Peter Dawson, chief executive of The R&A, said in a statement.
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