“We have nine venues that are active for us and the way it seems to work is that the Open comes to St Andrews about every five years and to each of the others about every 10.”
“I am delighted that a qualification route has now been established for the best women players to gain access to the championship, competing alongside men on the same courses and from the same tees.”
“The new rules on eligibility conform to two guiding principles: that opening up the championship was based on ability and not on gender and that we kept the field as strong as possible. I would be absolutely delighted to see a woman qualify for the 2006 Open.”
“We don't believe the women are at the level of the male European Tour player who is taking part in local final qualifying. No woman has made the cut in a men's event, after all. But, if it turns out that women dominate regional qualifying, then we will review the situation.”
“I have to confess we have made a mistake on that, ... We could stand accused of making it totally inconvenient for players competing in America, so we are going to adjust the dates but they will be that week.”
“Our championship committee pledged to review entry conditions and to assess how women golfers might compete on equal terms with men for a place in the Open,”
