Sport

First prize at Open rises by £75,000

THERE is to be a massive increase of £75,000 in the first prize on offer at the British Open golf championship this summer

Tue Jan 23 1996 - 00:00

THERE is to be a massive increase of £75,000 in the first prize on offer at the British Open golf championship this summer. The winner at Royal Lytham on July 18th to 21st will receive £200,000 - 60 per cent more than John Daly took away from St Andrews last year.

Total prize money is going up by £150,000 to £1.4 million, but it is only the players who finish in the top seven who will benefit.

The runners up cheque rises from £100,000 to £150,000, third place from £80,000 to £100,000, fourth place from £65,000 to £75,000, fifth place from £52,000 to £55,000, sixth place from £42,000 to £45,000 and seventh from £39,000 to £40,000 The rest remain the same.

"We have substantially increased the prize money at the top in order to truly reflect the status of the Open in relation to the other major championships," Michael Bonallack, secretary of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, said.

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"It will continue to be our policy to spread the prize money as widely as possible in recognition of the cost of competing in the championship for overseas players.

The first prize will still not match those at the Masters, US Open and US PGA but it will be a lot closer.

Last season, Ben Crenshaw won $360,000 at Augusta, Corey Pavin $350,000 at Shinnecock Hills and Steve Elkington $360,000 when he beat Colin Montgomerie in a play off for the PGA title at the Riviera Club in Los Angeles.

The Open makes a profit in the region of £3 million to £4 million each year and, with an unconfirmed report of BSkyB willing to pay £25 million for a five year deal after the BBC's contract expires this summer, the players and the game could soon be cashing in even more.

One important change for July in the actual running of the championship is that the 10 shot rule is being abandoned.

Previously, anybody who after 36 holes was within 10 shots of the leader, automatically qualified for the final two rounds. But now it will simply be the leading 70 players and ties who go through.

The rule was introduced in 1978, initially for an extra cut made after three rounds but, at Birkdale, 113 players qualified and last year the figure was 103.