Annika Sorenstam, Michelle Wie and Paula Creamer appear to have ruled out  trying to qualify for the Open Championship this year.

The trio have all confirmed they will play in the HSBC Women’s World Match Play Championship at Hamilton Farm in Gladstone, New Jersey, on July 6th-9th.

The event starts the day after regional qualifying for the British Open at 16 courses around Britain and Ireland.

For the first time in history women are not barred from the Open this year - but only the top five finishers in each of the women’s four majors are eligible, and to make it to Hoylake, they have to go through regional qualifying and then final qualifying on July 10th-11th.

The date of regional qualifying was switched from July 3rd to July 5th because the US Women’s Open is in Rhode Island on June 29th-July 2nd.