In a bid to prevent a repeat of the situation which saw Mark Roe disqualified when only two shots off the British Open championship lead last year, a new scoring system will be in operation at Royal Troon this July.
Roe had just completed one of the greatest rounds of his life at Sandwich, a third round 67, when it was discovered he and playing partner Jesper Parnevik had forgotten to exchange scorecards on the first tee.
The blunder was not spotted by the team of officials in the recording area and so this year that team has been reduced from five to two, a computer will be more promiment so players can check their scores and the group's scores will also be projected onto a wall.
The name of the player will also be in larger print on the scorecard and the scoring officials to whom the players hand their cards will be members of the Royal and Ancient Club, the game's ruling body, rather than host club members.
However, unless he achieves one of the remaining exemptions for this year's event, Roe will have to come through the qualifying tournament at Sunningdale on Monday, June 28th to earn another crack at the Open.
This is the first time international qualifying competitions have been introduced around the world and Dawson expressed the R&A's regret that they did not personally inform some leading players they had lost previously earned exemptions.
Only the last five US Open champions and the last three Volvo PGA champions, for example, are through to Troon rather than 10 and five.
That means Colin Montgomerie - raised in Troon - and Andrew Oldcorn are not currently exempt and former US Open champions Corey Pavin, Steve Jones and Lee Janzen have to fight for their spots yet.
Prize money for this year's British Open has been increased by £100,000 (€150,146) to £4 million (€6 million), the Royal & Ancient announced yesterday.
The winner of the July 15th-18th event will receive a cheque for £720,000 (1,081,295), £20,000 more than American outsider Ben Curtis earned for his surprise victory at Royal St George's last year.
"We have increased the championship prize money in line with inflation and this keeps the British Open purse highly competitive, particularly so in dollar terms," said R&A secretary Peter Dawson.
The par-71 Ayrshire layout has been lengthened by 87 yards since it last staged the third of the year's four majors in 1997, when American Justin Leonard triumphed by three shots.
Ten bunkers have been added and new tees have been installed on the first, sixth, 11th and 15th holes, stretching the links course to 7,175 yards.
The par-five sixth plays to 601 yards off the back tee, the first hole in Open championship history to exceed 600 yards.
"We are hoping for a fast-running course in July, but we will be in the lap of the gods with regard to the weather." Dawson added.
