English pair  Lee Westwood and Greg Owen were among 12 players today handed a start in next month's Open championship.

The pair had been expecting to fight it out with 118 others - mostly US Tour players - for a dozen places at Hoylake in the American qualifying tournament in Washington.

But after postponing it for 24 hours and reducing it from 36 to 18 holes the event was cancelled because of the bad weather which saw the Booz Allen Classic at nearby Potomac not completed until Tuesday.

Instead the Open spots were given to the top 12 in the world rankings - in order Tom Pernice, Brett Wetterich, Vaughn Taylor, Westwood, Owen, Bo Van Pelt, JB Holmes, Jerry Kelly, Ted Purdy, Steve Elkington, Jeff Maggert and Aaron Baddeley.

Those who missed out included Justin Rose and Brian Davis, but all of them have been given another chance to make it to Royal Liverpool. They have until midnight Thursday (BST) to decide whether they want to enter the 36-hole final qualifying at four courses near Hoylake on July 10-11.

A place in the Open was certainly welcome news for Westwood, who finished fourth at Royal Troon just two years ago.

The former European number one last Friday missed his seventh successive halfway cut and then had to wait around in America for the qualifier before travelling on to this week's French Open in Paris.

There was real irony in Owen being given a spot without hitting a shot. A year ago he was at the centre of controversy when he was overlooked for a place at St Andrews because he had withdrawn from the American qualifier.

The Mansfield golfer was totally unaware that it was taken as a withdrawal from the Open itself and the wording on the entry form has been changed this time to make that clear.