The Open 2021: Full field and how they qualified for Royal St George's

open-field

Darren Clarke famously lifted his first Major title then, holding off Dustin Johnson, but who will follow the Northern Irishman in Open and Royal St George's history books.

The 156-player field is made up of the world’s top golfers, best amateurs a host of qualifiers. It will be cut to the low 70 scorers (and ties) after 36 holes and, in the event of a tie after 72 holes, a four-hole aggregate play-off will take place following the completion of the final round.

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But who are all of the players and how did they qualify for the year's final men's Grand Slam?

(Parentheses denote other eligibility criteria by which players could have otherwise qualified)

1. Open champions aged 60 or under on July 19, 2020

Stewart Cink (4), Darren Clarke (2), John Daly, David Duval, Ernie Els (2), Pádraig Harrington, Zach Johnson (2), Shane Lowry (2,3,4,5), Rory McIlroy (2,4,5,11,12,12a), Phil Mickelson (2,4,9), Francesco Molinari (2,5,6), Louis Oosthuizen (2,4,5,5a,12,15), Jordan Spieth (2,4), Henrik Stenson (2)

Eligible but not expected to play: Ian Baker-Finch, Mark Calcavecchia, Ben Curtis, Todd Hamilton, Paul Lawrie, Justin Leonard, Tiger Woods (8,15)

2. Open champions for 2010–2019

3. Top 10 finishers and ties in the 2019 Open Championship

Tony Finau (4,12,15), Tommy Fleetwood (4,5,5a,12), Rickie Fowler (12,15), Tyrrell Hatton (4,5,5a,6,12a), Brooks Koepka (4,9,10,12), Robert MacIntyre (4,5), Patrick Reed (4,5a,8,12,12a,15), Lee Westwood (4,5,5a), Danny Willett (5,6,8)

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4. Top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) for Week 21, 2021

Abraham Ancer (12,15), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (5,5a,18), Daniel Berger, Sam Burns, Patrick Cantlay (12,15), Paul Casey (5,12), Corey Conners (12), Bryson DeChambeau (10,12,15), Harris English, Matthew Fitzpatrick (5,5a), Sergio García (5,8), Brian Harman, Max Homa, Billy Horschel, Viktor Hovland, Jason Kokrak (12), Kevin Kisner (12), Dustin Johnson (8,10,12,12a,15), Marc Leishman (12,15), Collin Morikawa (5a,9,12a), Joaquín Niemann (15), Ryan Palmer, Victor Perez (5,5a), Jon Rahm (5,10,12,12a), Justin Rose (12), Xander Schauffele (12,12a,15), Scottie Scheffler (12a), Adam Scott (12,15), Webb Simpson (11,12,15), Cameron Smith (15), Justin Thomas (9,11,12,12a,15), Will Zalatoris

Eligible but have withdrawn: South Koreans Sungjae Im (12,15), Si Woo Kim will both miss the tournament to focus on the Olympics. Any South Korean athlete who wins an Olympic medal can forgo a two-year military stint, which is mandatory for males between ages 18-28. Kevin Na has withdrawn due to concerns over travel restrictons. Hideki Matsuyama has withdrawn after testing positive for Covid-19. Matthew Wolff withdrew but did not state a reason. Bubba Watson withdrew after coming into contact with Covid-19.

They will be replaced by Keegan Bradley, Emiliano Grillo, Martin Kaymer, Harold Varner III, Andy Sullivan, Brendan Steele.

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5. Top 30 in the final 2019 Race to Dubai standings

Rafa Cabrera-Bello, Jorge Campillo, Justin Harding, Benjamin Hébert, Marcus Kinhult, Kurt Kitayama, Romain Langasque, Haotong Li (15), Mike Lorenzo-Vera, Joost Luiten, Ian Poulter, Erik van Rooyen, Matthias Schwab, Matt Wallace, Paul Waring, Bernd Wiesberger

5a. Top 10 in the final 2020 Race to Dubai standings

Aaron Rai

6. Recent winners of the BMW PGA Championship (2017–2020)

Alex Norén

7. Top 5 players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2021 Race to Dubai through the BMW International Open

Jason Scrivener, Garrick Higgo, Dean Burmester

8. Recent winners of the Masters Tournament (2016–2021)

9. Recent winners of the PGA Championship (2015–2021)

Jason Day, Jimmy Walker

10. Recent winners of the US Open (2016–2021)

Gary Woodland (12,15)

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11. Recent winners of the Players Championship (2018–2021)

12. The 30 qualifiers for the 2019 Tour Championship

Lucas Glover, Matt Kuchar (15), Chez Reavie, Brandt Snedeker

Eligible but not expected to play: Charles Howell III

12a. The leading ten qualifiers for the 2020 Tour Championship

Sebastián Muñoz

13. Top five players, not already exempt, within the top 20 of the 2020–21 FedEx Cup points list through the Travelers Championship

14. Winner of the 2019 Open de Argentina

Ricardo Celia

15. Playing members of the 2019 Presidents Cup teams

Byeong-hun An, Adam Hadwin, CT Pan

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16. Winners of the 2019 and 2020–21 Asian Tour Order of Merit

Jazz Janewattananond

17. Winners of the 2019 and 2020–21 PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit

Ryan Fox, Brad Kennedy

18. Winners of the 2019–20 and 2020–21 Sunshine Tour Order of Merit

JC Ritchie

19. Winners of the 2019 and 2020 Japan Open

Chan Kim, Yuki Inamori

20. Winners of the 2020 and 2021 Asia-Pacific Diamond Cup Golf

Rikuya Hoshino

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21. Top two players on the 2019 and 2020 Japan Golf Tour Official Money List

Shaun Norris

Eligible but not expected to play: Shugo Imahira

22. The top two finishers, not already exempt, in the 2021 Mizuno Open

Ryutaro Nagano

Eligible but not expected to play: Juvic Pagunsan

23. Winner of the 2019 and 2020 Senior Open Championship

Eligible but not expected to play: Bernhard Langer 

24. Winners of the 2020 and 2021 Amateur Championship

Joe Long (a), Laird Shepherd (a)

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25. Winners of the 2019 and 2020 U.S. Amateur

Andy Ogletree (a)[k], Tyler Strafaci (a)[k]

26. Winners of the 2020 and 2021 European Amateur

Matthias Schmid (a), Christoffer Bring (a)

27. Recipient of the 2019 and 2020 Mark H. McCormack Medal

Cole Hammer (a), Takumi Kanaya (a)[k]

28. Winner of the 2019 and 2020 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship

Lin Yuxin (a)

29. Winner of the 2020 and 2021 Latin America Amateur Championship

Abel Gallegos (a)

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30. The leading player, not already exempt, in the 2021 Kaskáda Golf Challenge (must have made the cut and not participated in Final Qualifying)

Marcel Schneider

31. The leading three players, not already exempt, in the 2021 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open (must have made the cut and not participated in Final Qualifying)

Lucas Herbert, Rikard Karlberg, Johnannes Veerman

32. The leading player, not already exempt, in the 2021 Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge (must have made the cut and not participated in Final Qualifying)

Marcel Siem

33. The leading three players, not already exempt, in the 2021 Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open

Min Woo Lee, Thomas Detry, Jack Senior

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34. Open Qualifying Series

Jaco Ahlers, Marcus Armitage, Joel Dahmen, Branden Grace, Matt Jones, Takumi Kanaya, Kim Joo-hyung, Ryosuke Kinoshita, Richard T Lee, Keith Mitchell, Aaron Pike, Poom Saksansin.

Eligible but have withdrawn: Danny Lee has withdrawn with injury and will be replaced by Troy Merritt. Kyoung-Hoon Lee has withdrawn due to the birth of his child and will be replaced by Antoine Rozner.

35. Final Qualifying

Ben Hutchinson, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and Sam Bairstow qualified from St Annes Old Links; Nicholas Poppleton, Louis de Jager and Daniel Croft qualified from West Lancs; Deyen Lawson, Sam Forgan and Connor Worsdall qualified from Prince's; Daniel Hillier, Jonathan Thomson and Richard Mansell qualified from Hollinwell.

Read bios of all the players in The Open field here

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