R&A rule change: As welcomes go it was more of a chilly handshake than a warm embrace, but the Royal & Ancient yesterday made good on its promise to open up the world's most prestigious tournament to women. From next year, Annika Sorenstam and Michelle Wie can attempt to qualify for the British Open.

"The new rules on eligibility conform to two guiding principles: that opening up the championship was based on ability and not on gender, and that we kept the field as strong as possible," said Peter Dawson, the R&A's chief executive.

"I would be absolutely delighted to see a woman qualify for the 2006 Open."

Whether Dawson gets his wish remains open to conjecture, not least because of the scope and stringency of the conditions facing any woman with ambitions to take on the best male players in the world.

Only around two dozen women will in fact be eligible to attempt qualification, a select group drawn from the top five finishers, and those who tie for fifth place, at the four women's major championships, including the Women's British Open.

This means that Jeong Jang, Wie, Sorenstam, Young Kim, Sophie Gustafson and the US Solheim Cup player Cristie Kerr, who filled the top five places at the women's Open at Birkdale this summer, are already in a position to fill in their entry forms.

Whether they will want to do so remains open to question, not least because the R&A has consigned potential female competitors to the Open's regional qualifying tier, a series of 18-hole events at relatively obscure courses from where the winners progress to a local qualifying final. Only one in 400 entrants made it from regional qualifying to the Open proper this year.

"The difficulty we had was establishing equivalence between the men's and women's game," Dawson said.

"We don't believe the women are at the level of the male European Tour player who is taking part in local final qualifying. No woman has made the cut in a men's event, after all. But, if it turns out that women dominate regional qualifying, then we will review the situation," Dawson said, dismissing the suggestion that it was insulting to ask the likes of Sorenstam to turn up at Musselburgh to play against a scratch amateur club player.

Nevertheless, the impression that the R&A's embrace of female entrants was less than generous was enhanced when it emerged that next year's regional qualifying would start at the same time as the Women's US Open in Rhode Island - an embarrassing oversight which prompted hasty rearrangement of the regional qualifying dates.

Even then the logistics facing potential women entrants are prohibitive, not least because local qualifying finals will take place the day after the women's world matchplay in the United States.

Yesterday's announcement from St Andrews sees the removal from the British Open entry form of the infamous rule specifying that only "male" professional or "male" amateur golfers were eligible to compete, which made it the only one of the four major championships to specify the sex of those allowed to take part.

Its removal received a mixed reaction from some of the leading male players, with Europe's Ryder Cup captain Ian Woosnam saying he welcomed the change.

"If there are women who are good enough to get through regional qualifying and into final qualifying, they deserve to get in.

"It wouldn't bother me playing alongside Michelle Wie in the Open. If she got there I think it would be exciting for the game of golf," he said.

Others were less convinced.

"Are we allowed into the regional qualifying for the US Women's Open now?" said the 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie, before hastily adding that he has no interest in playing in women's events.

Guardian Service