Royal St George's Date Awaits for AAC Winner Lin

St Andrews, Scotland: Reigning Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship (AAC) winner Lin Yuxin's starting place in The 149th Open has been confirmed.

As a reward for his play-off defeat of Takumi Kanaya at Sheshan International Golf Club in the 2019 edition of the AAC, Lin earned spots in the Masters Tournament and Open Championship.

The Chinese left-hander duly participated in last month’s rescheduled Masters Tournament, where he missed the half-way cut at Augusta National.

However, this year’s Open Championship, which was due to take place in July, was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a statement released yesterday, The R&A confirmed that its exemption categories for The 149th Open have been updated for the Championship, which will take place at Royal St George’s from July 15-18, 2021.

All existing exemptions achieved before the date of The 149th Open being cancelled this year are being honoured, meaning that 106 golfers have already earned a place in the Championship – including Lin.

The remaining 50 places will now be determined by updated exemption categories which can be viewed via TheOpen.com

Players will also have opportunities to earn places in The 149th Open through Regional and Final Qualifying which will take place in June, 2021. More information will be provided when entries are opened for golfers next year.

Johnnie Cole-Hamilton, Executive Director – Championships at The R&A, said: “We believe that it is important to honour all of the exemptions that were confirmed before The 149th Open was cancelled this year and so we are in a unique situation where a large number of players have already qualified and are in the field.

“In light of these exceptional circumstances, we have carefully reviewed our exemption categories and made adjustments so that players can earn places in the Championship from results achieved in both the 2020 and 2021 seasons as well as retaining opportunities through our qualifying events.”

As a result of the changes made to the exemption categories for The 149th Open, it has been agreed with the professional Tours that qualifying places will no longer be offered at the remaining events originally scheduled as part of The Open Qualifying Series for 2020.

Joining Lin among the exemptions for Royal St George’s are fellow two-time AAC champion Hideki Matsuyama (top 30 players from the final 2019 FedEx Cup Points List) and 2018 AAC winner Kanaya (Open Qualifying Series Australia). Since qualifying via the 2019 Emirates Australian Open, Kanaya has turned professional.

Other former AAC alumni who are exempt are Chinese Taipei's CT Pan and Australian Cameron Smith (playing members of the 2019 Presidents Cup teams), Thai Jazz Janewattananond (Asian Tour Order of Merit winner in 2019) and New Zealander Ryan Fox (Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winner in 2019).