Golf: Jeev should have been there on Merit

If there is one player whose performance seriously raised a question mark against the qualifying criteria of the Open Championship, it is India's Jeev Milkha Singh. It is inexplicable how a player ranked 10th in the current European Tour Order of Merit is the only one in the top-25, who failed to make it to Royal Birkdale.

I absolutely agree that the R&A have provided several opportunities to players to make it to the third Major of the year, including International Final Qualifying events in various continents. In fact, there are 31 categories of exempt players, five IFQs and three Local Final Qualifiers. But perhaps, Jeev is one aberration which will make them seriously consider the current season's Order of Merit.

That is the best indicator of current form, and that is what you want in Majors – the best players, with the best present form, competing against each other.

At present, the closest R&A comes to exempting European Tour players on current form is Category 8, which is first three and anyone tying for third place, not already exempt, in the top 20 of the PGA European Tour Order of Merit for 2008 on completion of the 2008 BMW PGA Championship; and Category 9, which is first two European Tour members and those tying for second place, not exempt, in a cumulative money list from all official PGA European Tour events from week 19 up to and including the Open de France.

Then there are those who finish in the top-five and ties of the European Open and the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond. Jeev came close on each of these categories, but not close enough.

The IFQs are a brilliant idea, but they do become a matter of luck considering that most of them are played on the Monday after a Tour event, and spread over 36 holes in one day. It becomes physically very demanding for those who have made the cut the week before.

An exemption category for the top-10, or top-15 players based on the current year's Order of Merit will definitely solve the problem.

At the most, two or three players will get in from this category. Because, in all likelihood, if the player is in top-15 of the European Tour, he would probably be in the top-50 of the world and would have won some of the big events before the Open to have earned enough to make it to the field anyway. But such a category will reward a few unlucky, but deserving, players like Jeev.