Golf by Alan Booth QUALIFYING for the Open Championship will no longer be staged at Ashridge Golf Club after next year. Announcing changes to the 16 regional qualifying venues, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club has named three newcomers for 2010 when the O

Golf by Alan Booth

QUALIFYING for the Open Championship will no longer be staged at Ashridge Golf Club after next year.

Announcing changes to the 16 regional qualifying venues, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club has named three newcomers for 2010 when the Open returns to St Andrews. They are the London Club (Sevenoaks), East Sussex National (Uckfield) and Clitheroe in Lancashire.

Ashridge will host the regional qualifying for the last time next year when the Open Championship is played at Turnberry and club secretary Martin Silver says: "We were included in 2003 as Hadley Wood's qualifying turn was ending. It's the custom of the R&A to move the venues around the country, with each club hosting for six years and as ours is ending, Old Fold Manor came in two years ago to continue Herts involvement.

"It has been an enjoyable experience staging the event and meeting the players, with fields each year of 120 bidding for an Open place. The course has proved a challenge and has never been mastered, which is a basic requirement of the R&A. The best score we ever had was 67, with most scores in the 70s, against the par of 72."

As well as Old Fold Manor and the three newcomers, other regional qualifying venues in the south in 2010 include Abridge, Effingham and Gog Magog.