24 March 2010, St Andrews, Scotland: Little Aston, Luffenham Heath, Northumberland, Remedy Oak and The Island golf clubs will be used as Regional Qualifying venues for the 2013 Open Championship at Muirfield. In all, there will be 14 venues throughout Great Britain and Ireland, which will be used to help determine the fields for four Local Final Qualifying events.
Little Aston Golf Club, near Sutton Coldfield, was designed by six-time Open Champion Harry Vardon, in 1908. In 1994 it hosted the Boys Home Internationals, the Jacques Leglise Trophy and the Boys Amateur Championship, which it staged again in 2008 with Portugal’s Pedro Figueiredo taking the title.
Luffenham Heath, in Lincolnshire, opened for play in 1911 with a celebrity match between Vardon and five-time Open Champion James Braid, two-thirds of the Great Triumvirate. The site on which the course was built was declared a Site of Special Scientific Significance in 1973, due to the importance of the calcareous grasses which carpet the fairways.
The course at Northumberland Golf Club was designed by eminent golf course architect Harry Colt, with the help of Braid. Despite having only previously hosted one R&A event, the 1992 Youths Championship, Northumberland has staged a number of other high-profile competitions including the Dunlop Masters, the English Amateur and, most recently, the 2004 English Boys Stroke Play Championship.
Remedy Oak was opened for play in 2005 by John Jacobs, who, in 1979 and 1981, became the first captain of the European Ryder Cup team. The course was described as “one of the most superbly constructed new golf courses in the South of England,” by eight-time Ryder Cup competitor Peter Alliss.
Founded in 1890, The Island Golf Club, just outside Dublin, is a natural links course which, until 1973, was accessed mainly by boat. The 11th hole is named ‘Cricket Field’ in honour of famous England cricketer WG Grace, who once played a challenge match on the links. The Club has hosted the Irish Ladies Close Championship, the Irish Close Championship and the Irish PGA Championship, in addition to Regional Qualifying in 2005.
The full list of 14 Regional Qualifying venues for the 2013 Open Championship is as follows: Abridge, Bruntsfield Links, Buckinghamshire, Clitheroe, East Sussex National, Hankley Common, Little Aston, Luffenham Heath, Mere, Moortown, Northumberland, Remedy Oak, The Island and The London.
The R&A
Based in St Andrews, The R&A is golf’s governing body and organiser of The Open Championship. The R&A is committed to working for golf and operates with the consent of 138 organisations from the amateur and professional game and on behalf of over thirty million golfers in 124 countries.
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