When Tom Watson was on the verge of winning the Open Championship at age 59 this summer, a lot of side chatter opened up about the R&A's decision to bring down the age ceiling for past champions.  Watson (along with Greg Norman) would be exempt until age 60 under the current rules, making Watson's appearance next year at St. Andrew's into his farewell.  That seemed like a massive injustice against perhaps the greatest links player of our lifetimes.

The R&A reversed course today and announced a new exemption criteria, guaranteeing Watson two more appearances at St. Andrew's and an exemption through 2015.  The wording of the exemption is kind of peculiar because it exemptions any former champion that has finished in the top 10 in the previous five Opens to get a five year exemption added onto their current exemption.

Here's Peter Dawson on the exemption:

"We rightly reduced the age of exemption for past champions from 65 to 60 two years ago and our intention was never to remove players still at the top of their game from competing in the Open."

Sounds good to me. 

Effectively, the exemption is for Watson.  It'll impact Greg Norman if he has a top 10 after his 56th birthday, but it's really for Watson.  If you'd like, you could draw some kind of parallel between this exemption and the one granted to Michelle Wie so that she could compete in the LPGA Championship as an amateur.  The difference is that Norman and Watson earned their way into this based on their career performance and age-defying runs.  Wie was given the exemption on the basis of potential - finally realized four-plus years later this Sunday.