Westwood and Owen have Open invitation

Lee Westwood and Greg Owen were among 12 players yesterday handed a start in next month's Open Championship. The Britons had been expecting to fight it out with 118 others - mostly US Tour players - for a dozen places at Hoylake in the American qualifying tournament in Washington.

But after postponing the tournament for 24 hours and reducing it from 36 to 18 holes the event was cancelled because of the bad weather which saw the Booz Allen Classic at nearby Potomac not completed until yesterday. Instead, the Open places were given to the top 12 competitors in the world rankings - in order, Tom Pernice, Brett Wetterich, Vaughn Taylor, Westwood, Owen, Bo Van Pelt, J B Holmes, Jerry Kelly, Ted Purdy, Steve Elkington, Jeff Maggert and Aaron Baddeley.

Those who missed out included Justin Rose and Brian Davis, but all of them have been given another chance to reach Royal Liverpool. They have until midnight tomorrow to decide whether they want to enter the 36-hole final qualifying at four courses near Hoylake on 10 to 11 July.

A place in the Open was certainly welcome news for Westwood, who finished fourth at Royal Troon just two years ago.

The former European number one last Friday missed his seventh successive halfway cut and then had to wait around in America for the qualifier before travelling on to this week's French Open in Paris.

There was real irony in Owen being given a spot without hitting a shot. A year ago he was at the centre of controversy when he was overlooked for a place at St Andrews because he had withdrawn from the American qualifier. The Mansfield golfer was totally unaware that it was taken as a withdrawal from the Open itself and the wording on the entry form has been changed this time to make that clear.

The American Ben Curtis finally achieved his first victory since the 2003 Open yesterday by winning the Booz Allen, which was in its second extra day.

Curtis had been left with just two holes to play overnight and could sleep easily with a seven-stroke lead. The American did bogey the short 17th on his return to the course and was in two bunkers for another dropped shot on the last, but it did not matter.

A round that began on Sunday ended with him scoring a one-under-par 70 to win by five at 20 under.

Padraig Harrington had finished his tournament on Monday, but clung on to joint second place when the Australian Nick O'Hern and then the American Steve Stricker failed to make the closing birdie which would have made them runner-up on their own.

They missed putts of 33 and 21 feet respectively and that left them and Harrington in a four-way tie with Billy Andrade.

Harrington, in the field for this week's French Open in Paris, had begun the final round in 10th spot and said: "Obviously there was a little worry that we wouldn't get the end of this round finished.

"It made a big difference to me. I was trying to get those ranking points for the Ryder Cup, so if they pulled the round it would have been very disappointing. Thankfully, they got it in."

On Curtis' wire-to-wire victory - he began with a career-best 62 - the Dubliner added: "I think it's important, very important. Ben has always had all the credentials. He had a good amateur career. Winning the British Open put him under a lot of pressure. If anything, it wouldn't be easy to play good golf after that.

"You can take it two ways. I think it came so early for Ben that he probably was always trying to prove to everybody he was an Open winner. Obviously wins like this prove that he's right. He will probably go on to be a stronger player now."

* Britain's Colin Montgomerie has withdrawn from this week's French Open citing "exhaustion", the organisers said.