i) Defending Champion
Volvo World Match Play 2012 qualification criteria
ii) The leading player** not otherwise exempt above from the 2011 Portugal Masters.
iii) The top four players not otherwise exempt above from the final 2011 Race to Dubai Rankings.
iv) The leading player** not otherwise exempt above from the 2012 Volvo Golf Champions.
v) The leading player** not otherwise exempt above from the 2012 Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
vi) The leading player** not otherwise exempt above from the 2012 Commercialbank Qatar Masters
vii) The leading player not otherwise exempt above, based upon his nationality, listed on the OWGR, from each of the following regions following the 2012 US Masters:
Europe
Africa/Middle East
North America
South America
Asia (comprising China, SE Asia, India, Japan, Korea) Australasia (comprising Australia, Fiji and New Zealand).
viii) The leading two players not otherwise exempt above from the OWGR following the 2012 US Masters.
ix) The current holders of the four Major Championships not otherwise exempt above following the 2012 US Masters. * NOTE: In the event of such a Champion (s) being otherwise exempt in (i - viii) or not taking up this exemption the resultant places in the field will be allocated to (x) below.
x) The leading player (*and in accordance with the note in (ix), up to a maximum of 4 further players taken in ranking order) not otherwise exempt above from the 2012 R2D Rankings following the 2012 US Masters.
xi) The leading player** not otherwise exempt from the 2012 Volvo China Open
xii) One sponsor invite from the top 50 of the OWGR following the 2012 US Masters.
**NB (i) In each case to a floor of fifth place. Ties will be determined by the lowest final round score and if still tied by the lowest third round, second round and then first round scores. If still tied, the highest ranked player from the Race to Dubai Rankings following completion of that event will qualify.
**NB (ii) To qualify through categories (ii, iv, v,vi and (xi), a player must already be a member of the European Tour at the time of qualifying or in the case of a qualifying player being the nominated event winner, he must take up 2012 European Tour membership.
Notes on Qualification
Prior to the seeds being announced at 0900 on Monday of the Championship any places in the field unfilled from categories (i – vi) and (xi), (through withdrawals, players not taking up their exemption or insufficient qualifiers due to the floor of 5th place in the nominated qualifying events), will be filled with the next highest ranked player(s) from the final 2011 European Tour Race to Dubai Rankings.
Prior to the seeds being announced at 0900 on Monday of the Championship any places in the field unfilled from categories (vii) and (viii) (through withdrawals or players not taking up their exemption) will be filled with the next highest ranked player(s) from the Official World Golf Ranking following the completion of the 2012 US Masters.
Prior to the seeds being announced at 0900 on Monday of the Championship any places in the field unfilled from category (x) (through withdrawals or players not taking up their exemption) will be filled with the next highest ranked player(s) from the 2012 European Tour Race to Dubai Rankings following the completion of the 2012 US Masters.
Prior to the seeds being announced at 0900 on Monday of the Championship any player that withdraws from Category (xii) will be replaced with another sponsor invite from the OWGR top 50 following the completion of the 2012 US Masters. If no such player is available within the top 50 OWGR then the next highest ranked player on the 2012 Race to Dubai Rankings following the completion of the 2012 US Masters will qualify.
After the seeds have been announced the designated ‘Reserve’ player will qualify in the event of a player withdrawing. The designated reserve player will be the highest available player (not otherwise exempt) from the Race to Dubai Rankings following the completion of the 2012 US Masters.
