Wie is unlikely to be seen on the course at Hoylake this year

All the potential qualifiers have decided to play in the Women's World Matchplay event which clashes with the Open qualifying tournaments.

Teenager Michelle Wie could still qualify to play at Hoylake.

However to do so she would have to be the highest non-exempt finisher at the previous week's John Deere Classic.

Wie has so far failed to make the cut in any of the men's PGA Tour events in which she has played.

The R&A's Peter Dawson said: "The deadline for entries for qualifying is 1 June but as yet, no women players have entered.

"It is still possible we will get women entries and I personally very much hope we will. When we devised the dates for qualifying there was no LPGA event around that week."

Dawson also announced that local final qualifying would take place this year on the Monday and Tuesday of the week before the Championship, 10 and 11 July, rather than on the Sunday and Monday of tournament week.

"It allows the qualifiers the same chance to practise on an Open course as the players already exempt, instead of them having to dash over from local final qualifying," he said.

Hoylake is staging its first Open for nearly 40 years

"It was all a bit of a scramble and now this creates a level playing field."

Meanwhile Hoylake has announced several course changes ahead of staging the Open for the first time since 1967.

The course has been lengthened by just 122 yards since it staged the Amateur Championship in 2000, with one hole even being reduced by 22 yards.

Other holes have been re-numbered, so that the present 17th becomes the first and the par-five 16th the new 18th.

"We have rearranged the holes to set a more challenging finale," said Dawson.

"The 18th, measuring 560 yards, will present a birdie opportunity.

"But as a left-to right dog-leg with out-of-bounds ever present on the right, it will also be a hole for potential disaster," he added.

Traffic improvements and �750,000 spent on improving facilities have been two factors in the Championship returning to Royal Liverpool.

The R&A's David Hill said: "There were traffic problems getting into Hoylake and also the infrastructure just wasn't there.

Archive: Hoylake to host 2006 Open

"The opening of the M53 motorway and good access through trains from Liverpool are the first reason for returning to Hoylake.

"The second reason is that the club have acquired extra land for television and corporate compounds."

There will be 23,000 grandstand seats around the course, including 9,500 at the 18th.

The full course changes are:

• Hole 1 - lengthened by 33 yards, new green
• Hole 2 - lengthened by 19 yards, new tee
• Hole 4 - shortened by 22 yards, green moved back
• Hole 6 - lengthened by 8 yards, tee adjusted for more challenging angle to green
• Hole 12 - lengthened by 35 yards, new championship tee