Qualifying for the Montana Closed Championship Tournament

Each year six players qualify to play for the state championship: the defending champion, the 2 players with the most Grand Prix points, and the top 3 Montana finishers in the Open.

However, these rules can produce 3, 4, 5, or 6 unique names since the same player can qualify in multiple ways. What happens then ?

First a description of the defending champion. In Montana, if multiple players finish tied with the best score at the Closed they are all considered to be state champions and they all receive a trophy. However, only one gets the automatic slot in the next Closed, which is determined by the tie breakers listed in the Constitution. The ONLY purpose of the tie breakers is to determine the order of preference
for the defending champion slot in the next Closed.

If less than 6 players qualify then the remaining slots are filled using the following steps:

Step 1:  Co-Champions from the previous year are slotted into the Closed in tie breaker order until we have 6 players or all the Co-Champions have been added.

Step 2:  If we still have less than 6 players after step 1, then the remaining slots are filled from the Grand Prix list until we have 6 players.

Note that there is no provision for getting into the Closed by finishing 4th among Montana players in the Open.