Why Open Final Qualifying is one of best days of year in golf
Day of drama in store at four venues around UK in battle for 20 spots at Royal Portrush
It’s called ‘Golf’s Longest Day’ for the US Open and this one is not exactly over in a jiffy either. Tuesday’s Final Qualifying for the 153rd Open starts at 6.20am at Burnham & Berrow in Somerset and, with the last group not out there in the second round until 3.55pm, a late finish is on the cards even if a play-off isn’t required and that, it has to be said, is unlikely.
For many, it’s the most exciting day of the golfing year as a hybrid of players - Ryder Cup stars, club professionals and amateurs - battle it out over 36 holes for just a handful of spots in the world’s oldest major, with those shoot-outs, in addition to Burnham & Berrow, once again taking place at Dundonald Links, Royal Cinque Ports and West Lancashire.
It’s a different set up, of course, to the one that many will recall. At one time, the Final Qualifying was held at four venues close to where the Claret Jug event was being staged that particular year and, rather than a fortnight in advance, it was held on the Sunday and Monday straight beforehand. Hence, of course, why the Scottish Open finished on the Saturday back then.
When The Open was at St Andrews, for instance, the Final Qualifying was held at the likes of Leven, Lundin Links, Ladybank and Scotscraig while Paul Lawrie became an Open champion in dramatic fashion at Carnoustie in 1999 after coming through a qualifier at Downfield in Dundee.
The local four course set up was still in place for The Open at St Andrews in 2010, with Fairmont St Andrews, Kingsbarns, Ladybank and Scotscraig being the venues used by The R&A on that occasion and, as always with this particular event, this correspondent left the house feeling excited about the day ahead.
I can’t remember specifically why, but I decided to head to Kingsbarns, which seemed a good move as James Byrne, one of Scotland’s top amateurs at the time, posted a promising first-round score. When he fell away in the second circuit, however, and it didn’t look as though any other Scots would be in the hunt to progress from that venue, I decided to jump in the car and head to another of the courses.
Scotscraig was where I ended up due to Lloyd Saltman, who’d finished as leading amateur in the 2005 Open at St Andrews, being in the mix there only for my arrival to quickly coincide with him missing out in a play-off. By this stage of the day, time was ticking on and that’s when things really started to go downhill as I encountered wi-fi issues and, believe me, that has become every journalist’s nightmare scenario.
In what I’d like to think has been a rare occurrence in my career, I became flustered and, as a consequence, the report I eventually had to dictate to a colleague back in the office was riddled with mistakes. I ended up hating that day but learned a valuable lesson, which was to pick one venue and stick with it, especially as information from all the courses is pooled by a media team representing The R&A.
It was the following year that the St Andrews-based organisation decided to implement a change for the Final Qualifying, which, since 2014, has been staged at four venues around Britain in a bid to make it “more geographically convenient” for Open hopefuls.
Gailes Links became the Scottish venue and I’ll never forget Colin Montgomerie being the star attraction there in 2016 as he delighted the locals by joining the scramble for spots in that year’s event at Royal Troon. It was mission accomplished for the winning Ryder Cup captain but only after he spent a couple of hours sitting in his car waiting nervously for the action to finish at the end of a long day.
Fairmont St Andrews then had a spell staging the event in Scotland and now it’s moved on to Dundonald Links, where the field on this occasion includes Ryder Cup legend Lee Westwood, Jamie Donaldson, who clinched Europe’s win in the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles and two former Genesis Scottish Open champions in Alex Noren and Rafa Cabrera Bello.
The action gets underway at the Ayrshire venue at 7am, with Westwood and Donaldson out in the same group at 7.50am along with Connor Graham, one of Scotland’s top young amateurs who is aiming to set up a chance of emulating Calum Scott’s Silver Medal success as leading amateur in last year’s Open at Royal Troon.
Others set to be involved in the battle for five spots at Dundonald Links include World Cup winner Marc Warren, LIV Golf player Adrian Meronk, rising Spanish star Angel Hidalgo and local men Michael Stewart and Jack McDonald, who have come through the same test over the past two years.
As always with this event, there should be good crowds at all four venues and particularly so at Royal Cinque Ports in Kent on this occasion as both Ian Poulter and his son, Luke, join the hopefuls there and Graeme McDowell as well as the former US Open champions bids to secure a home appearance in the season’s final major in Northern Ireland.
Caleb Surratt, the young American who is a member of Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII on the LIV Golf League, will be one of the star attractions at Burnham & Berrow while Danny Willett, the 2016 Masters champion, will be centre of attention at West Lancashire along with Harold Varner III, another of the LIV Golf players bidding to earn a crack at the Claret Jug.
As things stand - Lawrie is still exempt but has decided not to play - Bob MacIntyre is the only Scot in the field for Royal Portrush and that alone should be a huge incentive for the 25 players flying the Saltire out of a total of 288 in ‘Golf’s Longest Day Part 2’.
As things stand - Lawrie is still exempt but has decided not to play - Bob MacIntyre is the only Scot in the field for Royal Portrush and that alone should be a huge incentive for the 25 players flying the Saltire out of a total of 288 in ‘Golf’s Longest Day Part 2’.
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