Brandon Wu (center) qualified from St. Andrews along with Connor Syme and Sam Locke
(R&A Twitter photo)
VARIOUS SITES IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND - Final Qualifying for the 2019 British Open at Royal Portrush was held at four sites Tuesday (two in England and two in Scotland). There were 72 players and three spots available at each qualifying site, with 36 holes determining who would make the starting field of golf's oldest major championship.
A total of 288 players--206 professionals and 82 amateurs--competed for the 12 available spots in the 148th Open Championship.
Highlights from British Open Final Qualifying include:
Fairmont St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Scotland
Qualifiers: 72, Amateurs: 25
Brandon Wu (Scarsdale, N.Y., USA) is on a roll. After helping his Stanford Cardinal win the NCAA National Championship, Wu finished T35 in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and has now qualified for the Open Championship. In so doing, he is the first amateur to open qualify for the U.S. and British Opens in the same year since Joe Carr of Ireland did it in 1967. Wu shot a 6-under 64 in the morning round to open up a three-shot lead, and then added a 67 in the afternoon to earn medalist honors by three shots.
Connor Syme (Scotland), who was the only amateur to qualify for the Open two years ago, has since turned pro and he too advanced to Royal Portrush with rounds of 67-67.
Euan Walker (Scotland), who finished runner-up in both the British and European Amateurs coming in, shot 69-70 to fall three shots short.
Two other American amateurs,
Kyler Tate (Winter Garden, Fla.) and
Akshay Bhatia (Wake Forest, N.C.) were in the field but did not advance to the championship.
Prince's Golf Club, Sandwich, England
Qualifiers: 72, Amateurs: 20
Curtis Knipes (England) tied for medalist honors with rounds of 67-68 (-9). Four amateurs, including Australian Amateur champion
Conor Purcell (Ireland) and American
Stephen Shepherd (Niceville, Fla.) finished tied for 11th at 142.
Notts Golf Club, Nottinghamshire, England
Qualifiers: 72, Amateurs: 18
Thomas Thurloway (England) shot rounds of 69-69 (-6) to earn one of the thee spots in the championship. His fellow countrymen
Tom Sloman and
Jake Burnage each shot rounds of 68-72 but each fell one shot short of a playoff for the final qualifying spot.
St. Anne's Old Links Golf Club, St. Anne's, England
Qualifiers: 72, Amateurs: 19
None of the 19 amateurs qualified for the championship, but
Callum Blinkhorn (England) came the closest, shooting rounds of 67-69 (-8) to finish one shot out of the final qualifying score.
ABOUT THE
British Open Final Qualifying
36 hole stroke play qualifier for professionals and
amateurs held at multiple sites in England and
Scotland. Preceded by 18 hole regional qualifying
held
at various sites across the UK and Ireland the
previous
week.
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