One final hurdle to reach Open Championship

A significant number of PGA National title winners – past and present – are just 36 holes away from being in the field for this year’s Open Championship at Royal Liverpool.

Just the lucky few made it through to next week’s Final Qualifying, after coming through Regional Qualifying, which saw hundreds of hopefuls competing across 13 venues in England, Scotland and Ireland yesterday.

Among those to get through were double title winner Ian Walley (Kedleston Park), who topped the pile at Luffenham Heath. Also going through at the Leicestershire course was three-time PGA Assistants’ champion Matthew Cort (Rothley Park) and Ian Ellis (Great Yarmouth & Caister), both of whom played in last month’s BMW PGA Championship.

Cort’s recent successor Gareth Davies (Abbeydale) continued his rich vein of form by booking his place at Little Aston along with Matt McGuire (Halfpenny Green) and Richard Prophet (Sandwell Park).

Brett Taylor (Brett Taylor Golf), another former PGA Assistants’ winner, and Alex Belt, winner of the Welsh Open Young PGA Professional Championship in 2009, are also in with shout.

Former PGA Cup players and close friends Simon Edwards (Windermere) and David Shacklady (Mossock Hall), who have both played in the Open before, eased through at Clitheroe and Mere respectively.

World of Golf’s Gary Marks, the first winner of the PGA Play-Offs, topped the leaderboard at Remedy Oak, which also saw James Ablett (Lee on the Solent) successful.

Ireland’s Pat Devine, a past winner of the PGA Fourball title, secured the fourth and final spot available at The Island. Scot Paul McKechnie (Braid Hills), another Fourball winner, came through at Bruntsfield, while at The London Club, Redlibbets’ Peter Appleyard, who famously once lead the Open at Royal Birkdale in 2008, is also through.

Next Tuesday July 1, these players, and many more PGA Professionals – including the top 10 and ties from last year’s Glenmuir PGA Professional Championship , will head to one of the four Final Qualifying venues of Gailes Links, Hillside, Sunningdale and Woburn, where each will have three spots available for next month’s Open.

For a full list of scores from the qualifiers click here