Retief Goosen---final qualifying Open--Woburn

Along with a few other leading lights at 3 other venues today.

Castle GC's Alex Gleeson (A), winner of the Leinster Youths Amateur Open at Esker Hills, leads at 4 under (Thru15) in Gailes Links Golf.

Another Orish player Kevin Phelan is one under after 15.

Limerick's Tim Rice is +3 thru 6 holes there.

VJ no show gailes 

Paul Broadhurst -3 is one back Clevedon GC's 24yo Alister Balcombe(A) from North Somerset - both in the clubhouse after the first 18 of 36 hole qualifying at Royal Cinque Ports GC. Aussie Wade Ormsby is two behind.

Alister Balcombe(A) was second in the recent Welsh Open Youths Championship at Maesdu, Llandudno in Wales with 74,72,71 & 68.

IRELAND's Michael McGeady is -2 & two behind thru 12 at Hillside GC while Eamonn Brady +1 is in the clubhouse at T17 after 18 holes of play.

Matthew Fitzpatrick is also in the Hillside clubhouse but at +4 (76) and T37 while Scott Drummond is level with Brady at +1 for T17.

Retief GOOSEN leads by 2 at five under on The Marquess’ course in Woburn, just south of Milton Keynes - The Marquess’ course opened in 2000 and was designed by Peter Alliss, Clive Clark, Ross McMurray of European Golf Design and Alex Hay. Two amateurs fill the second spot while Robert Dinwiddie & Mikael Lundberg at -2 & Nick O'Hern -1 are in the chasing pack.

Tied for 10th also at one under are Kenneth Ferrie & Nick Dougherty just ahead of MONTY (must be slightly jet-lagged) T17 at level par.

Aussie Richard Green and England's Robert Rock at +1 have it all to do while Chris Doak +3, USA's James Hahn +7 and Belgian Thomas Pieters +13 must win in Paris or Gullane to play the 144th OPEN at St Andrews.

catch

only one place Scottish Open seems bizzare

Doak 400/1 is the only one of the those three making the trip to Paris.

MONTY's last chance

Open Qualifying Series Scotland - Places go to the leading three players (not otherwise exempt) who finish in the top 10 and ties at the 2015 Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.

http://www.theopen.com/Players/Exemptions

Open Qualifying Series America John Deere Classic - The place will go to the leading player (not otherwise exempt) who finishes in the top 5 and ties at the 2015 John Deere Classic. (Due to the late date - flight plans, etc)

12 players will be added tonite

Carlos Del Moral RTD after a 76 on the Gailes Links and is 200/1 to make his way to Gay Paree !

Castle GC's Alex Gleeson (A), winner of the Leinster Youths Amateur Open at Esker Hills, now leads by two at 5 under (Thru3 in RD2) in Gailes Links Golf.

Gary Boyd is 'attached' to Woburn GC and yet the Manchester United fan is tied first at -4 with 24yo Amateur Alister Balcombe at Royal Cinque Ports GC.

6ft 4¼in Matthew Southgate lies third one behind while Aussie Wade Ormsby T4 who is only two behind with thru 3 holes of RD2.
Paul Broadhurst has dropped to T10 to join Daniel Chopra at -1.

Broadhurst now showing T3 (at 3 under) on the leaderboard.

http://www.theopen.com/Qualification/FinalQualifying/RoyalCinquePorts

-2 at  gailes links, 2nd round 3.55pm

Gavin Moynihan ranked #5 on the European Golf Rankings RTD from Hillside along with Ingerland's Simon Wakefield.
"Walker Cup at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club here I come" - Gavin.

Another Orish player Kevin Phelan is now also T4 two under thru 6 in RD2 at Gailes Links.

Scot, Scott Henry also T4 in the chasing pack of Alex Gleeson who still leads at -3 thru 6 holes in Rd2.

The 45th Walker Cup match will be played on the weekend of 12th/13th September and will see GB&I bidding to win back the historic trophy after the USA’s convincing 17-9 victory in the 2013 match at the National Golf Links of America in Southampton, New York.

Ireland’s Gavin Moynihan is the only player in the squad with previous Walker Cup experience. The current Scottish Open Stroke Play Champion played in the 2013 match where he earned two points for GB&I. He is joined by fellow Irishmen Gary Hurley, who finished joint runner-up in the 2014 European Amateur Championship, and Paul Dunne, who came through Final Qualifying to play in last year’s Open at Royal Liverpool.

Double European Amateur champion Ashley Chesters, Adam Chapman, who won the South of England Open Amateur Championship last year, and Sam Horsfield, who recently successfully defended his New Year’s Invitational title in Florida, are among the English players in the squad.

David Boote, who enjoyed a top ten finish in last year’s European Amateur Championship, is the sole Welshman included.

The GB&I WALKER CUP squad:

IRELAND
Paul Dunne (Greystones)
Jack Hume (Naas)
Gary Hurley (West Waterford)
Gavin Moynihan (The Island)
Cormac Sharvin (Ardglass)

SCOTLAND
Grant Forrest (Craigielaw)
Bradley Neil (Blairgowrie)
Jamie Savage (Cawder)

WALES
David Boote (Walton Heath)

ENGLAND
Tomasz Anderson (Brocket Hall)
Daniel Brown (Bedale)
Adam Chapman (Windermere)
Ashley Chesters (Hawkstone Park)
Nick Marsh (Huddersfield)
Sam Horsfield (Davenport, USA)
Paul Howard (Southport & Ainsdale)
Jack McDonald (Kilmarnock (Barassie))
Jimmy Mullen (Royal North Devon)
Graeme Robertson (Glenbervie)
Ben Stow (Rushmore)

A get together for the 20-man squad will be held on 21st/22nd July at the host venue, Royal Lytham & St Annes while the final ten-man GB&I team will be announced in August.

Cormac Sharvin won the Brabazon Trophy (English Amateur Open Strokeplay Championship) last Saturday on seven under par to complete a historic Orish 1-2-3 with Gavin Moynihan one back & Jack Hume tied for third two shots further back at -4. Paul Dunne was ninth, and along with Moynihan, turn pro after the Walker Cup. The forthcoming European Amateur Team Championship on 7th/11th at Halmstad GC in Sweeden should decide the Walker Cup team.

Gary Boyd is 'attached' to Woburn GC and yet the Manchester United fan is still joint leader at -6 with 24yo Amateur Alister Balcombe at Royal Cinque Ports GC. The pair are 3 clear of a bunch at three under incl Broadhurst & Ormsby.

Also 3 behind is Steven Tiley (32) who lives in Kent and is also the touring professional for The Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club.
As a professional since 2007 Steven has played on the Asian Tour, The Challenge Tour and The European Tour and finished an outstanding 26th at The British Open at Muirfield in 2013.

GOOSEN T2 now one back thru9 of Rd2 at four under from Amateur Thomas Detry at Woburn.

The Belgian Thomas Detry (Brussels) was a European Palmer Cup player (Ryder Cup-type format with the top 10 collegiate players from the United States face off against the top 10 from Europe). The United States won an 18-12 victory over the Europeans at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois on 14th June.

Goosen

3 man playoff

1 spot

Monty failed to qualify

Hillside
Scott Arnold 68,73 F -3
Jordan Niebrugge (A) 69,72 F -3
Pelle Edberg 70,71 F -3
Eamonn Brady & Tom Lewis both level par & Matthew Fitzpatrick +2 are just some of the names to miss out.


Royal Cinque Ports
Alister Balcombe (A) 67,70 F -5
Benjamin Taylor (A) 70,67 F -5
Gary Boyd 67,70 -5
3 shots clear of Paul Broadhurst, Raymond Russell, Steven Tiley & further back to Daniel Chopra & others.

Gailes Links
Mark Young 68,70 -4
Two shots clear of 3 players in the play-off for two spots - Paul Kinnear, Rhys Davies & Ryan Fox.
Kevin Phelan & Scott Henry both -1 missed a play-off place by a shot.

Woburn
Paul Dunne (A) 70,65 F -9
Robert Dinwiddie 70,68 F -6
Retief Goosen 67,72
who won in a play-off with Adam Gee 70,69 F -5 & Jamie Moul 71,68 F -5.
Robert Rock missed the play-off by one & Mikael Lundberg by two with MONTY 72,71 for -1 a further 4 shots away from the play-off.

Great stuff for Mark Young to qualify. Been a top amateur in the north west for years and took the punt to go pro at the end of last year aged 33 - hope he wins a few quid.

rhys davies misses out in playoff

At the Gailes Links qualifier Mark Young was the lading qualifier while Ryan Fox and amateur Paul Kinnear moved on to St. Andrews after a 3-man play-off with Rhys Davies.

Benjamim Ben Taylor, who holed the clinching putt for LSU at the NCAA Championship, was one of 12 players who qualified for The OPEN today. Taylor, whose par putt on the final green gave LSU a 4-1 victory over Southern Cal on June 3, shot 5-under 137 to share medalist honors with amateur Alister Balcombe & Gary Boyd at Royal Cinque Ports.

Two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen was one of the three qualifiers at Woburn (only after a 3-man play-off), along with amateur Paul Dunne, who recently completed his college career at UAB, and Robert Dinwiddie. Goosen, who finished fourth at last week’s BMW International Open on the European Tour, hasn’t played in the Open since 2012.

Jordan Niebrugge, a senior at Oklahoma State and a member of the 2013 U.S. Walker Cup team, shared the top spot at the Hillside qualifier (3 under), along with Scott Arnold and Pelle Edberg.

In all, five of the 12 spots went to amateurs.

r u going to the open catch?

No, better viewing on tv (for 4 days solid morning, noon & nite).

Look forward to the 'young guns' in a shoot-out come Sunday - Rory, Jordan, Fowler with Sergio, Day, Lowry & maybe Tiger all in the mix

Sh8te course btw with 17th & 18th only two holes worth playing. Every 10 years on the rota would be plenty imvho.

Any reason BF have decided to exclude Goosen from their winner market?