The Open final qualifying fields set; Justin Rose, Sergio Garcia highlight hopefuls
The fields are set for next week’s final qualifying for The Open at Royal Troon.
Final qualifying, which is 36 holes, will be held at four sites across the U.K. on Tuesday: Burnham and Berrow Golf Club in Burnham-on-Sea, England; Royal Cinque Ports in Deal, England; West Lancashire Golf Club in Blundellsands, England; and Dundonald Links in Troon, Scotland, just north of Royal Troon.
Highlighting final qualifying is Justin Rose, who played 14 straight Open Championships until missing the 2022 Open at St. Andrews. Rose was low amateur at the 1998 Open, where he tied for fourth at Royal Birkdale, and owns three top-10s in 20 career Open appearances. He tied for 22nd at the 2016 Open at Royal Troon.
Also teeing it up are 16 current LIV players: Sergio Garcia, Carlos Ortiz, Marc Leishman, Jason Kokrak, Sebastian Munoz, Sam Horsfield and Kieran Vincent at West Lancashire; Graeme McDowell, Branden Grace and Eugenio Chacarra at Royal Cinque Ports; Peter Uihlein and Danny Lee at Dundonald Links; and Anirban Lahiri, Abraham Ancer, Jinchiro Kozuma and Laurie Canter (reserve) at Burnham and Berrow. Fourteen other LIV members, including recent U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, are already exempt.
Filippo Celli, the low amateur at the 2022 Open who is coming off his first top-10 on the DP World Tour (T-10, KLM Open), will tee it up at Royal Cinque Ports. And speaking of amateurs, there is an impressive crop, including Florida State sophomore Tyler Weaver of England (Burnham and Berrow); Arizona State teammates and past U.S. Junior champs Wenyi Ding and Preston Summerhays (Burnham and Berrow); Texas Tech senior and recent Walker Cupper Calum Scott of Scotland (Dundonald); three other GB&I Walker Cuppers from St. Andrews last year, mid-amateur Matthew McClean (Dundonald), Scottish teen Connor Graham (Dundonald) and Florida State junior and past British Boys champ Jack Bigham (Lancashire); England’s Kris Kim, who became the youngest player to make the cut in a PGA Tour event since 2015 when the 16-year-old did so at the Nelson earlier this year (Dundonald); Duke’s Luke Sample, who recently advanced to the semifinals at the British Amateur before losing to eventual champion Jacob Skov Olesen; SEC players in Texas A&M’s Jamie Montojo and Oklahoma’s Drew Goodman (Royal Cinque Ports); another Arizona State player in Spain’s Jose Ballester (Lancashire); England’s Matthew Dodd-Berry, who recently transferred from ETSU to LSU to follow new Tigers head coach Jake Amos (Lancashire); Arizona’s Tiger Christensen of Germany (Lancashire); and UCLA’s Omar Morales of Mexico, who has qualified for each of the past two U.S. Opens (Lancashire).
Here is a quick look at the notables in each of the four final qualifiers:
BURNHAM AND BERROW
Jeffrey Guan
Anirban Lahiri
Jinchiro Kozuma
Brandon Robinson Thompson
Laurie Canter
a-Tyler Weaver
Justin Harding
Abraham Ancer
Ross Fisher
Nicolo Galletti
Julian Perico
Wade Ormsby
Chris Wood
Jovan Rebula
Justin Rose
a-Wenyi Ding
a-Preston Summerhays
Ashley Chesters
DUNDONALD LINKS
Nathan Kimsey
Adam Wallin
Tim Widing
Jonathan Thomson
Jack Senior
a-Kris Kim
Tom McKibbin
a-Calum Scott
Ewen Ferguson
Robert Rock
Peter Uihlein
Rafa Cabrella Bello
Stephen Gallacher
Nick Carlson
a-Matthew McClean
Tom Lewis
Ricardo Gouveia
a-Luke Sample
a-Connor Graham
Danny Lee
Patrick Rodgers
ROYAL CINQUE PORTS
Filippo Celli
Alex del Rey
James Nicholas
Casey Jarvis
Alex Noren
a-Jamie Montojo
Sean Crocker
a-Drew Goodman
Graeme McDowell
John Axelsen
Eugenio Chacarra
Jazz Janewattananond
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen
Antoine Rozner
Branden Grace
Thomas Detry
WEST LANCASHIRE
Sebastian Munoz
Davis Shore
a-Jose Ballester
Kieran Vincent
Taichi Kho
Sam Bairstow
Sergio Garcia
Carlos Ortiz
Jeff Overton
a-Tiger Christensen
Jason Kokrak
Marco Penge
a-Matthew Dodd-Berry
Marc Leishman
Marcus Armitage
Sam Horsfield
a-Omar Morales
a-Jack Bigham
Richard Mansell