Brilliant Brooks Koepka continued his golden run by winning a place in the Open at Muirfield and also confirming his place in the Scottish Open at the European Qualifying competition at Sunningdale.
The 23-year-old American, who had won the Scottish Hydro Challenge despite four hours of rain delays at Aviemore less than 24 hours before, continued his hot form with rounds of 69 and 65 over the Surrey club’s Old and New courses to win the qualifying event by two shots.
Scotland’s Scott Jamieson also booked his place in his second Open Championship finishing in a tie for seventh place after rounds of 66 and 71, confirming his place with a birdie at the last on the Old Course in his second round.
However, David Drysdale, looking to return to an Open at Muirfield having famously served as a marker for John Daly in the final round in 1992 when a teenage assistant pro, missed out with a bogey on the first extra hole of a four-way play-off for the final place at Muirfield, eventually won by Argentina’s Tano Goya.
Koepke’s achievement was even more remarkable because he had to get down from Inverness Airport on the first flight yesterday morning, having missed his Sunday night plane due to the long delays at Spey Valley.
Given a 10.03 tee time for his first round on the Old Course, the Florida-based player shot a decent par round of 69 and tore up the longer New Course with a 65 in the afternoon.
Even a bogey at the last allowed him to be safely home as leading qualifier by two shots over England’s Oliver Fisher.
Koepka could play this week’s Irish Open as he has three Challenge Tour wins as a result of his Aviemore victory and automatic promotion to the main tour.
However, after 10 straight weeks on the road he is going home to recharge.
“The hope was that I could qualify for the Open today, because that means I can come back for the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart, which will be awesome,” he said.
“To be playing in a major is just the greatest feeling and I can’t wait.
“But I need some time off. I need to see my coach Claude Harmon and there’s little things in my game that have been annoying me recently that I have to sort out.”
Jamieson qualified for his first Open at Sandwich two years ago by winning through in the final place at the Scottish Open and had a bit of a scare in the afternoon round when apparently coasting to qualification.
“I thought two under was going to be okay and I was in the process of making a bogey on the 10th when I realised that,” he said.
“However, then I three putted the next hole as well.
“I got a nice eagle on 14 which made it very realistic again, so I thought I just needed to birdie one of the last four holes and had a great up and down from 120 yards on 17 and then a great birdie on the last.
“I have played Muirfield a couple of times. It’s a great course and it will be great to play an Open close to home.”
Goya won out in the four-man play-off with Drysdale, Spain’s Alejandro Canizares and former Ryder Cup player Ross Fisher.