Qualification for The Open 2012 will get underway on Tuesday with Australasian International Final Qualifying at Melbourne’s Kingston Heath Golf Club.
A field comprising 46 of the continent’s finest players will compete over two days (from January 10-11) at the famous sandbelt course for three places at this year’s Open Championship, which will be held at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club from July 19-22 July.
Well-known Australian veterans will join some of the country’s brightest young talent to take on two of last year’s qualifiers and South Korea’s Jin Jeong over 36 holes for the coveted places.
Melbourne-based Jeong joined the professional ranks in 2011 after a successful amateur career that saw him become the first Asian to win the Amateur Championship as well as the Silver Medal for best amateur after finishing in a tie for 14th place at The Open Championship in 2010.
Kurt Barnes, who qualified last year alongside Matt Millar and Rick Kulacz, returns on the back of a runner-up finish at the Victorian Open, but he will have to overcome rising stars including James Nitties, Matthew Griffin and Rohan Blizard, all of whom are seeking their first start at golf’s oldest Major.
Veterans including Craig Parry, who finished in a tie for fourth place at Carnoustie in 1999, three-time Australian PGA winner Peter Senior and double Australian Open champion Peter Lonard will call on their extensive Open experience as they bid to join the world’s best golfers at Lytham St Annes in July.
The next International Final Qualifying (IFQ) event will take place at the venue for this week’s Joburg Open, Royal Johannesburg & Kensington GC, on January 18 and 19. That will be followed by IFQ Asia at Amata Spring Country Club, in Bangkok, Thailand (March 1-2); IFQ America at Gleneagles Golf & Country Club, in Dallas, Texas, (21 May); and finally IFQ Europe at Sunningdale, Berkshire, (June 25).
For the draw and full hole-by-hole scores from IFQ Australasia, visithere
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