Three of the European Challenge Tour’s finest will be teeing up in The Open Championship at St Andrews after successfully coming through Final Qualifying this week.
Scott Arnold, Gary Boyd and Ryan Fox all secured their places at the ‘home of golf’ after prevailing at qualifiers over 36 holes, each of them at different venues.
Australian Arnold earned his spot at England’s Hillside Golf Club, following a fine 68 in the morning with a 73 for a three under par total that took the 29 year old through, along with American amateur Jordan Niebrugge and Sweden’s Pelle Edberg, a Challenge Tour stalwart himself in recent years.
Englishman Boyd has been one of the Challenge Tour’s form players this season, with three top five finishes in his last four events, including a fourth place at the SSE Scottish Hydro hosted by Macdonald Hotels and Resorts, where he led for the first three rounds.
The 28 year old went straight from Scotland to Kent’s Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club, where rounds of 67 and 70 saw him qualify on five under par alongside a pair of English amateurs, Alister Balcombe and Benjamin Taylor.
And New Zealander Fox continued a fine run of recent form that saw him finish tied fifth at the Najeti Open Presented by Neuflize OBC and tied tenth at the SSE Scottish Hydro Challenge as he qualified at the Gailes Links Golf Course in Ayrshire, Scotland.
The 28 year old shot rounds of 69 and 71 for a two under par total that took him into a three-way play-off for the two remaining places at The Open, after England’s Mark Young had finished two shots clear of the field.
Fox held his nerve, along with English amateur Paul Kinnear, to edge out Wales’ Rhys Davies and qualify for his first Major Championship.
