Armitage stalking glory on U.S. Open debut

Marcus Armitage is relishing the chance to follow in the footsteps of the great Tiger Woods when he tees it up at his first U.S. Open Championship next week.

The Englishman claimed an emotional victory at the Porsche European Open to finish third in the U.S. Open Qualification Standings and seal his place at Torrey Pines Golf Club.

With the Covid-19 pandemic disrupting the usual qualification processes, the top ten non exempt players from a table made up of results across the Betfred British Masters hosted by Danny Willett, Made in Himmerland presented by FREJA and Porsche European Open qualified for the third Major Championship of the 2021 Race to Dubai.

British Masters champion Richard Bland finished top of the table ahead of Italy's Guido Migliozzi, who lost in a play-off to the Englishman before going on to also finish second in Denmark.

Armitage was then third ahead of Finn Mikko Korhonen, England's Jordan Smith, Pole Adrian Meronk, Italy's Edoardo Molinari, another Englishman in Dave Coupland, and Belgian Thomas Detry, with Matthew Southgate making it five English players in the top ten.

To go to Torrey Pines, San Diego, where I watched it when Tiger won there back in 08. It’s going to be a special, special trip

Armitage made his Major debut at the 2018 Open Championship and will be heading back to The Open in July after qualifying during the first playing of the South African Open in 2020.

But first he will be tackling Torrey Pines, the venue where Woods famously defeated Rocco Mediate in a play-off while playing with a knee injury that would rule him out for the rest of the season.

"It’s the U.S. Open tour bag that you get, you know the Callaway speciality bag?" he said. "I’ve got an Open one coming. To have a U.S. Open one to go with that and to go to Torrey Pines, San Diego, where I watched it when Tiger won there back in 08.

"It’s going to be a special, special trip.

"It’s another stepping stone to world level where I want to be. It’ll be great to experience it and see if we can make a bit of till over there.

"Let’s see what (my World Ranking) could rise to after we win the U.S. Open - that’d be nice to see how much I jump up there. It’s nice, we just have to keep going.

"The sky is the limit, just keep working and believing and see where we can get to. Everyone’s following me and why not? I can press on from this, get to the top 100, top 50, then top ten, hopefully."

Migliozzi and Meronk will be making their Major debuts on the west coast, with Meronk making history as the first Pole to play in one of golf's big four events.

Korhonen, Smith and Coupland will be playing in their first U.S. Opens, while Bland, Detry and Southgate both have one previous appearance at the event.

This will be Molinari's first Major appearance since the 2015 Open Championship and fourth U.S. Open.