Michael Campbell, the 2005 US Open Champion, will be among the contestants for Open Championship Local Final Qualifying (LFQ) today, attempting to secure his 16th appearance at golf’s oldest Major.
LFQ gets underway at four courses in England’s south east: Littlestone, Prince’s, Royal Cinque Ports and Rye. 72 competitors will compete for three Championship places, at each venue.
Michael Campbell, 42, also has a previous Open best of third place, which he achieved at St Andrews in 1995. An eight-time winner on The European Tour, the New Zealander started 12 consecutive Opens, before missing out on a place at the 150th Anniversary Championship, last year.
He will begin his challenge at 07.50am at Prince’s Golf Club, playing with South Africa’s Hennie Otto, who finished tied-10th when The Open was last at Sandwich in 2003.
Also at Prince’s will be Sweden’s 1993 Ryder Cup star, Joakim Haeggman, who has a previous best of tied-16th at The Open in six previous appearances. Steven Tiley, the Englishman whose opening 66 at last year’s Championship in St Andrews left him in a tie for third place overnight, is also attempting to earn an Open return at Prince’s.
At Rye will be 1999 Ryder Cup player Jarmo Sandelin. The Swede, who was the 1995 Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year, last contested the Championship a decade ago at the Millennium Open, where he finished tied for 31st place. Joining him at Rye will be Englishman Zane Scotland, who made the cut at St Andrews last year after an Open Championship absence of 11 years, as well as Walker Cup squad members Tom Lewis, the 2009 Boys Amateur Champion, and runner-up in the 2010 Amateur Championship James Byrne.
At Littlestone, other notable names contesting the three Open berths include the 2010 Amateur Champion, Jin Jeong, Englishman Peter Baker and Austria’s Markus Brier. At Royal Cinque Ports, 2010 Open Championship competitor Tyrrell Hatton, another member of Great Britain and Ireland’s 2011 Walker Cup squad, will be in a field containing the European Tour’s Daniel Vancsik and veteran Paul Broadhurst. And over at Prince’s Benn Barham will join former World Amateur Golf Ranking Number One Jamie Moul.
The draws for each venue can be found in the qualifying section of Opengolf.com. Live, end-of-round scores and stories will appear on the website throughout the day.
