13 Australians begin their quest for a place in this month’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale this evening at five Final Qualifying venues across the United Kingdom.
Fifteen places in the Championship are on offer across the five qualifying courses. Hillside, Cinque Ports, Gailes Links, Wodburn, and Notts Hollinwell.
Hillside Golf Club will see four Australians tee it up, 2015 NSW Open Champion Ben Eccles, European Tour winner Richard Green, Jack Munro and Paul Archibald.
The trio of Jordan Zunic, Ryan Mc Carthy and Daniel Fox, who have been plying their trade on the secondary European Challenge Tour, will attempt to qualify at Gailes Links in Ayrshire, Scotland.
Ben Ferguson will be hoping his form from last week’s European Amateur Championship carries into tonight’s qualifying at Notts Hollinwell. Joining him will be his Western Australian State Teammate Haydn Barron and Dimi Papadatos, already a two-time winner this year on the ISPS Hand PGA Tour of Australasia.
Matthew Giles and Jarryd Felton will tackle the Woburn layout, while Former Australian Masters Champion Nick Cullen, who has been splitting his time between the Web.com and Challenge Tours, will be the lone Australian Representative at Royal Cinque Ports.
Nine Australians are already in the Championship field, with Ash Hall, Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman, Adam Bland, Aaron Baddeley, Scott Hend, Matt Griffin, Adam Scott and Jason Day confirmed starters at Birkdale.
Play gets underway at 3.30pm AEST.