British Open Qualifying: England's Luke Donald, who partnered Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia in the first two rounds of the British Open last year, has earned a place at Royal Troon in two weeks after coming through the first-ever qualifying competition in America.
The event will be remembered, though, for the decision of no fewer than 53 of the 120 players not to take part. Of those, 46 scratched just before and the other seven were disqualified for not showing on the first tee.
Donald, who has just rejoined the European Tour to become eligible for the Ryder Cup, qualified right on the limit of 137 after rounds of 70 and 67 at Congressional in Washington. No play-off was necessary.
Swedes Carl Pettersson and Mathias Gronberg - no longer members of the European Tour - finished joint first with American Spike McRoy, while the 15 qualifiers also included Seve Elkington, the Australian who beat Colin Montgomerie in a play-off for the 1995 US PGA championship and only two years ago featured in the four-man play-off for the British Open at Muirfield.
European Ryder Cup captain Bernhard Langer believes the main reason for all the withdrawals could be that the players concerned were not that bothered about competing in the Open, but Jesper Parnevik also suggested that they were turned off 36 holes in a day by the slow pace of play at the US Open qualifier earlier this month.
Bristol's John Morgan and German Alex Cejka missed out by a single stroke and Swedes Richard Johnson and Daniel Chopra by two and six strokes respectively.
American Jeff Maggert, who still found himself having to qualify despite being third in the US Open behind Retief Goosen and Phil Mickelson, withdrew after an opening 73.
The field was supposed to have started with 120 players, but only 68 arrived for their tee times, and only 64 completed play.
Royal & Ancient director Michael Tate said he was disappointed at the turnout, but that the R&A remains committed to having international qualifiers in the US and elsewhere in the future.
"We shall be discussing the whole qualifying procedure after the Open at a meeting when all matters connected with the championship are talked through," said Tate.
The happiest man on the premises was American Cameron Beckman, who earned the 15th and final spot.
BRITISH OPEN QUALIFYING: (USA at Congressional GC in Maryland) Qualifiers: 134 - C Pettersson (Swe) 71 63, M Gronberg (Swe) 69 65, S McRoy 69 65 135 - B Van Pelt 69 66, M Goggin (Aus) 68 67, S Elkington (Aus) 69 66, R Pampling (Aus) 66 69 136 - T Herron 69 67, H Mahan 64 72 137 _ L Donald (Eng) 70 67, S Kendall 65 72, B Estes 68 69, A Baddeley (Aus) 69 68, G Day 70 67, C Beckman 71 66.
Other scores: 138 - A Cejka (Ger) 68 70, D Waldorf 69 69 140 - L Janzen 72 68 145 - S Pate 69 76.
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