An unusually grim exercise resulted in failure for all 13 Irish challengers when Final Qualifying for this week's British Open was completed over four local courses here yesterday. Eamonn Darcy came closest to survival, missing a play-off at Ladybank by a stroke, but the others were comfortably outside the target.

It means that there will be only four Irish players in action when the championship starts on the Old Course here on Thursday - the same as in the last St Andrews Open in 1995. Darren Clarke is the only survivor from that staging, when he was joined by David Feherty, Ronan Rafferty and Philip Walton.

On this occasion, the Irish challenge will be completed by Padraig Harrington, Paul McGinley and Christy O'Connor Jnr, who found differing routes to exempt status.

But it was even more disappointing for Costantino Rocca, who went within a stroke of capturing the title five years ago, when he was ultimately crushed in a four-hole aggregate play-off by John Daly. Rocca was six strokes outside the limit at Ladybank, where he carded six bogeys in a dispiriting 75.

"This is not a good time for me, everything seemed to have gone wrong," said the Italian, who will be remembered for a miraculous, 60-foot putt on the 72nd hole. "My driver is so bad that it is not in the bag any more. "I wanted to be there again and maybe re-live that great competition of five years ago but when you miss, you miss."

Former American Ryder Cup player Brad Faxon, who was in the team defeated at Oak Hill in 1995, also departed the scene after what has developed into one of golf's most ruthless exercises, since it was introduced in 1963. And from an Irish standpoint, it contrasted sharply with the wonderful qualifying exploits of Jimmy Bruen here in 1939, when he went on to share 14th place behind Richard Burton.

Rafferty, who missed out at Leven Links, struck an interesting note among the Irish when he said: "I'm quite happy with the way things are going, seeing that I can't practise like I did." He added: "This is an experimental year for me , but with standards improving, it's going to be a lot more difficult to get back in."

Against that background, it was ironic that the hottest scoring at the four venues should have been produced by a 46-year-old. After his course record 62 at Leven on Sunday, Mark McNulty shot a 65 yesterday for a 15-under-par 36 hole of 127 on the 6,460-yard stretch. Indeed Leven yielded further exploits from Walker Cup player Luke Donald on 131 and the richly-promising Australian Adam Scott on 133.

Scott also shot 65 at the regional qualifying stage at Renfrew last Monday before featuring on the leaderboard at the Standard Life tournament at Loch Lomond - just his fourth professional event.

Joint runner-up at St Andrews in 1990 five strokes behind Nick Faldo, McNulty finished on 14 under par by following up his opening 62 with a 65.

British amateur star Donald, from Beaconsfield, breezed through. Having trailed McNulty by one after the first day, the 22year-old - a member of Britain and Ireland's Walker Cup team at Nairn last September - added a 68.

It is the second year running Donald has qualified. Last year he finished top at Panmure but then missed the cut at Carnoustie.

Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance - Rocca's partner in the 1995 Ryder Cup victory - was celebrating over at Scotscraig, however, when he was among the 44 players who survived the 480-man scramble.

A two-under-par 69 in the first round had left the Scot right on the borderline, but he managed to shave three shots off that.

"I've wanted to play this Open ever since we knew that it was coming to St Andrews," said Torrance, who because of injury last year missed his first championship since his debut in 1972.

"I still have lots of bills to pay and I'm still a tournament pro trying to make a living. I've three more years to go before the Senior Tour (for over-50s), and that's going to be my pension fund.

"What's my target now? Beat Tiger in a play-off - what more could you want than that?"

On the same course Yorkshire's Simon Dyson, twice a winner in Asia already in his rookie season as a professional, broke the course record with a nine-under-par 62.

The round was nine better than his opening effort and got him into the Open proper two strokes behind Jamie Spence, who shot 66-65.

The course record had been broken by Paul Eales with a 64 in the first round, then lowered by Spence's fellow Kent golfer Jamie Harris with a 63.