Wednesday 15 July 2015 19:56, UK
There are 12 Open Championship places up for grabs across four qualifiers on Tuesday. Ben Coley picks out those in contention to reach St Andrews.
Where: Gailes Links Golf Course, just 30 miles north of Turnberry on the Ayrshire coast
Open Championship places: 3
Vijay Singh is the headline attraction and Sky Bet's 16/1 favourite to top the leaderboard at Gailes Links. The Fijian has a modest Open Championship record but has played nicely enough at nearby Turnberry, where he was fourth at halfway in 2009.
Aged 52, Singh could make hay on the Champions Tour but is determined to remain competitive on the top circuits, with his form so far in 2015 offering plenty of encouragement. He arrives in Scotland on the back of a tie for 11th in the Memorial and perhaps the only question is whether he can manage 36 holes in one day having struggled with injuries over the last decade.
Second favourite at 20/1 is Scott Jamieson, whose solid run of form came to a halt as he missed the cut in Germany. That may prove a blessing as he bids to make his fourth Open, having missed the cut in the previous three.
Kevin Phelan, Ryan Fox, Rhys Davies and recent Challenge Tour winner Jamie McLeary are next at 22/1, the latter having finished second in last season's equivalent to fellow Scot Marc Warren. Carlos Del Moral, fresh from contending for the BMW International Open, is another to note along with improving Swede Joakim Lagergren.
Where: Hillside Golf Club in Southport, adjacent to Royal Birkdale
Open Championship places: 3
One of England's finest links layouts welcomes a strong field, headed by a trio of Englishmen in Matt Fitzpatrick, John Parry and Tom Lewis, each of whom boasts some standout links form. All three missed the cut in the BMW International Open with Lewis faring best courtesy of rounds of 73 and 69 but it's Sheffield's Fitzpatrick whose recent exploits offer the most encouragement.
Joining them at the head of the market is Spain's Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, who failed to make the weekend in the Travelers Championship on the PGA Tour. This multiple European Tour winner has shown one or two signs of life lately and is a fine player in the wind, so at 14/1 he'd be the pick of the market leaders having proven himself under pressure more than once.
There's depth here, though, with Australian amateurs Ryan Ruffels and Lucas Herbert catching the eye along with former US Amateur Public Links winner Jordan Niebrugge, who played in the Masters last year.
Peter Baker and Scott Drummond are among the veterans looking to put their links nous to use while 40/1 chance Jimmy Mullen made the cut at the 2013 Open as an amateur, the same year in which Fitzpatrick impressed.
Last year's qualifier saw Chris Hanson and John Singleton secure Open berths and they're 25/1 and 66/1 respectively to repeat the feat; the latter, from Merseyside, will doubtless carry strong support.
Where: Royal Cinque Ports in the town of Deal, Kent, just south of Royal St George's
Open Championship places: 3
Royal Cinque Ports sits next to Royal St George's, where Darren Clarke famously won the Open, but is a course of its own distinction. Two years ago this classic links layout hosted the Amateur Championship, won by Garrick Porteous who is in the field at Gailes.
In-form Frenchman Gregory Bourdy heads the betting here in Kent and as a known lover of links golf whose career highlight came not all that far away in Wales, conditions here shouldn't be any sort of issue regardless of what the weather does.
He's followed by Sweden's Kristoffer Broberg who, like Bourdy, played all four rounds in Germany last week, while Gary Boyd and Max Orrin both prepared for this by playing well on the Challenge Tour in Scotland.
Justin Walters and Jacques Blaauw are the pick of a strong South African challenge along with the promising Brandon Stone, while the eye is drawn to Chris Paisley at 33/1 on the back of his performance in the BMW International Open where he played in the final group on Sunday.
Further down the list look out for the highly promising and in-form youngster Marco Penge as well as last year's Open qualifier Matthew Southgate, who grew up playing links golf in Southend.
Where: The Marquess’ course, a relatively new addition to the club which will host the British Masters later this year
Open Championship places: 3
Colin Montgomerie is the star attraction at Woburn and he'd be the man to beat were it not for the fact his preparation involved four rounds in the heat of battle for the US Senior Open.
Monty has been playing nicely all year and even threatened the top of the leaderboard in the US Open won by Jordan Spieth, and he's been through this process before.
Just ahead of him in the market are Retief Goosen, Richard Green, John Hahn and Robert Rock and the latter will be especially keen to return to St Andrews having finished seventh in the 2010 Open Championship. Rock captured some form in Austria last time and has a freshness advantage on most of his rivals, so would appear to be the strongest option at the front of another competitive market.
Another deep field includes Australia's Nick O'Hern and the talented EuroPro Tour graduate Billy Hemstock, who finished 12th on the Challenge Tour a couple of weeks ago. At 80/1, it's also possible that Nick Dougherty shows up at some stage having struck the ball well in the first round of the BMW International Open. Admittedly, the Sky Sports commentator made just one birdie in a second-round 78 but he continues to work hard and could see the benefits if avoiding the big numbers.
