Alasdair McDougall made the first successful step on the long road to the Open at Royal Troon as the Elderslie amateur came through the regional qualifying shoot-out at Panmure yesterday.
McDougall, who finished second in the strokeplay phase of last week’s Amateur Championship, posted a level-par 70 over the testing Angus links and shared top spot with Icelandic amateur, Andri Bjornsson, as he moved on to next week’s 36-hole final qualifier where 12 tee-times for next month’s Open will be up for grabs.
Scott Borrowman, the 2007 Scottish Youths’ champion, progressed with a 71 while former Walker Cup player Michael Stewart was edged out for the fourth and final qualifying place in a play-off by Argentina’s Julian Cesar Nicolosi.
At Northumberland, another of the 13 venues staging a regional qualifier across the UK and Ireland, Edinburgh’s Callum Cochrane came through with a one-under 71. Scott Drummond, the former PGA champion on the European Tour, fell at the first hurdle at Little Aston however.
On the Tartan Tour, Chris Kelly will begin the defence of the Northern Open at Royal Dornoch today as one of Scottish golf’s oldest professional events returns to the Sutherland links for the first time since 1994.
Kelly will be joined in a strong field by former European Tour winners Alastair Forsyth and Andrew Oldcorn as well as Tartan Tour stalwart Greig Hutcheon and Paul O’Hara, the winner of the P&H Championship, the first order of merit event of the season, at the Renaissance last month.
In Ayrshire, meanwhile, five members of GB&I’s triumphant Curtis Cup side will tee-up in the Ladies British Open Amateur Championship at Dundonald Links.
Bronte Law, who won all five of her matches in the biennial tussle with the US just over a week ago at Dun Laoghaire, headlines a field which also includes Leona Maguire, Olivia Mehaffey, Alice Hewson and Meghan MacLaren.
Carnoustie’s Ailsa Summers will be aiming for an Ayrshire double after winning the Scottish Ladies Amateur champion just up the coast at West Kilbride a fortnight ago.
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