No joy for Irish hopefuls at Open qualifying

Ireland’s representation at next fortnight’s Open Championship remains at four after nine other Irish hopefuls failed to win through at Tuesday’s Final Qualifying.

Nine Ireland players, in a field of 288 players, entered Tuesday’s 36-hole qualifying at four courses in England. Only three spots at each of the four courses were up for grabs into the 149^th Open Championship at Royal St. George’s

The best of the 10 Irish was Royal Dublin amateur Hugh Foley who posted rounds of 70 and 72 for a two-under par tally and shared 11^th place at the West Lancashire course. Ballymena’s Richard McElroy was due to tee-up at West Lancashire but was a non-starter.

The leading qualifiers at each venue were:

West Lancashire:

1^st Nicolas Poppleton (Eng) 65 + 69 = 134 (10-under)

2^nd Louis De Jager (RSA) 67 + 70= 137 (7-under)

3^rd Daniel Croft (Eng) 70 + 68= 138 (6-under)

(Irish)

T11th Hugh Foley (Royal Dublin) 70 + 72= 142 (2-under)

T19th Ronan Mullarney (Galway) 73 + 72=145 (1-over)

T28th Richard Knightly (Royal Dublin -amt) 73 + 74= 147 (3-over)

T45th Robert Galligan (Elm Park – amt) 78 + 74= 152 (8-over)

Did not tee up – Richard McElroy (Ballymena)

Notts (Hollinwell):

1^st Daniel Hillier (New Zealand) 64 + 69= 133 (11-under)

2^nd Jonathan Thomson (Eng) 65 + 69= 134 (10-under)

3^rd Richard Mansell (Eng) 68 + 67=135 (9-under)

(Irish)

T13th Brendan McCarroll (West Cliffs) 72 + 70=142 (2-under)

T20th Tyler Hogarty 74 + 69=143 (I-under)

T27th Tim Rice (Limerick) 71 + 75=146 (2-over)

Prince’s :

1st Deyen Lawson (Australia) 70 + 71=141 (3-under)

T2^nd Sam Forgan (England) 72 + 70=142 (2-under)

T2nd Connor Wordsall (Eng) 67 + 65=142 (2-under)

(Irish)

57^th Noel Quinn (Chartridge Park) 78 + 82=160 (16-over)

St. Annes Old Links:

Ben Hutchinson (Eng) 66 + 65=131 (13-under)

T2nd Sam Bairstow (Eng) 63 + 69=132 (12-under)

T2nd Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spain) 64 + 68= 132 (12-under)

(Irish)

T56th Luke Donnelly (Kilkenny) 73 + 78=151 (7-over)