Next week’s Final Qualifying for the 152nd Open at Dundonald Links will include three of the best amateur players in Britain, a former Rookie of the Year on the circuit who now plays for LIV Golf, and a posse of DP World Tour winners.
The R&A has announced the draws for the four 36-hole shootouts on Tuesday. A total of 288 players are preparing for this battle, which will determine at least 16 players’ spots in the season’s final major, which will take place at Royal Troon on July 18–21.
Stephen Gallacher, who was recently reappointed as captain of the European Junior Ryder Cup, will be joined at Dundonald Links by fellow DP World Tour winners Ewen Ferguson, Grant Forrest, and Marc Warren.
Along with 2022 Challenge Tour leader Nathan Kimsey and Robert Rock, who is attempting to repeat his success from the US Open qualification earlier in the year, Tom McKibbin, who achieved his breakthrough victory on the circuit last year, is also in the lineup.
Rafa Cabrera Bello, a Spaniard, will be returning to the same location where he emerged victorious in a play-off to win the 2017 Genesis Scottish Open following an incredible shot at the first extra hole.
At Dundonald Links, American Peter Uihlein, the 2013 DP World Tour Rookie of the Year, will be representing LiV Golf alongside fellow countryman and former world No. 1 amateur Patrick Rodgers.
Calum Scott and Connor Graham are part of an amateur group that also includes 16-year-old Kris Kim, who made the cut on the PGA Tour earlier this year. Scottish players Graeme Robertson and Michael Stewart are returning to the location where they passed the same test the previous year.
In other news, Tartan Tour leader Paul O’Hara will face a sizable LIV Golf squad led by Sergio Garcia at West Lancashire, while Anglo-Scot Ryan Lumsden will face off against former US Open champion Justin Rose at Burnham & Berrow.
At Royal Cinque Ports, on the other hand, 2010 US Open champion Graeme McDowell, former Scottish Open winner Alex Noren, and South African Branden Grace—the first player to shoot 62 in a major—will face off against California-based Scottish amateur Niall Shiels Donegan and Edinburgh-based professional David Rudd.