LONDON, 29 June 2005 — Britain’s Kenneth Ferrie clinched the 14th and final British Open spot available from the European leg of international qualifying after a five-way playoff at Sunningdale Golf Club yesterday.
The 26-year-old Englishman holed a 40-foot birdie putt at the first extra hole to earn his third Open appearance at the expense of compatriots David Geall and Tom Whitehouse, Sweden’s Henrik Stenson and Frenchman Jean-Francois Lucquin.
The unfortunate Stenson, bidding to qualify for his second British Open, missed his birdie attempt from just six feet.
Geall and Whitehouse bogeyed the par-four opening hole on Sunningdale’s New Course while Lucquin ran up a double-bogey six.
The quintet had finished on four-under-par 136 in the 36-hole qualifier at Sunningdale in Berkshire on Monday when fading light prevented any chance of starting the sudden-death playoff.
A field of 120 had teed off in pursuit of the 14 places on offer for the third major championship of the year.
Britons Ian Woosnam, Peter Baker, Andrew Oldcorn, Alastair Forsyth, Simon Dyson, John Bickerton, Simon Khan, Robert Coles, Andrew Butterfield and Robert Rock, Irishman Peter Lawrie, Australia’s Marcus Fraser and Swede Patrick Sjoland booked their berths by finishing on 135 or better after the 36 regulation holes.
International qualifiers were introduced by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club last year to make it more convenient and less expensive for overseas-based players to qualify for the world’s oldest major championship.
Four other qualifiers were held this year — in South Africa, Australia, Malaysia and in the US.
One hundred and thirty-two players are now exempt for the 134th British Open at St Andrews, where American Todd Hamilton will defend the title he won last year in a playoff with Ernie Els.
