Five amateurs win a ticket for Royal Troon

British Open final qualifying: Five amateurs secure ticket for Royal Troon

Matthew Dodd-Berry (Royal and Ancient Photo)

The final qualifiers for the 152nd Open at Royal Troon in 2024 took place at Burnham & Berrow, Dundonald Links, Royal Cinque Ports and West Lancashire. A total of 16 golfers (four from each venue) secured their ticket to the major championship.

Each golfer played 36 holes to earn one of four open spots at each qualifying site. Of the 16 golfers who qualified, five were amateurs, including one who narrowly missed out on a spot in the Open Championship field last week.

Burnham and Berrow

After narrowly missing out on a spot at Royal Troon in the British Amateur, Dominic Clemons stepped up to finish as co-medallist with Justin Rose over Burnham and Berrow. Clemons shot 8-under with rounds of 66-68 to move level with Rose. LIV golfers Anirban Lahiri and Abraham Ancer earned the final two qualifying spots.

“My mindset wasn’t really good,” Clemons told the R&A. “It was weird, it reminded me of the final I lost.”

Clemons added: “I said in the practice round that if I had just played better in that final, I wouldn’t even be here. I would have made it a lot easier on myself. But I played well today.”

In addition to his runner-up finish at the British Amateur, Clemons won the Scottish Open Amateur by an astonishing 17 strokes. Clemons is currently ranked No. 114 in the Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com World Rankings.

Dundonald Couplings

At Dundonald Links, 2023, walker cupper Liam Nolan of Ireland finished T2 to earn a spot at Royal Troon. Nolan shot rounds of 69-70 to finish 5-under and three strokes behind medalist Sam Hutsby.

Nolan won the 2023 South American Amateur Tournament and recently finished in 11th place at the European Amateur Tournament.

West Lancashire

This was a busy leaderboard at West Lancashire as golfers who were two strokes off medal honours earned one of four qualifying spots. Matthew Dodd-Berry earned co-medal honours with Sam Horsfield on 6-under. Dodd-Berry shot rounds of 69-69 to move to 6-under and tie Horsfield.

Dodd-Berry recently reached the quarter-finals of the British Amateur and the last 32 of the 2023 English Amateur.

Royal Cinque Ports

This was the only qualifying event in which two amateurs qualified, with Jaime Montojo Fernandez and Luis Masaveu earning spots at the Open Championship. Fernandez finished T2 at 3-under and Masaveu finished T4 at 2-under, earning his spot in a play-off.

Masaveu won the 2024 Portuguese International Amateur and is ranked No. 32 in the Golfweek/AmateurGolf.com World Rankings.