Jose Maria Olazabal missed out on a place in this month''s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale despite a superb second round in Monday''s qualifying tournament.
The Spaniard, who won the Masters in both 1994 and 1999, looked unlikely to progress from the International Final Qualifying event at Sunningdale when he shot 71 in the morning.
However, an inspired 65 in the afternoon was good enough to secure Olazabal a place in a six-man playoff for the last two of the 18 Open places available at the 36-hole tournament.
Olazabal was unable to build on his second round and had to watch Simon Dyson and Peter Baker progress from the playoff.
TaylorMade professional Simon Wakefield topped the leaderboard at Sunningdale after rounds of 65 and 68.
Callaway golfer Alastair Forsyth, Sweden''s Johan Edfors and English duo Anthony Wall and Ross Fisher were among the other qualifiers.
However, Thomas Bjorn, runner-up at the Open in both 2000 and 2003, and Darren Clarke both failed to progress.
Bjorn retired midway through the second round with a shoulder injury, while Clarke ended up eight shots adrift of the qualification places and must finish in the top five at either the European Open or Scottish Open if he wants to participate at Royal Birkdale. |