Four Irish in Open line-up

IRELAND will have four contenders in the Open Championship starting at Royal St George’s, Sandwich, Kent, on Thursday.

None of our fourteen players contending for places in the qualifying rounds at four different venues yesterday came through what turned out to be a very daunting exercise only seven survived at each of the courses.

That leaves Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley and Gary Murphy to carry our hopes into a championship offering a record stg£700,000 to the winner, with £8,700 going to the worst-placed player who qualifies into the weekend and even £2,000 for the man finishing 156th and last.