Irish trio miss out on Lytham

None of the three Irish players involved in yesterday’s qualifying rounds over the New and Old courses at Sunningdale made it through to next month’s British Open Championship at Royal Lytham St Annes.

It was a particularly disappointing day for Paul McGinley, who has been in outstanding form of late and on Sunday tied for third in the BMW International in Cologne, missing out on a play-off by a single shot. However, he was unable to reproduce that form at Sunningdale, a course he lives beside in the Surrey stockbroker belt.

A first round of 75 left with him little or no chance of getting among the 10 going forward to Lytham and with preserving his energy for this week’s Irish Open at Royal Portrush very much in mind, he decided against going out in the afternoon.