Dunne in dreamland with Open ticket

Greystones’ Paul Dunne survived the shock of nearly missing his tee time and went on to become the first Irish amateur to come through Final Qualifying for the British Open for 27 years.

The 21-year old arrived on the first tee with just a minute to spare ahead of his opening round at Woburn, but regained his composure to claim a three-shot victory on 10 under 134 and now joins Pádraig Harrington, Darren Clarke, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Shane Lowry in the field at Royal Liverpool from July 17-20.

“It gave me a bit of a fright,” admitted the Irish International who was part of the winning European collegiate team at last week’s Palmer Cup at Walton Heath and heads off to Finland next week for the European Amateur Team Championships before thinking about Hoylake.