Late flight denies pair Open chance

England's Phil Golding and Australian Peter O'Malley were still stuck at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris when they were due to tee off in the Open championship qualifier at Sunningdale today.

Unable to get back from the rain-delayed French Open last night the two European tour winners had got up at 5am for a 7.40am flight to London, which if it had left on schedule gave them plenty of time to make their 11.36am tee-off times.

But they finally landed at 3pm and their hopes of playing at St Andrews next month now hang by a thread.

Denied entry to the final qualifying tournament on July 9-10 because they had nominated today's event they need to be the leading non-exempt player either in this week's European Open or next week's Scottish Open.

Golding, who finished only 13th yesterday after going into the final round only two off the lead, said: "The whole thing was a disaster - a bad end to a bad 24 hours.

"We sat for two hours waiting for the plane to go, then British Airways announced it was being cancelled for technical reasons.

"The next ones were full, so we had to be put on the 12.45. That was the qualifier gone, of course, but even that left 90 minutes later.

"So much for the so-called glamorous life of a tour pro. It's obviously disappointing - Michael Campbell came through qualifying to win the US Open two weeks ago, so you never know."

O'Malley, eighth in the Open only three years ago, was left bitterly regretting that he had not entered the qualifying event in Australia in January.

"I thought about it, but decided against," said the former Scottish Open champion.