28 June 2010, St Andrews, Scotland: 2005 US Open Champion Michael Campbell will tee-off at Kingsbarns Links in an attempt to secure his 16^th Open Championship appearance, at Local Final Qualifying (LFQ). LFQ gets underway tomorrow at four courses in Fife, Scotland: the Torrance Course at Fairmont St Andrews, Kingsbarns Links, Scotscraig Golf Club and Ladybank Golf Club. Three 150^th Anniversary Open Championship places are available at each venue.

 

New Zealand’s Campbell, an eight-time European Tour winner, is the highest-profile of 288 players, who will play 36-holes in one day to determine the 12 who will progress to The Open. Campbell, 41, has a strong record at St Andrews, having tied for third place in 1995 and tied for fifth place in 2005, the last time that golf’s oldest Major was held on the Old Course.

 

At Scotscraig, eight-time European Tour winner Eduardo Romero of Argentina will go in search of his 18^th Open appearance, the 55-year-old having made his most recent appearance at Royal Troon in 2004. The 2002 Scottish Open Champion’s best result at The Open also came at Troon, in 1997, when he finished tied-seventh.

 

Joining Romero at Scotscraig is 1999 Ryder Cup player Jarmo Sandelin. The Swede, who was the 1995 Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year, last contested the Championship a decade ago at the Millennium Open, where he finished tied for 31^st place.

 

A strong Scottish contingent take their places, led by brothers Elliot and Lloyd Saltman, who successfully progressed through LFQ last year before going on to play in the 138^th Open Championship at Turnberry. Elliot Saltman will attempt to qualify at Ladybank, while his younger brother will tee-off at Scotscraig. Lloyd Saltman, 24, has fond memories of St Andrews, having earned the Silver Medal for the leading amateur in 2005 after finishing tied-15^th.

 

Three-time Tour winner Andrew Oldcorn will be looking for his 17^th Open appearance, at Fairmont St Andrews. The 50-year-old Scot has taken part in 16 Opens to date, with a best result of tied-28^th coming at Royal St Georges in 2003.

 

At Kingsbarns, James Byrne, runner-up at this year’s Amateur Championship, will be looking to secure the Open debut that he so narrowly missed out on at Muirfield little over a week ago. The 21-year-old from Aberdeenshire’s Banchory Golf Club, who studies at Arizona State University, is currently ranked 12^th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.

 

Other notable Scots in the field include Challenge Tour player Callum Macaulay, Colville Park’s Ross Kellett, and 2009 Scottish Amateur and Scottish Boys Amateur champion David Law.

 

LFQ gets underway tomorrow at four venues in Fife. 72 players will contest three Open berths at each venue.

 

The draws for each venue can be found in the qualifying section of Opengolf.com. Live scores and stories will appear on the website throughout the day.

 

19 June 2010, Gullane, Scotland: Korea’s Jin Jeong has become the 2010 Amateur Champion. He becomes the first Asian winner of the event in its 125-year history after defeating James Byrne of Scotland 5&4 in today’s 36-hole final at Muirfield, East Lothian.

 

Jeong, 20, produced a superb display of putting to take the title with a birdie at the 32^nd hole, his tenth of the day. The reigning Riversdale Cup Champion reached the half-way stage two holes ahead of Byrne, the 21-year-old Scot having let an early two-hole advantage of his own slip away.

 

For the first four holes of the afternoon round, the scores remained the same, before Jeong made the telling move. He holed birdie putts of 30 feet, 12 feet and 18 feet on the par-five fifth, par-four sixth and par-three seventh respectively to build a five-hole lead that would prove insurmountable.

 

“I’ve never putted better than that,” said Jeong, a 5&4 winner in yesterday’s semi-final. “I was quite nervous all week, especially before today. But I came here this week really wanting to win. I wanted this title so badly.”

 

Courtesy of his victory, the current world number 10, who plays his golf in Australia representing Waverley Golf Club, earns an exemption into the 150^th Anniversary Open Championship and an invitation to the 2011 Masters Tournament.

 

“I hoped that I was going to win the Amateur and come back for The Open because I’ve been watching The Open on TV every year since Ernie Els won at Muirfield in 2002. That was the first time I’d ever watched it,” he said. “I really wanted to know what it was like to play out of knee-high rough!

 

“I always hoped that my first Major would be The Open. Now I can play at St Andrews. It means everything. It’s a dream come true.”

 

Jeong becomes the second Korean amateur to earn a place at St Andrews, the other being Eric Chun, who secured his Open berth at International Final Qualifying – Asia earlier in the year.

 

James Byrne, meanwhile, narrowly missed out on becoming the first Scot to win the Amateur Championship on home soil since Stuart Wilson, who won at the Home of Golf in 2004. The world number 20 was denied the chance of finding the form he had shown in previous rounds.

 

“I made a steady start,” said the Banchory member. “He made a couple of bogeys and I got two up.

 

“The conditions were much tougher today. Not only was it windy, but there were a lot of cross winds, and he [Jeong] seemed to handle it well - really good ball control. I was struggling with that. 

 

“I don’t know how he putted so well. Every putt he hit was just perfect speed – it was unbelievable.  He never really gave me a chance.

 

“But I’ve got two more chances to secure my Open debut this year: Local Final Qualifying at Kingbarns for the 2010 Open, and the European Amateur for 2011, so I am looking forward to that,” the Scotsman added.

 

Full results from the 2010 Amateur Championship can be found online at RandA.org along with a full hole-by-hole description of the final.

 

The 2011 Amateur Championship will be held at Hillside and Hesketh golf clubs on 13-18 June.