The Open Qualifying Series

The field for The 150th Open will receive its finishing touches this week, with the final qualifying spots up for grabs at the Genesis Scottish Open and Barbasol Championship.

Four places are available in the final week before the action gets underway at St Andrews, with three of those going to the three leading players in the top 10 who are not already exempt at the Scottish Open.

A whole host of big names will descend on The Renaissance Club in North Berwick aiming to extend their stay in Scotland for another week, including 2014 runner-up Rickie Fowler.

The 33-year-old has not missed an Open since making his debut at St Andrews in 2010, recording three top-10 finishes in that time and only once failing to make the cut.

Rafa Cabrera-Bello, Luke Donald and Alex Noren also know how it feels to finish in the top 10 of an Open and all three will be teeing it up from Thursday, with former world no.1 Donald looking for his first appearance since 2016.

The field also offers another chance for those who have come agonisingly close in recent weeks during other Open Qualifying Series (OQS) events.

Jorge Campillo looked well set at last week’s Horizon Irish Open and a par would have seen him qualify at David Law's expense, only for a bogey to scupper his chances.

Aaron Rai was also in contention at Mount Juliet, a score of -12 putting him three shots adrift of the three qualifiers a matter of days after he had come even closer at Final Qualifying.

The 27-year-old carded two closing bogeys at the end of his 36 holes and ended up in a three-man play-off for two places, losing out to Lars van Meijel and Alex Wrigley.

At Prince’s, Matthew Southgate came agonisingly close to securing another Open appearance, missing a presentable birdie chance on the last before joining Rai in missing out in a play-off.

Having finished T12 at Royal Troon in 2016 and T6 at Royal Birkdale in 2017, Southgate will be keen to show what he can do on the big stage once more as he approaches qualifying’s last-chance saloon. Russell Knox made his Open bow at St Andrews in 2015 and the Scot will be eager to return in front of a home crowd, while Thai stars Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Jazz Janewattananond are also among the contenders, the latter having finished T46 at Royal St George’s last year.

Over at Kentucky’s Keene Trace Golf Club, meanwhile, the highest finishing player not already exempt will claim the final qualifying spot available through the OQS.

The highest-ranked player in the field is Kevin Streelman, who tied for 19th at The 149th Open, while Chris Gotterup, who finished a shot behind two of the three qualifiers at last week’s John Deere Classic and came 43rd at the US Open, also enters.

It promises to be a gripping few days on both sides of the Atlantic – stay tuned to the TheOpen.com and The Open’s social channels, which will continue to provide coverage of every event in The Open Qualifying Series and reports that detail which players have booked their places in The 150th Open.

Click here for more information on The Open Qualifying Series.