Regional Qualifying

Open hopefuls will tee it up at 16 venues across Great Britain and Ireland next week knowing they are just 54 good holes away from an appearance at Royal Birkdale.

Over 2,000 golfers will compete in Regional Qualifying on Monday 22 June with a number of places available into Final Qualifying eight days later.

The stop after that is The 154th Open.

The 16 Regional Qualifying venues are: Bearwood Lakes, Caldy, Chart Hills, Craigielaw, Enville, Ferndown, Fulford, Gog Magog, Hesketh, Kilmarnock (Barassie), Lindrick, Minchinhampton, Moor Park, North Hants, Rochester & Cobham Park and The Island.

Fans can follow all the action on our live blog, which will be available right here on The Open website from 6:30am on Monday.

Open to professional and amateur golfers – who meet the entry criteria – worldwide, some notable names have entered Regional Qualifying this year.

A large number of golfers – including Robert Rock [above], Sam Forgan, Robert Dinwiddie, Zane Scotland and Alex Maguire – have all had the honour of playing in The Open before and are eager for another taste.

PGA TOUR players, amateur stars, former Premier League footballers, and content creators will also be among the competitors on Monday, with Royal Birkdale the ultimate target.

England’s Kris Kim [below] – winner of the R&A Boys’ Amateur Championship in 2023 – made headlines at The CJ Cup Byron Nelson a year later when he became the youngest European player to make a cut on the PGA TOUR and the fifth youngest in history. He will attempt to make it one step closer to The Open when he gets under way at Bearwood Lakes.

Joining Kim in Berkshire will be Daniel Gaunt who played in The Open at Turnberry in 2009 and Toby Tree, who made the cut at Royal Birkdale in 2017.

Joseph Dodd-Berry, who plays out of Royal Liverpool, caddied for his older brother Matthew at The Amateur Championship in 2024 before Matthew achieved a place at Royal Troon through Final Qualifying.

Joseph will travel to nearby Caldy with his own place at Final Qualifying firmly on his mind.

He will be joined on the Wirral by YouTube star and golf broadcaster Rick Shiels [below], who also entered qualifying in 2024.

Also teeing up at Caldy is James Ashfield who featured for Great Britain & Ireland at the Walker Cup in 2023 and Daniel Croft, who came through Regional and Final Qualifying in 2021.

Another YouTube giant and golf broadcaster Pete Finch topped the Regional Qualifying leaderboard at Caldy last year and he will be aiming for more of the same at Lindrick this time around.

YouTube will be very well represented on Monday with George Bryan – one of the Bryan Bros – playing at Hesketh and James Wiltshire attempting to progress from Minchinhampton. Meanwhile Matt Fryer will also be at Hesketh, just two years after he landed an ace in Regional Qualifying at Fulford.

Brothers Oliver, Cameron and Samuel Mukherjee are Regional Qualifying regulars and while they all play out of Gullane, they can be positive about their chances at Craigielaw on Monday.

Cameron is the reigning men’s club champion, Sam is a former junior champion at the course, while Oliver [below] holds the course record (60 – lipping out on the last for a 59). Oliver made it through Regional Qualifying at Craigielaw last year.

Jordan Sundborg progressed through Regional Qualifying at Craigielaw last year, too, before falling agonisingly short in Final Qualifying at Dundonald. The Englishman returns to Craigielaw for another go. Anton Hansson – Boys' Amateur Champion in 2022 – will also be competing in East Lothian on Monday.

Amateur Champion in 2016, Scott Gregory – who defeated Robert MacIntyre in the final at Royal Porthcawl – has worked hard to re-find his love for golf after hitting a confidence-shattering 92 in the first round of the US Open in 2018.

Gregory will attempt to make it through from North Hants.

Jimmy Bullard [top] and PGA professional Peter Odemwingie [below] are ex-footballers with an undeniable passion for golf. With over 200 Premier League appearances between them, they are now seeking a new challenge on a different terrain.

Both failed to make it through Regional Qualifying last year, but both return for another attempt. Bullard will be at Rochester & Cobham Park, with Odemwingie teeing off at Enville.

Rory McDonald-O'Brien will also be at Enville; his sister Isla represented Great Britain & Ireland in the Walker Cup at Bel-Air Country Club earlier this month.

Cricket and tennis stars will be switching bats and racquets for drivers and irons as Peter Trego, a former professional cricketer for Somerset, and Colin Fleming – a Scottish tennis player, who won 8 ATP doubles titles and made the quarter finals at the US Open and Wimbledon – will tee it up at Minchinhampton and Kilmarnock (Barassie) respectively.

Meanwhile, Winter Olympian Kevin Esteve (alpine skiing) has entered qualifying for the second straight year. Here he is teeing off at North Hants in 2025:

And boxing great John Conteh, a former WBC light-heavyweight champion, will be watching on as his son James tries his luck at Moor Park.

Scotland's Michael Stewart will be competing on home soil as he attempts to make it through at Kilmarnock (Barassie).

Stewart was runner-up in The Amateur Championship in 2011, the year he also played in a Walker Cup side that beat a US team featuring Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay, Russell Henley and Harris English. He qualified for The Open at Royal Liverpool in 2023 and made the cut.

Designed by three-time Champion Golfer Nick Faldo, Chart Hills is a new addition to the Regional Qualifying roster and the Kent course will host Jack Floydd, who came through qualifying to reach The 150th Open at St Andrews in 2022, and Ben Quinney who represented England at amateur level.

Fulford was the venue for the very first AIG Women’s Open, in 1976, and next week it will entertain Ashton Turner. He qualified for The Open in 2018 having been diagnosed with a rare form of cerebral palsy following a freak accident as a one-year-old.

Of the golfers with previous Open experience, Rock can boast the best finish, tying for seventh place at St Andrews in 2010, while he was T16 in 2006. His last Open appearance came at Royal Portrush in 2019 and he will join Odemwingie at Enville on Monday.

Dinwiddie [above, left] has made three appearances in The Open, his best finish being T53 at St Andrews in 2022 – when he was tied third with eventual Champion Cameron Smith on five-under-par after round one, just three shots behind the leader Cameron Young.

Dinwiddie will be in Regional Qualifying action at North Hants.

Zane Scotland remains the youngest English golfer to qualify for The Open, teeing it up at Carnoustie in 1999 when he was still only 16. Like Bullard, Scotland will be trying his luck at Rochester & Cobham Park.

Sam Forgan knows what it takes to reach the big stage, having made it through Regional and Final Qualifying in 2021, subsequently making his Open debut at Royal St George’s.

He will begin another qualifying quest at Gog Magog in Cambridgeshire.

Meanwhile, Ireland’s Alex Maguire [below] made his one and so far only Open appearance at Royal Liverpool in 2023 (the same year he played in the Walker Cup) and he will be among the bigger names at The Island in Dublin on Monday.

And finally, amateur golfer Jaime Montojo will compete at Hesketh on Monday.

Montojo qualified for The Open at Royal Troon in 2024 and then holed out for eagle on the first hole.