Angel Hidalgo

For the second year running, Angel Hidalgo made it to The Open by coming through 36-hole Final Qualifying at Dundonald Links.

Last September’s Spanish Open champion – when he memorably beat Jon Rahm in a play-off – again finished joint runner-up, this time behind Lee Westwood, on the same course where he was involved in real drama last summer.

A birdie on his last hole then would have put the Marbella golfer into a four-man play-off, but instead he sank a 120-yard approach for an eagle two which took him through.

“I didn’t see the ball go in, but I don’t care. I just jumped and cried with my caddie and we deserve it – all this year we’ve had really bad luck,” he said, not knowing, of course, that he would lift his national open two months later.

Hidalgo twice won the Spanish Amateur and was part of their victorious side at the 2017 European team championship. He then helped them to third place in the following year’s Eisenhower Trophy world championship.

A winner on the Challenge Tour in 2021 he was fourth in the 2022 Andalucia Masters at Valderrama after opening with a 63 – one outside Bernhard Langer’s course record.