Daniel Young

From a world ranking of 468th, 33-year-old Daniel Young made it into his first Open, indeed his first major, with rounds of 71 and 67 in Final Qualifying at Dundonald Links.  

Five places at Royal Portrush were up for grabs and the Perth player shared second spot with current Spanish Open champion Angel Hidalgo, only a single stroke behind former world No.1 Lee Westwood.

“It’s a big, big step in my career.,” said Young, who came close to making it through qualifying last year. “I’ve been playing great the last month.”

Most of his golf this season has been on the second-tier HotelPlanner Tour and he went into the qualifier on the back of a third place at the Blot Play9 event on June 22, only one shot out of a play-off after a closing course record-equalling 60, and then a week later had a joint runner-up finish at the Le Vaudreuil Challenge, where he was part of a four-man shoot-out won by David Horsey.

It lifted him to sixth on the 2025 tour rankings. His best finish on the DP World Tour was joint 12th at the 2022 Hero Open at Fairmont St Andrews.