Limited LIV-sters in Open final qualifying
Only 11 of 41 non-exempt LIV players signed up; Cam Davis flips his script in Detroit
Tom McKibbin earned an Open spot via Italian Open (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
Four sites across the Great Britain will host final qualifying on Tuesday for the Open Championship, where a minimum of 16 spots will be available into the season’s final major championship which begins on July 18 at Royal Troon.
Among those attempting to qualify are 11 LIV Golf members, down from the 16 who had originally entered and far down from the 20 who tried to qualify last year. Twenty-five LIV golfers never signed up for qualifying at all.
In their defense, the schedule is not doing LIV golfers any favors, especially for those based in the United States. LIV Golf plays next week at Valderrama in Spain, and so the 36-hole qualifier on Monday would committing to an extra week in Europe or going back and forth in consecutive weeks — neither option ideal.
Since the original draw came out, Jason Kokrak, Danny Lee, Marc Leishman and Sebastian Munoz have pulled out. So did England’s Laurie Canter, a LIV wild card player who is likely to make the Open field on a DP World Tour top-five exemption.
Among those who at this time remain committed to trying are Sergio Garcia — who last month qualified for the U.S. Open via its final qualifying and ended up tying for 12th — 2010 U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell, Abraham Ancer, Jinichiro Kozuma, Anirban Lahiri, Peter Uihlein, Eugenio Chacarra, Branden Grace, Sam Horsfield, Carlos Ortiz and Kieran Vincent.
Good for them. For all the conjecture about LIV and major status, both Opens offer pathways into the field. Any high-level pro should feel good about taking his chances in a 72-player field for four spots, which is roughly what the breakdown will be.
When you consider that probably 25 players in each of these fields will struggle to be competitive against an established tour player, qualifiers are now talking about having to beat only about 40 legitimate challengers. It doesn’t mean it will happen but the odds certainly are decent.
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There are 14 LIV players, including U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, who are already exempt into the 152nd playing of the Open at Royal Troon, where LIV’s own Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson staged an epic duel in 2016.
Justin Rose is another big-name player who is attempting the qualifying route into the Open. The 2013 U.S. Open champion has three top-10s in 20 Open appearances and tied for 22nd at the last championship at Royal Troon in 2016.
The qualifiers will take place at four venues, only one of which is in Scotland — Dundonald Links, which is only a few miles from Royal Troon. The others are in England: Royal Cinque Ports, West Lancashire and Burnham & Berrow.
The Open qualifying system has evolved over the years. A decade ago, the R&A made a sizable shift to get a stronger field by instituting what it calls the Open Qualifying Series — established tournaments around the world such as the Australian Open and the Genesis Scottish Open that offer spots in the field to high finishers not otherwise exempt.
Last week’s Italian Open was an opportunity for LIV’s Patrick Reed, who fell well short of being one of the top two in the field not otherwise exempt. Northern Ireland’s Tom McKiibben, who lost in an Italian Open playoff to already-exempt Marcus Siem, and American Sean Crocker earned the two spots. Reed tied for 29th.
This week’s John Deere Classic on the PGA tour as well as next week’s Genesis Scottish Open will also offer opportunities to make it to Royal Troon.
It is a long way removed from Open qualification of the past. Ben Hogan, famously, went through 36-hole qualifying at nearby Panmure Golf Club before winning at Carnoustie in his only Open appearance in 1953. He was the reigning Masters and U.S. Open champion. Didn’t matter. Everyone had to qualify.
In 1961 and 1962, Arnold Palmer won the Open and had to qualify both times.
In the mid-1960s, the Open gradually started giving exemptions to the point where by the 1990s less than 50 players were getting in through qualifying. Still, as late as 1999, two of three playoff combatants — eventual winner Paul Lawrie and infamous loser Jean Van de Velde — made it inton the field via final qualifying that was contested on the Sunday and Monday of tournament week. A total of 48 players got into the field from those events.
The Open, however, preferred a stronger field, hence its moves to inviting high finishers from established tournaments around the world. Still, there are some high-level pros and even some accomplished amateurs spread out across the Great Britain on tournament trying to make their way to Troon on Tuesday.
Cam Davis earns win after Akshay Bhatia, Min Woo Lee falter (Raj Mehta/Getty Images)
Davis gets relief in rocky Rocket Mortgage
Cam Davis felt relief. Akshay Bhatia frustration. And the unpredictability of professional golf was on full display once again Sunday afternoon at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Davis emerged the winner in Detroitfor the second time in four years, but only doing so after Bhatia painfully three-putted the final green — his only three-putt of the week and only his second bogey — to fall a shot short of forcing a playoff.
The win was the second of Davis’ career, both having come at the Detroit Golf Club, where he also won in 2021.
But this summer has been filled with anxiety and disappointment as had no finish better than 38th since he finished 12th at the Masters. That included two missed cuts, including the U.S. Open.
“I’m working with a hypnotherapist that I only just started working with, just trying to take a different approach to try and get my head back in the right place,” the Aussie said after his final-round 70 and 18-under finish was one better than a foursome including Min Woo Lee, Davis Thompson and Aaron Rai. “I honestly haven’t been in a very good place mentally at all for the last six months or so. I felt like all the opportunities have been slipping out of my hands as the year progresses without playing very good golf. I had a great week at the Masters and it feels like since then it all had just left me.
“I felt like a change of direction was definitely needed, something that I was actually going to stick to because I’m definitely someone that will start doing something and if it doesn’t feel like it’s helping straight away, it’s very easy to drop it. Sticking with the work that I’m doing has made a very big impact very quickly. I felt a lot better last week even though the score didn’t show it, and to have it turn into this this week is hard to believe really because I was not in a good place two or three weeks ago.”
Bhatia, 22, will was left questioning himself after he missed his potential 4-foot tying putt, his first miss inside 6 feet all week. Bidding for his second victory of the year after winning at the Valero Texas Open, Bhatia was looking to join some elite company along with Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Tom Kim who won three times prior to age 23.
“It sucks. Not other way to put it,” he said. “It just sucks.”
Bhatia had not made a bogey through 54 holes but shot a final-round 72.
“You’ve got so much slope there you don’t want to run it 5, 6 feet by,” he said of the late mishap, which included leaving his 32-foot birdie putt short. “Just a little bit of nerves, honestly. I’m human and the greens get slower throughout the day here; poa annua’s pretty tough. I know how to close a golf tournament. I’ve done it before. Today just wasn’t my day.”
When Davis finished, he didn’t believe it would be his, either. He figured someone would best his score and at the very least he’d be in a playoff with Bhatia. It worked out for him this time.
He’s now moved to No. 38 in the world and has assured himself a spot in next year’s Masters along with the season-opening Sentry and has positioned himself to earn an automatic spot in the 2025 signature events, in which the top 50 are assured. He’s now 40th in FedEx Cup points.
What is not locked up, however, is a spot in the Open at Royal Troon. Davis has unfortunate timing there as he moved into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking several weeks after the deadline. And the Rocket Mortgage is not an Open Qualifying Series event — the DP World Tour’s Italian Open gave two spots on Sunday.
This week’s John Deere Classic will also offer two spots into the Open.
But the good news for Davis is this: The Open typically goes by OWGR to fill reserve places. It might not be bad idea to make those plans to go to Scotland.
Frank and Hagan Bensel show off the flags at Newport CC (Kathryn Riley/USGA)
Rare pair of consecutive aces
By Peter Kaufman
Kaufman is a longtime member at Century Country Club in Purchase, N.Y.
So lightening struck not once but twice last week at Newport Country Club. It was struck by the Century Club’s own Frank Bensel, who, amazingly, had back-to-back aces in the U.S. Senior Open.
The National Hole in One Registry (I mean, who knew) calculates the odds of making two holes in one in the same round at 67 million-to-1. And yet it’s been done — just a couple of times on the PGA Tour — most recently by the Open Champion, Brian Harman, in 2015.
But back-to- back aces on consecutive holes? No one has done that. It’s a record that surely cannot be broken, and the chances of equaling it are incalculable. Not least of which because very few real golf courses have consecutive par-3s. Quaker Ridge. Newport. Ballybunion. Cypress Point. Just a couple others.
To me, though, the significance of what Frank wrought is not that he holed two consecutive tee shots — although words are inadequate to describe that. Rather, it permitted the world to know who Frank Bensel Jr is. As Frank says, “everyone at CCC knows me well and what I have done and who I am.” After 23 years at Century in Purchase, N.Y., that’s a very true statement.
Bensel has won the Met Open, NYSE Open, NY PGA, three Connecticut Opens, two Met PGAs, three National Assistant Championships, PGA National Stroke Play Championship, PGA Professional National Championship, PHA National Match Play Championships runner-up, member of winner PGA Cup team, two Westchester Open wins, three Westchester PGA wins, three Met PGA Assistant Championships and Met PGA Senior Championship.
Also, he has played in: U.S. Open, U.S Senior Open, three PGA Championships and two Senior PGAs (making the cut at Southern Hills).
At 56, he is a renowned teacher who has amassed an incredible record as a player, as well.
But none of that is much news in Purchase. It was, however, huge news in the sports world for one incredible day last week. Because the question of the day really was “who is this guy” who achieved such a feat? Beyond a circle of club members and those familiar with club pros who play some tournaments, Frank was heretofore a relative blank slate nationally.
Now? The golf world, and beyond, knows who Bensel is — terrific teacher, terrific player, huge family man (son Hagen was on his bag). As Frank says “I am proud to have a career full of accomplishments and yet, in a couple of minutes, it feels like I have become at least a footnote to golf history. It’s thrilling and exciting and great to be a part of it.”
Modestly Frank says he has had his 15 minutes of fame, and that’s the story. But because he smoked that 6-iron twice, it now resides at the USGA Museum, at its request. To Michael Block, the teaching pro who most improbably had a top-15 in last year’s PGA Championship (and an ace), Frank jokingly texted “I need a consult for how to handle this.” Block sagely responded: “Just enjoy it.”
This feat will follow Frank for the rest of his life, and how terrific is that? Those shared family moments of triumph with Hagen are likely indescribable, and certainly long-lived, as well.
For us at CCC, the real import of back-to-back Bensel aces is that we now have to share our Frank with the broader world. And that is a wonderful thing, all around.