Golf:Gareth Maybin will make his first appearance at one of golf's major championship next month after coming through local qualifying for the US Open at Walton Heath outside London this evening.
For the rest of the five-strong Irish contingent it was a case of nothing ventured, nothing gained, but Maybin booked his place at Pebble Beach thanks to a sparkling second round 65 in the 36-hole event.
After opening with a 71 on the New Course at the Surrey Venue, the 29-year-old from Belfast turned on the style after lunch to finish tied for third place. Just 11 of the 77 players in the field qualify for the second major of the year.
Maybin’s round of 65 was the joint lowest of the afternoon, although his effort was perhaps the more impressive given that he was playing the tougher Old Course.
He said: “I played poorly this morning, but I changed my driver for the second round, and it seemed to do the job. It was one of my better decisions on a golf course. One of my goals at the start of the season was to get into a major, so I’m pretty pleased I managed to accomplish it.”
Darren Clarke, Shane Lowry, Peter Lawrie and Gary Murphy all failed to negotiate a path to the Californian coast.
Simon Khan, European golf’s man of the moment, kept a smile on his face all day — even when he was the one to lose out in a six-man play-off for five places.
Long after Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie had missed out by three shots, new BMW PGA champion Khan was through to Pebble Beach until Swede Rikard Karlberg birdied his last-but-one hole in the final group.
It meant more work and Khan, understandably exhausted by then after getting “hardly any sleep”, was the only one of the sextet not to birdie the first hole of sudden death.
“Unbelievable — I thought one of them would miss,” said the 37-year-old after seeing Karlberg make a 25-footer and then French pair Gregory Havret and Jean-Francois Lucquin hole from 15 and 14 feet respectively.
Already through the play-off by then were Spaniard Pablo Martin and Finn Mikko Ilonen, while the qualifier was earlier won by England’s James Morrison by two strokes from Argentina’s Rafa Echenique and by three from Rhys Davies, Maybin, Gary Boyd and Rafael Cabrera-Bello.
Khan might still earn a place in the second major of the year as the first reserve from the course, but having changed his life by winning the European Tour’s flagship event at the weekend there will be no tears if that does not happen.
Montgomerie blamed poor putting today for failing in his bid to qualify for a trip to the course on which he finished third on his debut in 1992. The 46-year-old Scot’s two rounds of 70 meant he missed out on the play-off by three shots.
“It’s very disappointing. I had an opportunity to get to eight under easy, but missed too many putts as usual,” he said. “Same old story for six years. I’ll try again at Sunningdale.”
That was a reference to the Open Championship qualifier in two weeks’ time, when he will be trying to earn a return to St Andrews, scene of his runner-up finish to Tiger Woods five years ago.
Maybin will join Rory McIlroy, Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell in the field at Pebble Beach. McDowell was able to skip today’s qualifiers after hanging on to a place in the top 50 of the world rankings thanks to his 28th placed finish in the BMW PGA Championship.
He could have been bumped out by events on the US Tour, but none of his main challengers were able to get the results they needed.
As well as earning a spot at Pebble Beach next month McDowell is also now exempt for July’s Open at St Andrews.
Brian Gay, Scott Verplank and Michael Sim were the key men to him at the Byron Nelson Classic.
If they had all birdied the last hole McDowell would have lost out, but Gay and Verplank parred to finish joint second and joint fifth respectively, while Sim bogeyed and dropped to 23rd.