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Buckle makes trans-Atlantic dash to Open

Andrew Buckle made a last-minute trans-Atlantic dash on Tuesday to take his place alongside the world's elite at The Open Championship.

The Australian, who is presently third on the Asian Tour's UBS Order of Merit, earned a place in the year's third major following the withdrawal of South African Trevor Immelman, who left Royal Liverpool for the arrival of his child in the United States.

Buckle, the first alternate, will take over Immelman's place in the draw, which is a mouth-watering two rounds with major winner Davis Love III of the United States and big Dane Thomas Bjorn.

It took the talented Aussie 10 hours to fly from Missouri to Royal Liverpool where he landed at 7am local time but four hours later, he was already playing a practice round with India's Shiv Kapur, making hurried preparations for his second appearance at The Open.

"I heard about this yesterday. I was in Springfield, Missouri and it was pretty hectic to get here. I knew that I was first alternate, so I had made some bookings. And once I found out that I was in, I just paid for the ticket and jumped on a plane," said Buckle.

"I'm pretty tired now, but I wouldn't miss this for the world. I wasn't really expecting to get in. I didn't think anyone would pull out and I initially didn't realise I could get in as an alternate off the world rankings as I'd tried to qualify earlier," said Buckle, who is presently ranked 80th in the world.

He featured at The Open at Royal Troon in 2004 and is ready for another crack at a major after an impressive start to the 2006 season. He finished runner-up twice at the TCL Classic in China and Enjoy Jakarta HSBC Indonesia Open, both events co-sanctioned with Europe, before going on to win on the Nationwide Tour in the US recently.

"I played at Troon and it was pretty awesome. My game is alright right now and we'll see what happens," said Buckle.

July 19, 2006