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Kenneth Ferrie clinches Open spot

Britain's Kenneth Ferrie clinched the 14th and final British Open spot available from the European leg of international qualifying after a five-way playoff at Sunningdale Golf Club on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old Englishman holed a 25-foot birdie putt at the first extra hole to earn his third Open appearance at the expense of compatriots David Geall and Tom Whitehouse, Sweden's Henrik Stenson and Frenchman Jean-Francois Lucquin.

"This feels really good," Ferrie told Reuters. "When it comes down to five guys fighting for just one spot, you need a bit of luck -- a long putt or something like that.

"I played the two rounds yesterday really well and must have had eight or nine putts from the same sort of distance. Not all of them went in, a few lipped out, but I've been reading the pace of these greens very well."

The unfortunate Stenson, bidding to qualify for his second British Open, missed his birdie attempt from just six feet.

Geall and Whitehouse bogeyed the par-four opening hole on Sunningdale's New Course while Lucquin ran up a double-bogey six.

The quintet had finished on four-under-par 136 in the 36-hole qualifier on Monday when fading light prevented any chance of starting the sudden-death playoff.

Ferrie, who missed the cut in his British Open debut in 2003 and tied for 42nd at Royal Troon last year, was delighted to be making his third appearance in the major at the home of golf.

"This is the pinnacle, this is the one everyone wants to play in," he said.

"Just as all golfers want to play a U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, you can't get any better than an Open championship at St Andrews. I can't wait for it to start."

A field of 120 had teed off at Sunningdale on Monday in pursuit of a place in the third major championship of the year.

Britons Ian Woosnam, Peter Baker, Andrew Oldcorn, Alastair Forsyth, Simon Dyson, John Bickerton, Simon Khan, Robert Coles, Andrew Butterfield and Robert Rock, Irishman Peter Lawrie, Australia's Marcus Fraser and Swede Patrick Sjoland booked their berths by finishing on 135 or better after the 36 regulation holes.

International qualifiers were introduced by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club last year to make it more convenient and less expensive for overseas-based players to qualify for the world's oldest major championship.

Four other qualifiers were held this year -- in South Africa, Australia, Malaysia and in the U.S.

One hundred and thirty-two players are now exempt for next month's 134th British Open at St Andrews, where American Todd Hamilton will defend the title he won last year in a playoff with Ernie Els.

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