The Australian born trio of Aaron Townsend, Nick Cullen and Ashley Hall braved strong winds and lightning to qualify for the 2012 Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes after finishing top three at the Australasian International Final Qualifying.
In very windy conditions for a second day running, including gusts reaching 91 kph on the Kingston Heath course in Melbourne, and with lightning forcing a two-hour suspension to play, Townsend eventually finished atop the leaderboard with a 4-under-par two round tally of 140.
Australians Aaron Townsend, Nick Cullen and Ashley Hall qualify for the 2012 Open Championship at Australasia International Final Qualifying (IFQ.
“It was such a grind out there today it was so hard to hit the right club any kind of distance so it was just a guessing game,” said Townsend
“Thankfully my short game was brilliant, I was able to hit the ball up and down a lot and just keep things going along in the right direction.
“It’s fantastic it’s going to finally sink in over tonight and tomorrow but I couldn’t be happier.”
Cullen and Hall, along with 52-year old Peter Senior finished tied for second at 1-under par.
Senior had contested his first Open Championship at Royal Lytham 32 years ago but then faced an anxious wait before Hall went on to birdie the 18th to join him.
Cullen bogeyed his final hole to give up his outright second place and join Senior and Hall in a playoff.
However Cullen and Hall secured a place in their first Open Championship with a birdie while Senior missed out in recording a par.
Hall also will make his debut in The Open after previous attemps saw him miss out.
“It’s amazing I have been thinking about this ever since they brought the IFQ out to Australia so I have had a few goes at this, at least five or six, so I am pretty pumped right now,” said Hall.
“This is exactly like the British Open is going to be, my short game is going to be important so I just have to stay pretty patient and I was patient today.”
For all three this will be their first trip to a Major Championship yet 27-year-old Cullen, the youngest of the trio isn’t intimidated by the prospect.
“I really haven’t had time to think about it too much, of course you always dream of playing majors when you are a kid and playing next to the best guys in the world and I am just looking forward to a chance to do that,” said Cullen.
“I think I’ll go well, I like the wind and as long as I work hard I think I will do alright,” he added.
The Open Championship will be played at Royal Lytham and St Annes from 15 – 22ndJuly 2012.
