Frenchman Thomas Levet has an extra special reason to compete in next month’s Open Championship at Muirfield.

Levet will be among 96 players teeing up on Monday in an International Qualifyier at Sunningdale and looking to secure one of the dozen spots into golf’s oldest Major.

The Frenchman was part of a four-man play-off with Stuart Appleby, Steve Elkington and Ernie Els after the final round of The Open at the East Lothian venue in 2002.

After the four-hole play-off, Levet was tied with Els but on the first sudden death hole it was the South African who holed from four feet on the 18th green to clinch victory and lift the Claret Jug.

Levet has not competed in an Open Championship since missing the cut in 2010 and he then had to sit out the 2011 Open at Royal St. George’s after breaking a bone in his leg two week’s earlier after his French Open victory jump into a water hazard.

He entered qualifying last year but was unsuccessful.

Several winners on the European Race to Dubai Tour this year will lead the field including South African Richard Sterne, who won his sixth event on Tour at the Joburg Open in February.

England’s Chris Wood, the Silver Medal winner at The Open in 2008, won his first event on the European Tour at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in January. The 26-year-old, who finished in a tie for third at The Open in 2009, will be expected to make a challenge.

Australian Brett Rumford will be high on confidence following his wins in the Ballantine’s Championship and the Volvo China Open in consecutive weeks in April and May. The Scottish challenge will be spearheaded by Stephen Gallacher, who won the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in February, and Scott Jamieson, who won his first event on Tour at the Nelson Mandela Championship presented by ISPS Handa in South Africa in December.

However Dane Thomas Bjorn, who finished second behind Ben Curtis at The Open at Royal St George’s in 2003 and then fourth at the same venue in 2011, indicated here in Munich he will not compete on Monday although his name is currently on the entries list.

Other players to look out for in the qualifying event include former Ryder Cup player Ross Fisher, who looked set to challenge for The Open in 2009 before falling away to finish in a tie for 13th, and 23-year-old American Peter Uihlein could figure after claiming his first win on Tour at the Madeira Islands Open last month.

Ryder Cup Captain Paul McGinley and his predecessor Jose Maria Olazabal are also in the field alongside Tom Lewis, the Silver Medal winner in The Open in 2011, and former Amateur Champion Graeme Storm, who won IFQ Europe in 2009 and 2011.

In addition to Fisher, six of last year’s qualifiers will be at Sunningdale: Lee Slattery, Alejandro Canizares, Matthew Baldwin, James Morrison, Sam Walker and Oliver Fisher.

For the draw and full hole-by-hole scores from IFQ Europe please visit TheOpen.com. Live updates can be followed @The_Open on Twitter.