Wesley Bryan’s bid to qualify for the Open Championship came down to his final hole.
Unfortunately for Bryan, the former PGA Tour player turned YouTube sensation, he missed a 7-foot par putt on the par-4 18th at West Lancashire Golf Club and ended up a shot shy of a playoff for the final spot out of Blundellsands, England, one of four final-qualifying sites on Tuesday.
After shooting 2-under 70 in his first round, Bryan birdied Nos. 16 and 17 in the afternoon to move to 8 under. But his closing bogey knocked him to T-6 at 7 under.
While Bryan, along with his brother George Bryan (2 under), won’t be teeing it up July 16-19 at Royal Birkdale, another pro with a large online following, James Nicholas, will be.
Nicholas, 29, medaled at Burnham and Berrow Golf Club in Somerset, England, and was one of four players to qualify for both summer Opens this year; the other three: LIV pair Caleb Surratt, who was second at Burnham and Berrow, and Peter Uihlein, who advanced out of Royal Cinque Ports in Deal, England, where he was fourth; and Matthew Jordan, who got through a three-for-one playoff at West Lancs.
Jordan, who was T-10 in back-to-back Opens (2023 and 2024), qualified for the U.S. Open earlier this month at Shinnecock Hills. On Tuesday, Jordan fought through what he thinks was food poisoning, birdieing two of his last three holes and then defeating fellow Englishmen Sam Easterbrook and Joe Dean with a birdie on the second playoff hole.
“I woke up last night feeling terrible ... so I was tired coming here, and once I finished 18 holes, I could feel my body giving up,” Jordan said. “Thankfully, seeing all these people, various kinds of people that I know from golf and other stuff, it gave me some adrenaline to start with and that kind of kept with me.”
The last time even one player got through both final qualifiers in the same year was Brandon Wu in 2019. That summer, Wu, then a recent grad of Stanford, became the first amateur to qualify for both Opens since Joe Carr in 1967.
Like Wu, Nicholas is a native of Scarsdale, New York. He has made the cut in each of the past two U.S. Opens and is currently No. 16 in Korn Ferry Tour points. He birdied five of his first 13 holes before surviving the last few holes in difficult conditions.
“Today was a battle,” Nicholas said. “Got off to a really, really good start, and then it was kind of, hold on, on that back side. But I love links golf ... I’ve been saying this week, it’s almost like a religious experience.”
Also at West Lancs, LIV’s Josele Ballester played his final three holes in 3 under to end up T-2 at 9 under. Ballester eagled the par-5 16th hole before nearly pulling his tee shot out of bounds at No. 18. Ballester was unaware of the internal OB on the closing hole but was fortunate his ball kicked just right of the stakes to set up a closing birdie.
“It’s funny how this game works,” said Ballester, who was coming off a second straight missed cut on the DP World Tour and a 55th-place finish in his most recent LIV start, in his native Spain, where beat just one player. “The last month and a half, it hasn’t been great, and I’ve been complaining a little too much about breaks in general, and there’s always a balance I guess, and that [bounce] was probably for all the unlucky ones I’ve gotten in the last month.”
Perhaps the coolest backstory of the 20 qualifiers on Tuesday is that of American Marcus Plunkett, who shot 3 under to advance on the number at Dundonald Links in Troon, Scotland. Plunkett graduated from West Point, where he played college golf, in 2016. He then served five years in the Army as a transportation officer, spending his first year in South Korea before transferring to Fort Carson in Colorado Springs. He also did a six-month deployment to Afghanistan.
Toward the end of his military service, Plunkett started playing golf again, breaking the record at Fort Carson’s course, Cheyenne Shadows. When he was discharged in May 2021, Plunkett decided to chase pro golf. He won the Dakotas Tour money list in 2024, then earned KFT status through Q-School later that year. However, he made just 8 of 20 cuts and finished No. 134 in points. All seven of his world-ranked starts this year have come in Asia, where he has two T-6’s on the Asian Tour.
Now, though, Plunkett will play his first career major championship.
Among the notables who didn’t advance on Tuesday: Sergio Garcia, Marc Leishman, Ollie Schniederjans, Anirban Lahiri, Thriston Lawrence, Robert Rock and Tom Lewis, plus amateurs Luke Poulter, Connor Graham, Niall Sheils Donegan, Daniel Bennett, Richard Teder and Arni Sveinsson.
Here is a look at the qualifiers from each of the four sites:
Burnham & Berrow Golf Club (Somerset, England)
- 1. James Nicholas, 65-67 – 10 under
- 2. Caleb Surratt, 67-66 – 9 under
- 3. Austen Truslow, 66-68 – 8 under
- 3. Tom Sloman, 69-65 – 8 under
- 3. a-Alejandro de Castro Piera, 65-69 – 8 under
Dundonald Links (Troon, Scotland)
- 1. Jack McDonald, 70-69 – 5 under
- 2. Matthew Baldwin, 69-71 – 4 under
- 2. a-David Howard, 69-71 – 4 under
- 4. Marcus Plunkett, 69-72 – 3 under
- 4. a-Nevill Ruiter, 71-70 – 3 under
Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club (Deal, England)
- 1. Baard Skogen, 68-64 – 12 under
- 1. MJ Daffue, 67-65 – 12 under
- 3. Matthew Southgate, 68-66 – 10 under
- 4. Peter Uihlein, 66-69 – 9 under
- 5. Antoine Rozner, 69-67 – 8 under
West Lancashire Golf Club (Blundellsands, England)
- 1. Sam Bairstow, 66-68 – 10 under
- 2. Kazuma Kobori, 70-65 – 9 under
- 2. Tiger Christensen, 65-70 – 9 under
- 2. Josele Ballester, 70-65 – 9 under.
- 3. Matthew Jordan, 69-67 – 8 under*
*defeated a-Sam Easterbrook and Joe Dean in 3-for-1 playoff
