Kent’s hopefuls saw their Open Championship ambitions come to an end after falling short in final qualifying for this year’s tournament at Royal Portrush.
The 153rd staging of golf’s oldest major takes place between July 17-20 and four venues staged final qualifying on Tuesday, including Royal Cinque Ports, where 72 players competed over 36 holes.
There were five qualifiers from each venue and it was South African Dean Burmester who led the way at Royal Cinque Ports, finishing at 10-under-par after round one leader and fellow LIV golfer David Puig suffered a dramatic reversal of fortunes on his second circuit of the Deal links course.
Puig’s first round score of 64 – a course record – left him well placed for a spot at The Open but he followed it up with a second round of 76 to drop out of contention.
Burmester matched that record with a sensational second round to claim his place at Portrush and said: “That’s one of the best rounds of golf I’ve played. It was just flawless from the get-go.
“From the first hole it looked like every putt was going to go in and that’s pretty much what happened for the next 17 holes.”
Of the Kent golfers in action at Deal, home hopeful Sam Smitherman carded rounds of 76 and 79 to finish at 11-over-par after 36 holes.
Chart Hills’ Ash Tarchetti was among those who had qualified from last week’s regional heats at Rochester & Cobham Park but he was also 11-over on the day to finish tied-52nd.
Amateur golfer Oliver Lewis-Perkins (Mid Kent) fared better but was still well adrift of the leading players with a six-over-par score of 150.
Rochester & Cobham pair Jack Lee and Carl Burrows were also in action. Both had come through a play-off at their home course the week before to keep their Open dream alive.
Lee had rounds of 73 and 77 to finish six-over while Burrows was +14 on the day.
Burmester qualified with Englishmen Nathan Kimsey and Curtis Knipes, who both finished the day on six-under-par, Sebastian Cave who was a shot further back at five-under and Denmark’s John Axelsen who took the fifth and final place at four-under-par.
Ian Poulter missed out on qualifying after finishing one-under par, tied-13th alongside his son Luke.
Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell – the 2010 US Open champion – grew up playing at Royal Portrush and was among the familiar names at the Kent venue, flying in from Dallas to compete, but he missed out on qualifying to play on his hometown course after also finishing at one-under.
Kent players were also in action further afield, with Daniel Brown (Sene Valley), Luke Jenkins (Rochester & Cobham), Craig Sutherland (Growing Golf Poult Wood) and Francis McGuirk (Chart Hills) all taking on the Championship Course at Burnham & Berrow in Somerset.
Justin Rose had qualified from the venue last year and ended up finishing tied-second behind victorious Xander Schauffele at Royal Troon.
Poult Wood professional Sutherland was in the running after his impressive first round score of 65, which left him joint top of the leaderboard, but he was unable to replicate that second time around, scoring 76 to leave him tied-13th.
Brown was three-over-par with a score of 145, Jenkins eight-over and McGuirck six shots further back.
