'Top spot'

James Kingston earns top spot in Open qualifying

01/09/2004 4:51pm BST
South Africa's James Kingston earned a place in this year's Open Championship with victory at the International Final Qualifying-Africa event, played at Atlantic Beach near Cape Town.

The 38-year-old added a second round three-under 69 to his first round 66 for a 36-hole aggregate of nine-under par 135 at the windswept par-72 layout.

Compatriot Tjaart van der Walt finished second with a six-under-par total of 138 after a 71. He shared second place with joint overnight leader Louis Oosthuizen as both claimed their entry tickets to the 133rd Open at Royal Troon in July.

There were just four places available to the 60-man field and the final place had to be decided in a play-off between 47-year-old American Bruce Vaughan and South Africa's Grant Muller.

At the par-five first hole Muller sank a four-foot birdie putt to claim the final automatic place with Vaughan as the first alternate should one of the four pull out or qualify through World Ranking points or Order of Merit standing before the Open takes place.

But the day belonged to Kingston, who last year secured his playing card on the European Tour, as he dominated the course where he won the Atlantic Beach Classic on the Sunshine Tour in 2001.

"It's great to know that I'm going to be in the Open," an elated Kingston said. It makes a big difference to your schedule knowing that you are in the field for Troon because now I won't have to try and play at some event that I don't want to, just to earn enough money to be high enough on the Order of Merit to make it."

Van der Walt left almost immediately after his round to fly to Hawaii where he is starting his campaign on the US PGA Tour at the Sony Open after securing his card last year.

The 21-year-old Oosthuizen carded a level par 72 following a 66 on Thursday, which ensured he will tee it up at Troon. "It is a dream come true to play in The Open," he said.

"My original goal was to finish in the top 60 on the European Order of Merit and this is just a big bonus."

Muller nearly pulled out of the event to spend more time with his two sons before embarking on the six week Sunshine Tour. "Just spending four days away from my sons is a long time and I seriously thought about pulling out," Muller said. "Of course I'm glad I didn't now.

"It was great that the Royal and Ancient Golf Club brought qualifying here because a lot of guys would never have got the opportunity to try and qualify - it is just too expensive to go there."

Vaughan lost out on an automatic start at The Open after he defied the odds with a three-under 69 to reach the play-off, having played just four rounds in the last two and a half months due to problems with his left knee.

"I have had three surgeries in the last 18 months and I only played two tournaments last year because of my knee," Vaughan said.

Shaun Norris, who finished on his own in sixth place on three under par, claimed the second reserve spot behind Vaughan and six players - Desvonde Botes, Simon Hurd, Michael Lamb, Alan McLean, Richard Sterne and Dean van Staden were involved in a sudden-death play-off for the third and fourth alternate spots.

Englishman Hurd and Botes claimed the places after the other four dropped out with bogies at the par-four 10th. Hurd then birdied the par-four 18th to become the third alternate with Botes fourth.

FULL SCORES
*--1 James Kingston	Rustenburg	66-69--135 -9
* T2 Louis Oosthuizen	Pinnacle Point	66-72--138 -6
* T2 Tjaart Van Der Walt	Dainfern	67-71--138 -6
* T4 Grant Muller	Glenvista	69-71--140 -4
?1 T4 Bruce Vaughan	Unattached	71-69--140 -4
?2-6 Shaun Norris	Silver Lakes	72-69--141 -3
?4 T7 Desvonde Botes	Pecanwood	72-70--142 -2
?3 T7 Simon Hurd	England	73-69--142 -2
T7 Michael Lamb	Chapman	74-68--142 -2
T7 Alan McLean	Atlantic Beach	71-71--142 -2
T7 Richard Sterne	Pretoria	70-72--142 -2
T7 Dean Van Staden	ERPM	71-71--142 -2
--13 Peter Jespersen	Denmark	72-71--143 -1
T14 Tyrol Auret	Pollak Park	70-74--144 Par
T14 Bradley Davison	Bluff National Park	71-73--144 Par
T16 Andre Bossert	Switzerland	73-72--145 +1
T16 Rolf Muntz	Netherlands	70-75--145 +1
T16 Charl Schwartzel	Zorgvliet	75-70--145 +1
T16 Hennie Walters	Stellenbosch	72-73--145 +1
T20 Andrew Coltart	Scotland	75-71--146 +2
T20 Joe Daley	USA	72-74--146 +2
T20 Craig Lile	Westlake	71-75--146 +2
T20 David Ryan	Kloof	73-73--146 +2
T24 Jean Hugo	Stellenbosch	70-77--147 +3
T24 Andrew McLardy	Randpark	78-69--147 +3
T24 Alan Michell	Clovelly	72-75--147 +3
T27 Hendrik Buhrmann	Roodepoort	74-74--148 +4
T27 Andrew Butterfield	England	74-74--148 +4
T27 Andre Cruse	Johannesburg	74-74--148 +4
T27 Warrick Druian	Houghton	76-72--148 +4
T27 Scott Dunlap	USA	72-76--148 +4
T27 Darren Fichardt	Castletown Links	70-78--148 +4
T27 Bafana Hlophe	Soweto	75-73--148 +4
T34 Michiel Bothma	Woodhill	73-76--149 +5
T34 Sean Farrell	Borrowdale Brooke	76-73--149 +5
T36 Ian Hutchings	Glendower	72-78--150 +6
T36 Christopher Williams	Modderfontein	78-72--150 +6
T38 Sandeep Grewal	England	73-78--151 +7
T38 Keith Horne	Sparrebosch	73-78--151 +7
T38 Douglas McCabe	Witbank	71-80--151 +7
T41 Martin Du Toit	Paarl	72-80--152 +8
T41 Joachim Larsen	Denmark	76-76--152 +8
T43 Justin Hobday	Centurion	73-80--153 +9
T43 Martin Maritz	Pretoria	70-83--153 +9
T43 Doug McGuigan	Scotland	74-79--153 +9
T43 Omar Sandys	Oppenheimer Park	81-72--153 +9
T47 Trevor Fisher	Modderfontein	75-79--154 +10
T47 Brett Liddle	ERPM	73-81--154 +10
T47 Ciaran McMonagle	Rep of Ireland	75-79--154 +10
T50 David Dixon	England	76-79--155 +11
T50 Tim Rice	Rep of Ireland	77-78--155 +11
T52 Fredrik Henge	Sweden	75-81--156 +12
T52 Nicholas Lawrence	BMT Sports Mgt	76-80--156 +12
T52 Leonard Loxton	Witbank	82-74--156 +12
T55 Henk Alberts	Pretoria	74-83--157 +13
T55 Clinton Whitelaw	Glendower	75-82--157 +13
57 Vaughn Groenewald	Zwartkop	76-83--159 +15
58 James Loughnane	Rep of Ireland	84-81--165 +21