The season of The Open, "the world's oldest golf tournament," has returned.
The Open, the final men's golf major of the season and in its 154th edition this year, begins on the 16th. It returns to Royal Birkdale in Southport, England, for the first time in nine years. Jordan Spieth of the United States won there in 2017.
The field is set at 156 players, but it is not yet fully finalized. The 156th and final player will be decided through the Last-Chance Qualifier.
The R&A, which organizes The Open, announced on the 7th the list of 12 players who will compete in the Last-Chance Qualifier on the 13th. They will gather at Royal Birkdale on Monday morning local time and play 18 holes in four groups of three starting at 7:30 a.m. Only one of them will stand on the tee box for the coveted main draw on Thursday.
On tour, the Monday Qualifier has often produced human-triumph stories. These are tales of longtime unknowns, up-and-comers, or amateur golfers who pass the Monday Qualifier to earn a ticket to the main event and seize a chance to change their lives through an all-out effort.
A prime example is Arjun Atwal, who won the PGA Tour's Wyndham Championship in 2010. Having passed the Monday Qualifier for that event, he went all the way to victory, becoming the first PGA Tour champion from India. Atwal's world ranking at the time was No. 450. He was better known as a practice partner of "Emperor of Golf" Tiger Woods. Korean-American Noh Ye-rim of the LPGA Tour also began making a name for herself when she finished runner-up at the 2019 Portland Classic, which she reached through the Monday Qualifier.
Last month, Kim Joo-hyung emerged from a slump by finishing solo third — his best-ever result at the tournament — at the U.S. Open, which he reached through regional qualifying. The prize money for solo third was a staggering 2.3 billion won.
The Open's Last-Chance Qualifier is a kind of final audition, bringing together the top-ranked players among those who failed to earn a spot in the main draw even through regional qualifying. It amounts to a very rare Monday Qualifier for a major. It is an R&A "experiment" being held for the first time this year.
R&A Chief Executive Mark Darbon said, "It is one of several attempts we have introduced for the continued development of The Open and to enhance the spectator experience," adding, "It will be able to create drama and excitement from early in the week when the tournament begins."
Among the 12 final challengers is a "long-drive monster" who can send a driver shot 370 yards, as well as a YouTube star boasting 900,000 subscribers.
Aldrich Potgieter of South Africa has the highest world ranking (No. 77) among the 12 challengers. He is also the winner of last year's PGA Tour Rocket Classic. He boasts an overpowering driver shot exceeding 370 yards, but this year he has missed the cut in seven of his 15 events.
If Potgieter and Wesley Bryan compete for victory in the Last-Chance Qualifier, the drama and excitement will reach a climax, just as CEO Darbon said.
Bryan is a golfer who has also won on the PGA Tour (the 2017 RBC Heritage). He is now more familiar as the operator of the popular YouTube channel "Bryan Bros Golf." The "YouTube Championship" content, in which he competes against featured players, has racked up more than 5 million views.
Bryan narrowly missed a ticket to the main event this year after missing a short par putt on the final hole of The Open qualifying. To achieve his second Open appearance, he must overcome not only Potgieter but also Matthew Schmid, who boasts a tied-for-fourth finish at the PGA Championship; Joe Dean, who recorded a top-25 finish at last year's Open; Adri Arnaus, winner of the 2022 DP World Tour Catalunya Championship; and Angel Hidalgo, who defeated Jon Rahm to win the 2024 Spanish Open.
Whether the "nail-biting" 18-hole showdown at 12-to-1 odds will become the secret sauce that makes The Open even more flavorful remains to be seen.
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