Golf · European Tour

Drysdale to make belated major debut

Seventeen years after he played as a marker for John Daly in The Open Scotland's David Drysdale will finally make his major championship debut at Turnberry next month.

Helped by the 10th hole-in-one of his career, the 34-year-old shot rounds of 65 and 66 to grab one of the 10 places on offer at the qualifying tournament at Sunningdale today.

After nine previous attempts to qualify without success Drysdale said: 'I can't wait. I've got the next two weeks off and I'd love to go over and have maybe a couple of games there.'

As a leading local amateur in 1992 Drysdale was called on to partner first Roger Chapman and then Daly in the first group out in the third and fourth rounds when otherwise they would have played on their own.

'I was 17 and it was a big buzz. It would be just great if I got to play with Daly again - he was fantastic.'

Drysdale, whose ace came on the 217-yard 10th hole of the New Course, has reason to believe that anything will be possible.

Ten years ago he was in the same qualifying event as Paul Lawrie and out-scored him by six in the opening round, but then he missed out while Lawrie went on to win at Carnoustie.

Ireland's Shane Lowry, winner of the Irish Open as an amateur last month, had his lowest round as a professional this morning but a level par 70 on the New Course still left the 22-year-old with a lot of work to do when he switched courses in the afternoon.

To make matters worse, before he went out again for his second round at 11.24am he complained about having to make do with a sandwich and chocolate bar because they had stopped serving breakfast in the clubhouse and had not started lunch.

Additional reporting courtesy of www.europeantour.com

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RTÉ.ie Sport: Scotland's David Drysdale is looking forward to the possibility of pitting his wits against John Daly (above) at Turnberry next month
Scotland's David Drysdale is looking forward to the possibility of pitting his wits against John Daly (above) at Turnberry next month
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