Wolverhampton's Aaron Rai is continuing to shine on PGA Tour

The Wolverhampton-born former Shropshire & Herefordshire junior finished in a tie for seventh at the John Deere Classic, pocketing him just shy of £200,000.

It was his fourth top-20 result in a row, a week on from finishing second at the Rocket Mortgage Classic for his best finish on the PGA Tour.

Rai had led through two rounds and started his final round two shots back, but it was American Davis Thompson who claimed his first PGA Tour title and secured an Open Championship debut at the same time.

Thompson carded a closing 64 to finish 28 under par, beating the previous tournament record of 27 under set by Michael Kim in 2017.

The 25-year-old finished four shots ahead of CT Pan, Michael Thorbjornsen and amateur Luke Clanton, with Pan claiming the second Open qualifying berth by virtue of having the highest world ranking.

Rai, who finished on 21 under par, is yet to qualify for The Open at Royal Troon. He finished in a tie for 19th at last month’s US Open.

Thompson, who finished joint second in last week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic with Rai, said: “I just tried to stay present all day and when that putt finally went in it was just a big sigh of relief. It’s great.

“I’ve been working hard this year. It was OK for a while and then I kind of got going this last month and played well last week. Just tried to keep it rolling this week and was able to get the win. Qualifying for the Open was just an added incentive into this. The goal was to win the golf tournament after getting off to a great start and I was able to finish it off.”