Aaron Rai and Richard Mansell qualify for Open

The pair enjoyed fantastic final days at the Scottish Open yesterday – the final chance to reach Royal Troon later this week.

Rai carded a final-round 63 to reach 14-under, but that was bettered earlier in the day by Mansell, who equalled the course record with a superb nine-under 61 at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick.

And that left both among the top three players who were yet to qualify for The Open, securing the final tickets to the final major of the year.

Wolverhampton-born former Shropshire & Herefordshire junior Rai – who won the Scottish Open in 2020 – has five top-20 finishes in a row.

The latest saw him end the weekend in a tie for fourth on 14-under alongside the likes of major winners Rory McIlroy and Collin Morikawa – four shots behind winner Robert MacIntyre. Rai said: “I played really well. We had great conditions, it was pretty scoreable out there, I played really nice tee to green, felt a lot more comfortable with my long game especially in comparison to how I felt yesterday – that really set up a lot of opportunities at a lot of fairways – and I rolled it really well today as well. A great round overall.

“The Open wasn’t really in my thinking going into today – obviously I knew there were three spots available at the start of the week and I was aware of it yesterday, but I also felt I was so far away going into today that I didn’t feel very good with where my game was at, so it didn’t really cross my mind until the end of my round.”

Mansell, from Burntwood, revealed his own problems ahead of carding a 61 that saw him rise 44 places to make it to 13-under overall in a tie for 10th.

He said: “I’ve been struggling with my game recently – just constantly feel like I’ve been searching, not been too far away.

“I was chatting for about three hours with my manager last night and I was just moaning a little bit, as golfers do, about where my game is at and stuff like that and the way I’m playing I just can’t shoot a low round at the moment.

“He was like ‘it’s got 65 all over it’ and I was like ‘how about 61’ – anyway, I go and shoot a 61 and it’s just made me realise this game is insane, you’re never as far away as you think you are and I’m hoping that can kind of kick-start my season now.”