Andrew Dodt didn’t win the battle but he did claim the war, of sorts. The 31-year-old Newcastle-based Queenslander is into the field of his first Major championship after a tie for the fourth place at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open overnight earned one of the final spots in this week’s British Open.
With three places at Royal Birkdale on offer at the Scottish Open, Dodt claimed the last of those three thanks to a gritty 72nd-hole par to retain a piece of fourth places and pip Englishman Anthony Wall on a world ranking-based countback for the Open berth. Dodt had begun the final round at Dundonald Links in a tie for the lead, but a closing 73 left him five shots out of the playoff won by Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello.
While delighted to be making both his British Open and Major-championship debut, the late entry means Dodt will have to delay a planned holiday to New York that his wife had flown across the planet to begin with him today. Instead, the couple is heading south from Scotland to Southport on the north-west coast of England.
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Dodt is the 11th Australian into the field for the 146th playing of the Open Championship, which begins on Thursday. The other 10 are: Jason Day, Adam Scott, Marc Leishman, Cameron Smith, Aaron Baddeley, Scott Hend, Ash Hall, Matthew Griffin, Adam Bland and Ryan McCarthy. No Aussie has lifted the claret jug since Greg Norman in 1993 – currently our longest drought in any of the four men’s Majors.
