Lupton suffers the harshest of endings

2:05am Wednesday 9th July 2008

A DEVASTATED Jonathan Lupton last night reflected on coming so close to fulfilling his Open Championship dream by declaring: "It was such a cruel, cruel way to bow out."

The Middlesbrough Golf Club assistant pro lost to Lancashire's Gary Boyd on the sixth extra hole of a play-off for the fourth and final Open spot on offer at Southport & Ainsdale in local qualifying last night.

And Lupton, unable to hide his despondency but still able to focus on trying again next year, was left reliving every shot during two days that could well have been the best chance he will ever get to play in the Open.

"I can't afford to think like that, it was a fantastic chance, but I have to believe in myself," said Lupton, who progressed from regional qualifying last week through a play-off.

"It's a very tough qualifying system but I will try again and I have to believe that my time will come.

"But there's no hiding from the fact that this was a cruel, cruel way to bow out and it's just frustrating because I played fantastic on the first day but didn't really capitalise on that.

"In the end, instead of thinking of how things went in the second round and play-off, I'm thinking more about the fact I should have been further clear after the first round."

After putting himself in contention with a 71, one under on Monday night, Lupton could not have started any better yesterday when he birdied the first and second holes.

But, as the horrendous wind started to whirl, he bogeyed four, five and six to cancel out his good work. After steadying himself with a birdie at seven, before a further bogey at nine, he then parred every hole up to the 18th.

"I holed a 20ft putt for the birdie at the last, a few of the men around me lost their way but then an amateur (Chart Hills' Thomas Sherreard) came up from behind to shoot a 69 from nowhere which took him ahead of us all," said Lupton, 29.

It was Sherreard's heroics that ultimately left Lupton in a three-way battle for the third and fourth spots with Boyd and Stockport's Jamie Howarth.

And after Howarth sealed the first of those berths by parring the first play-off hole, when Lupton lipped out when he could also have sealed his place, the Teessider had a shoot-out with Boyd.

Both had missed opportunities but Boyd prevailed at the sixth extra hole. Lupton admitted: "It was an absolute nightmare. I still can't believe it."

At the same venue, Seaton Carew's James Harper was unable to close the gap on the leading pack and posted a second round 76. That left him on five over in tied 22nd place, some 12 shots ahead of South Moor's Hugh MacDonald.

The nearest any of the other four North-East representatives came to claiming one of the priceless places was Vince Guest.

The Teesside Golf Club member ended five shots outside the top four qualifying spots at West Lancashire, courtesy of a 79 yesterday which left him eight over.

A shot further back was Morpeth's David Clark, while Pannal amateur Duncan McCarthy posted back-to-back 77s.

At Hillside Ganton's Gary Brown turned in a worse display than Monday when he followed his opening round 77 with an 83.

It meant he was well adrift of Frenchman Jean van de Velde, a former Open runner-up, who qualified with a one under two-round total.

He managed it thanks to a last-hole birdie and the help of the crowd he had criticised 24 hours earlier.

While playing partner Danny Willett, the former amateur world number one, missed out after a closing double-bogey six, Van de Velde survived the 36-hole final qualifying at Hillside by the skin of his teeth with a one under par total of 143.

The 42-year-old, forever to be remembered for his last-hole triple-bogey seven at Carnoustie in 1999, pitched to within 18 inches of the flag on the 439-yard 18th.

But that would have been of no use if his ball had not been found in dense rough right of the 17th fairway.

''I might have taken eight on the hole, but managed to par it,'' said Van de Velde, who had asked for better control of the spectators after his opening 70.

''The crowd were on my side both days, but just a little bit too close to my side at times.

''People are trying to communicate with you, but sometimes they were so excited they got in my way and I felt I had to say something.''

Jodi Ewart of Catterick kick-started England's campaign in the European ladies' team championship with a superb course record of six-under par 66 at Stengungsund, Sweden. The six-strong team ended the day on six-under par and just one shot behind the leaders, Spain.

Ewart, 20, was the first of the English players to tee off and she set the tone for her day with a birdie on the first. She went on to score six more - and had just one bogey. Her score knocked three shots off the previous record and she leads the individual table by two shots.