LIV Golf stars in playoff for Open spot - and Bryson DeChambeau's teammate misses out

Abraham Ancer has booked his place at The Open Championship

LIV Golf star Abraham Ancer survived a scare to qualify for The Open at Royal Troon. The Mexican was in cruise control midway through his second round at Burnham and Berrow Golf Club on Tuesday, but a triple-bogey six at left him nervously waiting to see if he would sneak into a playoff.

Justin Rose and Cambridge-born amateur Dominic Clemons qualified automatically after tying at the top of the leaderboard with scores of eight-under-par in Somerset. They finished three shots clear of Ancer, fellow LIV star Anirban Lahiri and Sweden's Charlie Lindh, who went into a three-for-two playoff for the final places up for grabs at the 152nd Open later this month.

Lahiri, a member of Bryson DeChambeau's Crushers team on LIV, was the man to miss out in the fading light and stiff wind rolling in off the Bristol Channel. He bogeyed the first playoff hole, with Lindh and Ancer getting down for par to book their trips to Scotland.

Lindh held his nerve in the playoff, narrowly missing the fairway with his tee shot, but he bounced back in style with a stunning approach that left 15ft for birdie and a place at Royal Troon. The 26-year-old, who travels to Morroco on Wednesday for an Asian Tour International Series event, was a little heavy-handed with his birdie putt, but he holed the three-footer coming back to secure a trip to Scotland.

"That's going to be the most exciting week of my life," Lindh told the Mirror. "This has been the most fun I've ever had, with my brother [Samuel] on the bag. We had so much fun out there. It was a great day."

At the other qualifier at West Lancashire, Sam Horsfield booked his spot at The Open at Royal Troon. However, fellow LIV star Sergio Garcia narrowly missed out.

After qualifying Horsfield told the Mirror the important role his teammates on the breakaway league, the experienced Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, have played in his progression.

"[Westwood and Poulter] have massively [helped], and not just on golf course stuff," he told Mirror Sport at West Lancashire. "Westy over the years has been known as one of the best drivers of a golf ball to ever play.

"Then obviously Ian has an unbelievable short game, one of the best I have ever seen. So I am always picking his brain about how to hit certain chips from different lies, hitting pitching wedges, not just the typical American lob wedge you know, play different shots.

"I think he learned some of his stuff from Seve [Ballesteros] so it has sort of made its way down. They are also obviously great company, a great group of guys."

Matthew Dodd-Berry, Daniel Brown and Masahiro Kawamura qualified alongside Horsfield at West Lancs. Matthew Southgate, Elvis Smylie, Jaime Montojo and Luis Masaveu were the four men who made the cut at Royal Cinque Ports in Kent, while Sam Hutsby, Angel Hidalgo, Liam Nolan and Jack McDonald were the top four at Dundonald Links in Scotland.