Marco Penge

Penge shot a superb second-round 65, nine better than his opening effort, to take the second of four Royal Liverpool places up for grabs in the Final Qualifying event at Dundonald Links on July 4.

Last year he grabbed the final spot at Hollinwell, his level-par aggregate good enough to book a first major championship start at St Andrews.

It came a month after a second place finish on the European Challenge Tour in the Czech Republic.

“Being from Great Britain The Open is our home major and the history of the event just makes it unbelievable,” he said. “Last year was the best week of my life. I remember leaving that week - I didn’t play well and was quite disappointed - and saying to my team I want to be back here. The feeling that you get is something else.”

At five-over-par after 13 holes at Dundonald the chances of that happening were fast fading, but he described his second round as “awesome”.

Penge won the Scottish stroke play title at 17 in 2015 and was the winner of the boys' Order of Merit that season.

He missed seven months following knee surgery and went to this year’s Final Qualifying on the back of three successive missed cuts on the Challenge Tour, but prior to that was fourth in the D+D Real Czech Challenge.