Barclay Brown emulates Matt Fitzpatrick by qualifying for Open as Sam Bairstow, Marcus Armitage and John Parry reach St Andrews

Seventy-two golfers from a wide spectrum of former Ryder Cup players to club professionals and budding amateurs teed it up bidding for one of just four spots in the field at St Andrews next month.

It was a scene echoed at three other courses in England and Scotland and it wasn’t money on their minds – only the top four received any prize money – but a small part in history with next month being the 150th staging of the game’s oldest major championship.

One young man who will make the journey is Sheffield amateur Barclay Brown of Hallamshire Golf Club, who burst out of the blocks to shoot a four-under par 68 over the first 18 holes at Hollinwell and then held firm with a 72 in the afternoon when the wind picked up and the ground hardened.

Customarily for an early finisher, the wait can be a nervous one, but no one was going to come close to his four-under-par total and nobody did, Brown winning by three shots.

“I’m really excited, obviously, I’ve wanted to play in the Open all my life,” Brown told The Yorkshire Post.

“I can’t wait, for it to be at St Andrews as well will be really cool.

“I’m proud of myself, I had a little wobble there in the second round but I was pleased with how I managed to hold on.

“I did look when the scoreboards came round,” he admitted, “but I wasn’t really looking on my phone every hole, I just looked every seven or eight holes.

“Fortunately I managed to start well enough that I didn’t need to worry too much, I just knew I needed to hang on, I wasn’t chasing.”

At 21 and with a Walker Cup appearance, a Carris Trophy win and three years of US collegiate golf at Stanford University behind him, he is an amateur in status only.

As he showed at Hollinwell he has all the shots of a professional, hitting the ball low into the wind to narrow the margin for error as he looked to protect his lead coming in.

“In that wind I was just trying to get the golf ball on the ground as soon as I could, in the air was the only way I could go wrong,” said Brown, who posted a birdie on the par-five 17th for a bit of breathing room.

“My mindset today was you just know that you need a really good day and if you get off to the right kind of start, which fortunately I was able to, then it puts you in a great position.

“There’s not really that much to lose, you just go out and play your best. It’s not happened to me before in this or in the US Open qualifying, but I’ve finally got one done.”

This is not the first time an amateur from Hallamshire has qualified for the Open.

Nine years ago an 18-year-old Matt Fitzpatrick booked a place at Muirfield via Open final qualifying and he didn’t turn out too bad.

“Matt was obviously playing some of the best golf some of us have ever watched at the US Open, that was unbelievable,” said Brown of Fitzpatrick’s US Open triumph a week ago.

“It’s inspiring for me, I feel like it resonated with me much more so than a Tiger or a Rory who I’ve never met and just watched on the television all my life.

“With Matt I’ve seen him put in the work, I know from him what it takes to get to that level and it’s a lot of hard work.”

Brown will be joined at St Andrews by another Yorkshire amateur in Sam Bairstow (Hallowes) who shot eight-under par to lead the field at St Annes Old Links and secure qualification for the Open for a second straight year.

The achievement, courtesy of successive rounds of 68, comes just a week after he made it all the way to the final of the British Amateur Championship over the same course.

Howley Hall professional Marcus Armitage, a winner on the European Tour last year, joins Bairstow in qualifying from St Annes Old Links having matched the left-hander on eight-under par at the top of the leaderboard following a second-round 67 to add to his earlier 69.

And John Parry, a winner on the European Tour back in 2014, rediscovered some of his old magic by prevaling in a two-man play-off to book the final qualifying spot from St Annes.

Parry, 36, from Harrogate, defeated Daniel Kay on the second sudden-death play-off hole after earlier rounds of 70, 68.

Other qualifiers from Hollinwell included Marco Penge, Richard Mansell and Oliver Farr while Ilkley’s William Whiteoak was under par for a time in his second round before fading over the closing holes.