Dan Bradbury's Open dilemma as he looks to rekindle winning vibes

The 26-year-old booked a spot at Royal Liverpool and Troon the past two years by virtue of his performances at the Joburg Open, winning it in November 2022 and finishing third 12 months later.

But despite adding the Open de France title to his CV last autumn, he has been unable to secure a ticket back to the game’s premier event, which this July takes place at the popular Northern Ireland venue.

Like many of his fellow DP World Tour professionals, he will get plenty of chances through winning tournaments between now and then, or through the Open qualifier at the start of July.

But the placement of that 36-hole shootout on Tuesday, July 1, is proving problematic as he plots a schedule in a busy summer of golf.

“I don’t know about Open qualifying yet, I’m not sure the R&A want tour players to enter it because they’ve put it on a Tuesday of a tournament week,” Bradbury told The Yorkshire Post ahead of a return to action in Turkey on Thursday after more than a month off.

“So if you play 36 holes of qualifying you won’t get to Munich until the Wednesday and you’re knackered and you’ve ruined that week. And there’s not enough spots on offer.”

It means his best chance of getting into a major field this year could be via US Open qualifying, which is on a Monday at Surrey’s Walton Heath in a little over two weeks’ time.

“At US Open qualifying you’ve got 80 to 100 guys and there’s eight to 10 spots,” he said.

“Open qualifying it’s 100 guys for three spots.”

Instead of playing the Open, Bradbury could take the opportunity of playing the co-sanctioned DP World Tour and PGA Tour double-headers in America in July, which might offer him a passport to longer-term ambitions more swiftly, were he to do well in those weeks.

What muddies the water for him though is that his win in Paris last year got him into the Scottish Open, which is now one of the premier events on the DP World Tour as it shares PGA Tour status and has a stellar field.

“Because I’m in the Scottish Open, which is great, I may not get to the American events because there’ll only be the one of Open week available for me. So some planning to do,” said Bradbury.

“If you don’t even try for the Open you’re guaranteed a PGA Tour event, and if you go and win that PGA Tour event you get a PGA Tour card.

“I really don’t think the Open want us guys to qualify with where they’ve positioned the qualifier on a Tuesday.”

Ideally, Bradbury would play himself into the Open field by winning a tournament, or even finish high enough up the leaderboard the week before at the Scottish Open.

To do that, he appreciates his scoring needs to improve.

The last six weeks since he last competed on tour in Singapore have been about resting, recharging the batteries, and working on his game for a busy summer ahead.

Since his win in France his form has been patchy, with no finish higher than 20th and five missed cuts in 12 events.

“I know in myself I’m playing better than I’m scoring, I think everyone around me knows that,” he said.

“It can be the most frustrating time in golf. If you’re playing bad you can accept that, but at the minute I feel like I’m playing all right, so it’s frustrating that the results aren’t coming, so all you can do is trust in what you’re doing, trust that it’s the right work you’re doing and see what happens.

“I haven’t really hit my irons or the driver as well as I can this year. I’ve still got work to do with those clubs to get them back to where they were last year really.”

The indifferent form and self-imposed lay-off leaves Bradbury languishing in 142nd on the Race to Dubai rankings, but he is not worried about that.

As he has shown with two victories in his first two years out on tour, when he gets a chance, he is not afraid to seize it.

“I’m feeling more positive than the results would suggest. At this point of the season rankings mean nothing,” he continued.

“Last year I was down near 100 and still won in France.

“Look at the rankings at the end of the year, that’s my mentality.”

This week would be a good week to shine with European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald in action and potentially on the lookout for any surprise packages to come into his thinking for the match at Bethpage Black in September.

Harrogate’s John Parry, who tees off a group after Donald, could consider himself in that camp. The 38-year-old currently sits fourth on the Race to Dubai rankings after a win already this year in Mauritius.

Alex Fitzpatrick, Sam Bairstow, Ben Schmidt and Joe Dean are also in the field.