Geary and Wood qualify for Open Championship

Australians Tim Wood and Michael Wright joined New Zealand’s Josh Geary as the three qualifiers for The Open Championship in July, from the International Final Qualifying (IFQ) Australasia in Melbourne.

Geary shot successive rounds of 70 at Kingston Heath Golf Club to post a four-under score to tie for top spot with Wood.

Twenty-four-year-old Geary is the first New Zealander to qualify through International Final Qualifying since its introduction in 2004.

Geary, who will be heading for Europe for the first time when making the trip to Turnberry, said: “It's pretty sweet, but it hasn't really sunk in yet, I'm still pinching myself.”

More qualifying: England's Jeremy Kavanagh qualifies for Open Championship

Wood, who carded rounds of 69 and 71, had to wait two hours to see if he would qualify, and the 27-year-old revealed: “I feel like I am going to wake up and say damn that was a great dream, I qualified for The Open.”

Veteran Peter Senior had threatened Wright all afternoon and needed a birdie to force a play-off, but could only manage a par on 18.

Wright, 34, who finished one shot behind Wood and Geary, will compete in his second Open Championship.

“I was a lot more nervous this time around because I had to wait and it went down to the wire,” said the Australian.   

The next qualifying is the Asia IFQ at Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore starting 31 March..

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