12 players who were tantalizingly close to earning a spot at Royal Birkdale will play 18 holes in the historic Last Chance Qualifier for The Open. As Golf Historian John Morton pointed out on Any Given Monday last week, the last time The Open held a Monday qualifier was in 1962 when the field included Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.
The one-spot qualifier tees off at 7:30 a.m. on Monday at Royal Birkdale and fans can follow the action live. Players in the qualifier earned their way in through one of the following categories:
-The two highest-ranked OWGR players not already in the Open Championship field.
-Runner-up at The Amateur Championship.
-Players who lost in a playoff at Final Qualifying.
-Players who finished one shot behind the final qualifying number at Final Qualifying.
-Players who tied for a spot in the Open Qualifying Series but either lost in a playoff or missed out due to lower OWGR ranking.
Tee times and Players
Group 1, 7:30 a.m.
Matt Moloney (a): The Georgia Bulldog took a 1-up lead into the lunch break of the thrilling 36-hole final match of The Amateur Championship at Royal Liverpool against Irish amateur Stuart Grehan. Grehan took control of the blustery afternoon round, and while Maloney pushed the match to the final hole, Grehan ultimately prevailed. Maloney is headed into his junior season at Georgia and competed with the team at the NCAA National Championship in June.
Andrew Wilson: The 32-year-old Englishman finished one shot shy of the qualifying number at Dundonald Links. Wilson won his first pro event on the EuroPro Tour in 2019 and weeks later, qualified for his first Open at Royal Portrush, where he finished a respectable T32. Ranked 688th in the world, Wilson struggled on the DP World Tour last season. On the HotelPlanner Tour this season, Wilson has made half his cuts and recorded one top-10.
Adri Arnaus: The 31-year-old Spaniard is a Texas A&M product and plays on the DP World Tour. His maiden DPWT title came in 2022 at the Catalunya Championship where he survived a six-hole playoff. Arnaus finished 12th at DPWT Q-School last year, but this season has been a struggle: he’s made only five cuts in 17 starts. Arnaus missed by one shot at Final Qualifying and Last Chance Qualifying is a massive opportunity for the 818th-ranked player in the world.
Group 2, 7:41 a.m.
John Gough: At the end of June, the 27-year-old Englishman broke through to capture his first HotelPlanner Tour victory at the Blot Play9 in France, positioning himself to earn a DPWT card next year. Two days later, he fell one shot short of qualifying for his first Open Championship. Gough is 11th on the season-long Road to Mallorca rankings and ranked 429 in the world.
Charles Huntzinger: The 2019 Penn State grad and HotelPlanner Tour member came up one short at Final Qualifying. Last year, Huntzinger made three of eight cuts on the Korn Ferry Tour, but has been playing better recently, finishing T4 at the Blot Play9, five shots behind Gough. Like Gough, he narrowly missed at Final Qualifying and will get another chance.
Sam Easterbrook (a): The Purdue junior was named All-Big Ten this year with the second-lowest scoring average in program history (70.72). Easterbrook is the 80th-ranked amateur in the world and finished T16 at the NCAA Championship as an individual. The Englishman lost in a 3-for-1 playoff against Matthew Jordan and Joe Dean at Final Qualifying.
Group 3, 7:52 a.m.
Joe Dean: Dean was struggling to pay the bills in 2024, working at a supermarket delivering groceries. He put the “Magical” in Magical Kenya Open that year finishing runner-up and earning $217,000. His storybook season continued when he finished T25 at the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon. Dean finished third at the KLM Open this year and ninth at last week’s BMW International Open. The 32-year-old is ranked 264 in the world and playing well.
Frazer Jones (a): The junior at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte qualified for last year’s Open Championship at Royal Portrush. The Englishman shot 77-73 to miss the cut but will lean on that experience in Monday’s Last Chance Qualifier.
Matti Schmid: The 28-year-old German finished T4 at the PGA Championship at Aronimink and is the second highest-ranked player not already in the field at Royal Birkdale (78th). Schmid missed three straight cuts after the PGA Championship and rebounded with a T23 at last week’s BMW International Open. With three top-10s this season and sitting 64th in the FedEx Cup standings, Schmid is a favorite on Monday.
Group 4, 8:03 a.m.
Wesley Bryan: The 36-year-old YouTube star needed a par at the last hole of Final Qualifying to force a playoff but lipped out. Bryan remains suspended from the PGA Tour for participating in LIV’s The Duels and has a vocal group of “Free Wesley” supporters on social media. After winning the 2017 RBC Heritage, Bryan climbed as high as No. 36 in the OWGR. He’s now 1,028, but qualifying for The Open could be a massive boost for both his ranking and YouTube views. Free Wesley!
Aldrich Potgeiter: The highest-ranked player in the Last Chance qualifier (77) and certainly its longest hitter. The 21-year-old South African used his prodigious length to capture the 2025 Rocket Mortgage Classic, becoming the youngest South African to win on the PGA Tour and earned Rookie of the Year honors. He averages a whopping 329.8 off the tee. Potgeiter missed the cut at the Scottish Open, but if he gets the driver going, he’ll be tough to beat.
Angel Hidalgo: While the 28-year-old hasn’t played his best on DPWT this season, he fought his way into the U.S. Open through qualifying and made the cut at Shinnecock Hills. The DPWT winner hasn’t finished better than 19th this year and is ranked 305 in the world. At Dundonald Links in Final Qualifying, the Hidalgo missed qualifying by a shot, earning one final opportunity on Monday.
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