WINNER AT AVIEMORE IS WINNING OF IFQ EUROPE AT SUNNINGDALE

NEWS RELEASE FROM THE R and A

American Brooks Koepka will make his debut in The Open Championship at Muirfield next month after capping a wonderful weekend by winning International Final Qualifying Europe at Sunningdale today.

The 23-year-old Floridian led the nine qualifiers from IFQ Europe after rounds of 69 and 65 left him with a 5-under-par total of 134. He finished one shot clear of England’s Oliver Fisher and two clear of Spain’s Alvaro Quiros, Frenchman Gregory Bourdy, Richard McEvoy, from England and Northern Ireland’s Gareth Maybin who all qualified for The Open. 

Sweden’s Niclas Fasth and Scott Jamieson from Scotland also secured spots at Muirfield.

Estanislao Goya took the final spot after a four-man play-off with Ross Fisher, David Drysdale, and Alejandro Canizares. The Englishman and the Scot, who had earlier missed a 2ft putt on the 15th and lipped out from 20ft on the 17th in his second round, were eliminated after taking bogey 5s on the first hole of the New Course. On the 171yd par-3 second, Goya found the green and left himself a 20ft putt. His first putt shaved the edge of the hole but he holed the putt coming back from 7ft for a par while Canizares failed to get up and down from the back of the green.

Fresh from securing his European Tour card by winning his third Challenge Tour event of the year at the Scottish Hydro Challenge at the weekend, Koepka showed no signs of fatigue as he maintained his excellent form over the Old and New courses at Sunningdale.
A round of six birdies and five bogeys on the Old Course in the morning paved the way for Koepka. 
An inspired afternoon round on the New Course saw him card birdies on the fifth, sixth, 12th, where he holed from 30ft, 13th and 17th, where he rolled it in from 25ft. He could afford a solitary bogey at the last.
Having managed only two hours’ sleep before taking a 6.30am flight from Scotland, Koepka said he was tired but delighted to have qualified for golf’s oldest Major Championship.
“It was a long day,” he said.  “I was in a lot of heather and I kind of felt like I was in it all day.  I didn’t hit it that great but I just tried to relax and hang in there. I putted really well and made some key putts on the second 18.
“It will be awesome to play in The Open. It’s what you prepare your game to play in. Any Major is special but The Open is up there. Everybody wants to win it.”
Fisher was relishing the prospect of playing in his second Open Championship after appearing at Turnberry in 2009. He said, “I haven’t played at Muirfield before but I watched Ernie Els win in 2002 and Nick Faldo also won there. I can’t wait to play there. I’m really pleased with my day’s work.”
A delighted Goya said it was “a dream come true” to be teeing it up at Muirfield next month. “I can’t believe it,” said the 25-year-old Argentinian. 
“I started the year not very good so to be able to play my second Major of the year is something hard to describe. 
“There is always pressure when you are trying to qualify for something as big as The Open. I had experience at Walton Heath and made it through the play-off there to get into the US Open.  I owe it to a lot of people so I am very happy for all of them as well.” Bourdy spoke of his determination to complete some unfinished business for French golf at this year’s Open venue. 
“Muirfield is my favourite links and one of the best courses I have ever played. I have practised there a few times and it is in wonderful condition. 
"The French have some good memories of Muirfield. We didn’t win with Thomas Levet. He lost in a play-off after finishing tied for first with Ernie Els, so the French have to come back and try to do their best.”
Levet was among those who failed to qualify from the 96-man starting field today, finishing joint 21st on one-over-par. First round leader Tom Lewis, stumbled to a six-over-par 75 in his second round, nine shots worse than his morning total, to finish on two-over-par, while England’s Graeme Storm, a two-time winner of this event, slipped to a 78 in the second round for a six-over-par total. 
Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley and his predecessor Jose Maria Olazabal both missed out after finishing on four-over-par totals of 143

IFQ Qualifier 2013

Sunningdale , United Kingdom
Official End of Round Scores

OC: Old Course, NC: New Course

Pos	Player	Country	Holes	OC	NC	Total	To Par	Status
1	Koepka, Brooks	USA	18	69	65	134	-5
2	Fisher, Oliver	ENG	18	70	65	135	-4
T3	Bourdy, Gregory	FRA	18	68	68	136	-3
T3	McEvoy, Richard	ENG	18	71	65	136	-3
T3	Maybin, Gareth	NIR	18	67	69	136	-3
T3	Quiros, Alvaro	ESP	18	66	70	136	-3
T7	Fasth, Niclas	SWE	18	69	68	137	-2
T7	Jamieson, Scott	SCO	18	66	71	137	-2
T9	Fisher, Ross	ENG	18	71	67	138	-1
T9	Canizares, Alejandro	ESP	18	67	71	138	-1
T9	Goya, Estanislao	ARG	18	70	68	138	-1
T9	Drysdale, David	SCO	18	67	71	138	-1
T13	Parry, John	ENG	18	72	67	139	Par
T13	Bland, Richard	ENG	18	70	69	139	Par
T13	Sjoholm, Joel	SWE	18	67	72	139	Par
T13	Havret, Gregory	FRA	18	70	69	139	Par
T13	Kjeldsen, Soren	DNK	18	69	70	139	Par
T13	Whiteford, Peter	SCO	18	67	72	139	Par
T13	Larrazabal, Pablo	ESP	18	69	70	139	Par
T13	Fleetwood, Tommy	ENG	18	67	72	139	Par
T21	Milkha Singh, Jeev	IND	18	69	71	140	+1
T21	Kofstad, Espen	NOR	18	70	70	140	+1
T21	Norret, Thomas	DNK	18	69	71	140	+1
T21	Levet, Thomas	FRA	18	70	70	140	+1
T21	Henry, Scott	SCO	18	71	69	140	+1
T21	Rock, Robert	ENG	18	70	70	140	+1
T21	Webster, Steve	ENG	18	68	72	140	+1
T21	Zanotti, Fabrizio	PRY	18	69	71	140	+1
T21	Hoey, Michael	NIR	18	69	71	140	+1
T30	Paisley, Chris	ENG	18	72	69	141	+2
T30	Vancsik, Daniel	ARG	18	72	69	141	+2
T30	Pepperell, Eddie	ENG	18	74	67	141	+2
T30	Lewis, Tom	ENG	18	66	75	141	+2
T30	Wattel, Romain	FRA	18	68	73	141	+2
T30	A Carlsson, Magnus	SWE	18	67	74	141	+2
T30	Casey, Paul	ENG	18	71	70	141	+2
T30	Kaleka, Alexandre	FRA	18	72	69	141	+2
T38	Campbell, Michael	NZL	18	72	70	142	+3
T38	Davies, Rhys	WAL	18	76	66	142	+3
T38	Dodt, Andrew	AUS	18	70	72	142	+3
T38	Slattery, Lee	ENG	18	70	72	142	+3
T38	Andersson Hed, Fredrik	SWE	18	68	74	142	+3
T43	Santos, Ricardo	PRT	18	71	72	143	+4
T43	McGinley, Paul	IRL	18	71	72	143	+4
T43	Campillo, Jorge	ESP	18	73	70	143	+4
T43	Maria Olazabal, Jose	ESP	18	71	72	143	+4
T47	Archer, Phillip	ENG	18	73	71	144	+5
T47	Uihlein, Peter	USA	18	71	73	144	+5
T49	Broberg, Kristoffer	SWE	18	75	70	145	+6
T49	Tullo, Mark	CHL	18	71	74	145	+6
T49	Nixon, Matthew	ENG	18	72	73	145	+6
T49	Storm, Graeme	ENG	18	78	67	145	+6
T49	Khan, Simon	ENG	18	73	72	145	+6
T49	Little, Sam	ENG	18	71	74	145	+6
T55	Gonnet, Jean-Baptiste	FRA	18	76	70	146	+7
T55	Im, Daniel	USA	18	74	72	146	+7
T55	Hansen, JB	DNK	18	74	72	146	+7
T55	Orum Madsen, Morten	DNK	18	73	73	146	+7
T55	Velasco, Alvaro	ESP	18	73	73	146	+7
T60	Warren, Marc	SCO	18	73	74	147	+8
T60	Lee, Craig	SCO	18	75	72	147	+8
T60	Boyd, Gary	ENG	18	73	74	147	+8
T60	Pilkadaris, Terry	ARG	18	76	71	147	+8
64	Horne, Keith	ZAF	18	79	70	149	+10
65	Brooks, Daniel	ENG	18	73	77	150	+11
66	Morrison, James	ENG	18	72	80	152	+13
67	Dougherty, Nick	ENG	18	77	78	155	+16