Her it's getting more like rubble's as well everywhere i'll take his hair any day no take any part of him literally um it was exactly now four years ago since i last qualified i last really played competitive golf. And the last time i actually participated in regional open qualifying well my last open qualifying took place in 2017 at west langs where i finished in style with the holy one on 17 and power on 18 i hung up my open qualifying boots and went i'm okay with that now because i know where my limit sits well open qualifying was this weekend it was. And today.
Well this comes out tuesday it is the final qualifying. So we should know by the end of today.
Well not actually today.
That we're recording this. But by the time this podcast out who's got in who's not got in etc i'm going to give a very very quick summary of what open qualifying is certainly. For people in the states that might not know it a lot of people in the uk might not know what it is okay over the last few years it's it typically you have a regional qualifying golf course which is as as it is a regional qualifying course normally there's probably about eight regional qualifying golf courses around the country. And on one particular day normally at the end of june there is an 18-hole competition. And a top section of each regional qualifiers the lowest scores will qualify to play in final qualifying which normally takes place about a week. Or so later at a different venue a final qualifying venue where typically three players qualify after playing 36 holes of golf and those three players from four different final qualifying events so 12 in total play in this year's that year's opening championship this year has been slightly different there's only four regional qualifying venues once you qualify from there split over two days more field went through to final qualifying final qualifying takes place today.
At the said same said venues as regional qualifying. And making the sound dead simpler again regional final qualifying is 36 holes top three getting 12 golfers who sum a mix of amateur golfers who were playing off scratch. Or better teaching pros x tour pros tour pros anybody has the chance potentially to be playing in the open in those 12 spots the magic comes from like you said if you're a scratch handicap amateur. Or a pj pro or just a pro you're 54 holes away from playing in the open crazy and that is why the open obviously the name the open is kind of. So kind of magical and i think you would find that most pga golf pros at your pro shop at your local golf shop i've probably tried at least once haven't they most because why would you not is it 120 quid. Or something to enter i think it's getting close to 150 150 quid to enter certainly if you're an amateur because actually i'm going to contest in a moment there's a guy from my golf club who entered if there's a couple of guys there was one guy who in a touchdown at the moment who entered. And his reason for playing was literally it's 150 quid to play a good golf course in its best condition at its most tough tough test you know back tea super thick rough etc. And you've also got the chance of playing with either a pro or another elite amateur who may go on to be a famous toppo in the future it's a good way of looking at it so it's a day out and it's putting yourself because a lot of these guys are amateurs might be the best player at the club. Or even at county level or whatever it might be so there might be a big fish sometimes a small pond and you go to open qualifying and some real serious golfers in there and it puts you on a level you see how good you actually are. And it's that dream if it's if even if you scratch handicappers it's not going to happen probably. But if a scratch handicapper has three rounds where everything goes right it could happen maybe yeah that's the exciting thing there's no if you got to if you got through. And you played great regional great final you shot the lowest of the scores it doesn't matter what your handicap was what your background is where you came from who whatever it may be you have a chance playing in the open. So we've got some great news very good news because your friend of mine friend of the show yes who had an amazing podcast episode you'd have heard it i can't remember what number it was now probably in the 50s would it have been i don't know a while ago james robinson yes who played in the open in 2019 at carnoustie 18 18 at kanusti nine teams in ireland twenty didn't happen yeah yeah um he participated in regional qualifying he shot five on the path lost it he's through to final qualifying today.
He's an absolute baller. And like you said did he have no bogies zero bogeys that's happened five birdies at his home course with with a relatively amount of pressure pressure from our audience starting to follow him now he's got like 16 000 followers on instagram now yeah he's been participating in road to the open that the documentary at the opening that was a very good shout out to the open. For that those videos were really good they documented four people on their journey to hopefully qualifying. For the opening and james one in particular was class. And he featured you on it as you would have also seen him from the two videos we filled or three videos we filmed with james where first off we took on the challenge of can he shoot on the par with 70-pound golf clubs yeah bust it like you said can he challenge me with playing with only four clubs smash me. And also a little cool coaching video that he did five tips to play better around the short game. And when he pitched one in from like 50 yards we know he's got such a following now and he's so cool and having a spies to beat him when you hear the kids on the streets now they're wearing some new trainers or sneakers they don't go oh they're sick or they're cool oh they're robbo them because everyone wants to be robbo i like new hurts roberto that is that new taylormade java it's proper robbo cause that just means cool now guys want to be him girls want to be with him yes. But he's happily married with a child so yeah he's qualified i we. Or everyone here from the rickshaws golf show massively support him hopefully he continues that doesn't that's always slagging him off no he hates him hopefully continues. And you never know at the end of tuesday when you're watching england versus germany and england go through in penalties and we get the good news that james robinson has also qualified for the open the champagne is being popped even you're going to pop a little bit of bubbly on chicken i have a second monster today.
And go mad serious question now would you rather robo get through to the open in england get beat by germany or german or england win and robo not go through i know i think you'd go robbo i think i would yeah it's fine yeah i think i'm sorry england. But for me rebel comes first robbo is priority yeah if i had if i yeah if i had a golden ticket. And i could say only one thing's happened robo's playing in the you're here's getting more like robbers as well everybody i'll take his hair any day no take any part of him literally that's not just a bishop um. But no robbo has killed it. And and regardless of what he does today.
On tuesday he has. For someone that coaches full-time with a very young child very very busy golf coach to go out and shoot five under with no bogeys his awesome goal. So he's really kind of lived up to his height well not his own hype he's not quite the height but the hype we've created if you like he's lived up to doesn't it also show that talent is. So paramount so you were telling me the story. And i was following it a bit as well because i know a little bit about him. And his and his um his ladder is really good on instagram um oh god i forgot his last name now it's gonna annoy me who ben oh barry yes yes. So barry taylor who is a golf ball at clark's golf center where you go on practice sometimes really nice guy had loads of like local event victories have you ever played in the open no he's got through um regional before he's never got through final i was following his journey. So much yesterday because after nine holes he was three on the pirate um west lance yeah. And then.
Unfortunately had a little bit of a nightmare finish and just missed out by one but again barry's not he doesn't practice does it yes about as richard then.
Barry taylor is a golf coach he used to be a full-time player certainly like the local tours he's very good at kind of language level. And country level i think he's probably his best accolades he played in the pj cup which is where the best pj golf pros in the country play against it's like a rider cupboard. For pj pros basically um but he's a really good player but he hasn't played competitive golf i'd say for years and probably haven't played a round of golf i think it's me. For a year or so he clips a few balls in between lessons and stuff yeah. And he shot two over so he's currently as it stands now he's the eighth reserve um which he's probably not going to get through on that. But like you said just to show there's come to level where obviously you have to practice. But some guys and girls have just have a level of talent work they're always going to get it around aren't they they just have it well it's a bit like probably similar. But bit different but like when you watch ian woozen at the masters and we said about the week he's obviously going to win it he's not embarrassing himself he's getting it around. So he's just he's got it to a level hasn't been i think some of these guys i mean two over around west lancaster not played. For ages it's really impressive um another so that that guy i mentioned before from my golf let's touch on that so there's a guy who is a scratch golfer i think at my golf course he might be lower now with the world handicap system. So i know a few people have come down off that his name's dave jarminard i think he's like a french setting. But he's an english guy um and he shot nine over at west lance but this is again. For me i know we talked there's a lot on podcasts and people might be getting a bit sick of it but there's levels of ability so dave is a scratch golfer. So at my club he's one of the best players there's one club champs at hanford i was going to say he's competing every time club champs has come into he's from what i've not played in. For years he's not a massive hitter but keeps it straight can get it round. And round his home course he's a comfortable genuine scratch golfer really good at i like say playing that golf course that he's played a hundred times yeah. And he can score really well. So he went to um qualify and he shot nine over eight to one which currently well he's come tied 95th so he's far from embarrassed himself he shot nine over which is probably the kind of worst he'd want to really shoot. But again not horrendous score is 81 really. But it just again goes to show the levels the scores that have qualified so far has won over so he's about eight shots away from qualifying yeah. But our local golf club he is what we call an elite player. So again that kind of big fish in a small pond and it's just that level of light every golf club again has got the scratch goal for the plus one goal for the elite junior but even to get for the first stage of open qualifying it's just that different level and at least i messed him before and said you know i was doing the podcast today.
And did he mind if we mentioned his name. And his score and he said absolutely no problem at all he was playing pretty well he said look at 821. he was only one over. For 15 of the holes but then.
Eight over the other three so as we see with these links courses you have a couple of bad holes it just destroys you so easy to make doubles 100 but he said actually as well he said um all in all it was a great experience when am i a decent club golf which is quite modest. But nothing more than that it's very modest really ever get the chance to play with a likely future tour pro around west lancaster 150 quid loved every second of it very good and he actually weirdly played a josh grier who was the australian young lad who featured in your break 75 video with minwoo lee at king's barns who plays off plus five you've got he qualified yeah wow mad small world isn't it really crazy. So so uh josh qualified james robinson qualified a friend of mine from college who was the best golfer in college by a million miles when i was there chris hansen qualified i think he was nearly winning it um was there any other names that you know of um i actually qualified i know sam avery from santanzo links did he get qualified oh my god um there was a 19-man play off at saint anton links i think he was in it. And qualified that's awesome i didn't realize that oh yeah he's there yeah wow that's cool in it that's really good um shout out because i think people want to know i think dan webster did solid yes he wouldn't have been it wasn't his best round of golf ever i think he shot 10 over. But considering only the last week he participated in iron man yeah was it iron man. Or trash what's the difference actually i think an iron man's longer character he did it well he did the one that's a marathon a massive bike ride. So whichever one that was it was ridiculous yeah i think he raised 17 000 pounds. For old lake alda hey hospital where he's obviously his son was uh big shout out to dan i think he's done an amazing job there. And actually i'm sure he'll be slightly disappointed.
