Jamie Donaldson gave it his best shot but pulled up agonisingly short of winning a spot in this week’s Open Championship.
The Macclesfield tournament professional was the region’s last hope of a representative at Royal St George’s.
He needed to finish in the top five in the Barclays Scottish Open at Castle Stuart Golf Links to stand any chance but that disappeared when his eagle putt at the final hole drifted inches wide.
A bogey at the 13th ended his charge up the leaderboard and a final round of 68 in a tournament reduced to 54 holes after torrential rain wipe out the third day’s play left him in 10th place on 13-under-par and six shots behind winner Luke Donald.
Earlier on, Styal’s David Horsey, also chasing an Open place, signed off with 70, minus eight in total and tied 49th.
Meanwhile, Donald’s glorious season continued as he secured his third title of the year.
The world No.1, who won the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play in February then added the European Tour’s flagship BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in May, closed with a flawless 63.
The 33-year-old prevailed by four strokes from Swede Fredrik Andersson Hed, who carded a best-of-the-week 62.
Donald shot the lowest round of his European Tour career in the land of his father – he marked the fact by wearing tartan trousers – as he dominated the final day. He will now he will try to put the icing on the cake – at Sandwich – by capturing his first Major title at the Open.
"It’s nice to get another victory, I can get used to this," he said. "To do it on a links is even better and when I play well I tend to do reasonably well the next week.
"I holed putts when I needed to, and it’s nice to do it when it matters. The scoring conditions were there – Fredrik had a very low one, barely made the cut and finished second."
Davenport’s men played their Invitation Day with two shotgun starts and in the am session Joel Heap and Roy Kirk won a cpo on 40 points from Tom Burns and Barry Bray ahead of John Brooks and John Ford 39, and Barry Bryning and Eddie Rowbottom 37.
In the pm session it again needed a countback on 41 points to see Andrew Bailey and Andy Faulkner lead in from Mike and Mark Clewley with a cpo on 40 points giving Matt Dent and John Fulton the edge over Russ Siddall and Graham Pollit.
AVRO’S men played for the FC Long Trophy and it was won after a cpo on 66 went in favour of Pete Roles from Tony Mullin with Rod Mabe a shot behind.
Macclesfield juniors played for the Captain’s Cup and it was won by Jack Hanson with 43 points, from Declan Rudd 42, and George Shaw 41.
Macclesfield’s men played the first round of their 36-hole competition and Mark Hodson topped division one with 66, two shots better than Richard Cartledge, Matt Delargy and GGP Finlow.
