Aaron Rai plays way into The Open Championship

NORTH BERWICK, Scotland – Aaron Rai tried not to think about it.

He had just shot a 7-under 63 to rocket up the leaderboard at the Genesis Scottish Open, and while he’d thought he was too far back to start the day, he was now in position to nab one of the three available spots into next week’s Open Championship at Royal Troon.

He and his father, Amrik Singh, hung around and chatted with friends about soccer and the upcoming European Championship final between England and Spain. The weather got cooler, and the breeze kicked up. Rai considered going inside to get something to eat.

“We’ll see what happens over the next few hours,” he said. “There’s a chance.”

There certainly was.

In the end, the freshening breeze made The Renaissance Club just tough enough, as Rai led the trio of Open qualifiers that also included Richard Mansell (61), also of England, and Sweden’s Alex Noren (65).

It will be Rai’s third Open Championship start, and his father will go along, as well.

The happy result at the Genesis Scottish Open, which Rai won in 2020, is a continuation of form that has seen him finish T7 at the John Deere Classic, where he also shot 63. He also finished T2 at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, T19 at the U.S. Open and T14 at the RBC Canadian Open.

“It’s been a really good stretch,” he said. “I’ve been a bit amiss on the greens, but that’s really improved in the last month or so and that’s been the biggest change in the results.”

He began the week at 57th in the FedExCup and is projected to move up to 50th.

Mansell, 29, will make his fifth career major start after carding the tournament’s low round Sunday. The Englishman’s scintillating 9-under 61 on Sunday included nine birdies in his final 13 holes, a jaw-dropping performance after entering the day in a distant 56th place. He finished the week T10.

Mansell entered the week at No. 60 on the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai and thus qualified for the Genesis Scottish Open on merit. He made the cut at The Renaissance Club with a stroke to spare, and he stayed in neutral with a third-round 70 before punching his ticket to Troon in dramatic fashion.

Even after finishing his round Sunday, Mansell wasn’t sure his score would be enough. Several contenders for the Open Qualifying Series spots (top three finishers not otherwise exempt) were still on the course and within close proximity, including Erik van Rooyen, Antoine Rozner and Connor Syme.

Mansell had planned to catch a flight to the Sierra Nevada for next week’s Barracuda Championship, so confident in that itinerary that his new caddie Jonathan Bell (who had planned to start next week) was headed that way as Mansell met the media Sunday. Such is this game. Now Mansell is headed to Royal Troon, and he'll keep his caddie from the Genesis Scottish Open for a second straight week of links golf.

"I was chatting for about three hours with my manager last night, and I was just kind of moaning a little bit as golfers do about where my game is at and stuff like that,” Mansell said Sunday. “Then just said … 'The way I'm playing, I can't shoot a low round at the moment.' He was like, ‘Well, it's got 65 all over it.’ I said, ‘How about 61?’

“Anyway, birdied the last, shoot 61. It's just made me realize even more that this game is just insane … You're never as far away as you think you are.”

Noren closed in 5-under 65 to charge into The Open qualifying position, sharing 10th place (13-under 267) in a group that included Mansell. This will mark Noren’s 39th career major start and 12th at The Open. The Swede is still chasing his first top-five finish in a major. He finished T46 at the 2016 Open Championship at Royal Troon.