Sad Hutton's Open dream put to sleep

9:11am Friday 4th July 2008

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HAMPTWORTH pro David Hutton saw his Open qualifying dream disappear this week - because he was away in the land of nod.

The 33-year-old forced his way into a play-off in regional qualifying at Ferndown on Wednesday, but missed it because he was fast asleep.

Hutton, who was in the fourth group of the day, had gone back to his Salisbury home after posting a one-under-par 70 to get some rest.

However, having gone for some shuteye, he failed to wake up in time.

When he did finally break out of his slumber, he discovered a succession of missed calls and messages on his phone telling him he was in a play-off to reach next week's final qualifying stage.

A quick call to the R&A revealed the play-off was beginning in 15 minutes, with Hutton a full 40 minutes away from the course.

To complete the tale of woe, Hutton could actually have skipped the entire regional qualifying round altogether and gone straight to next week's final stage.

His world ranking points for making some cuts in European Tour and Asian Tour events were enough to allow him to bypass the initial event, but, by the time he realised, he had already officially entered.

"I thought my 70 would probably be good enough for a play-off but, as I only live 40 minutes away, I thought I'd go back and get some sleep," he said.

"Unfortunately I just stayed asleep too long. It was very frustrating and disappointing."

For full story, see today's Daily Echo.