Franny McGuirk during his successful display at Prince's Picture: Martin Apps

by Kevin Redsull

Two Kent professionals are looking forward to playing alongside the world's golfing elite in the Open at Royal St George's after booking their places in Local Final Qualifying.

Three places in the Open were up for grabs at each of the four 36-hole qualifying competitions and Andy Smith, from Tudor Park GC, won the Littlestone tournament while Franny McGuirk came joint second on his home course at Prince's.

All four tournaments were delayed by thunder and lightning on Tuesday, with a sizeable group of players at Littlestone having to complete their second rounds 24 hours later, and Smith rose to the top of the leaderboard with a second round 68 for a four-over-par total of 138.

Meanwhile, at Prince's, 37-year-old McGuirk, whose father Michael is the club owner, shot rounds of 68 and 71 for a five-under-par total of 139. That left him joint second with Tom Shadbolt (Brocket Hall) and two shots behind the winner, Simon Edwards from Windermere.

Among the players who missed out by one shot at Prince's was New Zealander Michael Campbell, the 2005 US Open champion, and Herne Bay's Steve Tiley who qualified for last year's Open at St Andrews. There was also disappointment at Prince's for Paul Sherman (Ashford), Michael Bush (Hever Castle) and amateur Adam Hedges (Sundridge Park), who all shot 146. Richard Wallis (Walmer & Kingsdown) recorded a 147 total and Tenterden's Benn Barham withdrew after shooting a first-round 74.

At Rye, amateur Tom Lewis (Welwyn Garden City) fired a two-round eight-under-par total of 128 to win by three shots from Adam Wootton (Oxford Golf Centre), while Mark Laskey (The Shire London) grabbed the third qualifying spot by defeating Inder van Weerelt from the Netherlands in a play-off. Tom Sherreard (Chart Hills) missed out on the play-off by one shot and Matt Ford (www.hyatt.com) was one shot further back.

At Royal Cinque Ports, amateur Craig Hinton headed the qualifiers on 139 and he will be joined at Sandwich by Andrew Johnston (North Middlesex) and Simon Lilley (Wellingborough), who came through a four-man play-off to decide the other two qualifying places.