THE North-East Open hopefuls fell by the wayside yesterday. With just 15 places up for grabs at the final qualfying rounds, there were prospects going into Sunday's final rounds that there would be a North-East presence at Royal Troon on Thursday.

Wynyard's Nick Walton looked the most likely to make the grade. He fired an opening 68 to go to the top of the leaderboard at Turnberry on Saturday, but could only manage a 75 yesterday to leave him on 143.

Barnard Castle's Richard Dinwiddie also shot 75 at the Scottish course yesterday and, on the back of an opening day 71, was three shots behind Walton.

Durham City's Ian Parnaby fired back-to-back 74s at Glasgow and Middlesbrough's Tom Robinson suffered, shooting 77, 76.

At Irvine, Seaton Carew's James Harper had an encouraging 72 on Saturday, but struggled with an 83 yesterday.

Andrew Oldcorn, furious at being denied entry to the Open by a change of rules, secured his place via a play-off in final qualifying.

Oldcorn and fellow European Tour professional Sven Struver birdied the first hole of a five-man sudden death play-off to qualify for the 133rd Open at Royal Troon.

The 44-year-old Oldcorn holed from five feet after rounds of 66 and 73 at Irvine saw him tied with Germany's Struver and the English trio of Ian Spencer, David James and Michael Ramsden.

Ramsden bogeyed the first hole to miss out while Spencer birdied the second to claim the second reserve spot for this week's championships.

Oldcorn won a five-year exemption into the Open when he captured the 2001 Volvo PGA Championship, but that was reduced to three when the Royal and Ancient Club decided to bring in a series of international qualifying competitions.

''They didn't have the decency to write - I found out about it last November only by reading the entry form,'' Oldcorn said. ''It's history now, but I was extremely annoyed.

''The Open is massive, the biggest event of the year. Plus it's in Scotland this year.''

The Bolton-born Scot decided not to play in the 36-hole qualifier at Sunningdale on June 28 because, he says: ''The idea that they have made it easier for Tour players is nonsense.''

* The names of Ian Woosnam and Jose Maria Olazabal can now be added to the list of stars missing from this week's Open championship.

By finishing only two under and five under respectively at the Scottish Open the two former Masters champions both failed to claim the Open spot on offer to the leading non-exempt player in the tournament.

Woosnam, twice third, will not be part of the Open for the first time since 1981.

Bernhard Langer, Justin Rose and injured trio Jesper Parnevik, Tom Watson and Fred Couples will not be taking part either.