I Tested How Good Pro Golfers Really Are...

If you were just 9 holes away from playing in a major, do you think you'd have what it takes to qualify? Well no, probably not. But when I was 7 years old, my dream was to be a professional golfer. And I hate letting 7 year old me down. But thankfully this is no ordinary day. This is a day where 288 golfers tee off across 4 of the UK's best courses, all competing for the last 20 spots at the Open. So I wondered what would happen if you put a real amateur golfer into final qualifying. And to answer that question, I was going to tee it up on the back 9 at the 2nd hardest qualifying venue this year. If I started tied with the leaders and played from the back tees, would it be possible to finish in the top 5 and secure my spot, surviving the toughest part of final qualifying whilst also exploring one of Scotland's great modern links courses, Dundonald Links. So before throwing myself into final qualifying, I planned to use the front 9 to get my eye in, and try work out exactly what I was up against. Now what's interesting about Dundonald is that generally when you think about courses in Scotland, you might immediately jump to the likes of Old Tom Morris and courses that have seemingly been there since the dawn of time. I mean if we look at a map of the Ayrshire coast around Dundonald, you have Glasgow Gales, Westinghales and Kilmarnock over the railway, Braesy, Royal Troon, Prestwick and Turnberry further down the coast all built before 1901, whilst Dundonald was built in 2003, designed specifically to be a stadium golf course, with every hole banked up on either side, and meaning I couldn't see any of the holes that lay ahead of me. So going in completely blind, with my final preparations all done, it was time to kick off the challenge. So one of the things I learnt about Dundonald whilst talking to the starter, was the fact that Loch Lomond used to own this property, essentially that was an old private members club of some sort, and this was their winter course, when they couldn't play on Loch Lomond they would come and play here in the winter, until basically that land was bought and remodelled into Dundonald Links that we see today. So this was my first real birdie look of the 9, at the time it felt like quite a big putt, it would have given me the outright lead and also some extra security heading into some really really tough holes, but unfortunately just missed on the right hand side, so I don't know how it quite didn't break back in, but that led on to the 13th, which has the only hazard on the golf course, a creek that runs right in front of the green, and obviously to the railroad that runs parallel to the hole, which was obviously in my head because I pulled this one straight into the bushes on the left hand side OB, meaning a provisional that became my second ball when I couldn't find it, and I put this one in the right rough, so already in a really tough spot to try and scrap bogey, and stay somewhat in contention. One of my absolute favourite features of this golf course is the train that runs through the back 9, it's really cool, if you time it right sometimes your tee shots are falling just as the train's going past, but having that little bit of ambience sort of adds to the atmosphere of this place. One of the course's key defences clearly is the undulation of the greens, they're quite large and sort of that new American link style that we're starting to see in Scotland a little bit more. So after what proved to be a pretty costly tee shot that almost ended up on the rail tracks, I ended up walking off the 13th with a double, taking comfort somewhat and still making a second ball par from the fescue on the right. More importantly though, I was out of a share of the lead for the first time in the round, but still felt reasonably positive about my ball striking, and wanted to try and attack the reachable par 5 14th, leading off with what really was my drive of the day. One of the other really interesting facts I've learnt about Dundonald is to do with the accommodation for the Scottish Women's Open they hold here, so they've got these lodges on site, and because of how popular the tournament's got with a lot of the American players now coming over and playing in the Scottish Women's Open, they've essentially had to start asking players based on their world ranking, so for example Nellie Corder will get the first invite to stay in one of the lodges, and then it will go to 2nd, 3rd and 4th, so I can only imagine if you're say 12th in the world and you're one place away from being invited to stay at the course having to stay somewhere else, it's quite funny. Tapping in a two putt birdie felt like a massive step forward and was exactly the bounce back that I needed. It actually saw me straight back to the top of the qualifying leaderboard too. My biggest concern though was looking down on my scorecard and still seeing the stroke But before that I still had to deal with the 15th, a 205 yard par 3 with a pin tucked behind the two left bunkers, so my plan was just to put a good swing on it and play it into the right hand side of the green, but I guess I just never really got comfortable over it and ended up bailing out pretty hard to the right hand side, leaving a fairly gnarly chip to be honest that still left a lot to be desired. Sometimes though all you need is one good shot on a hole to scrap your way to a par, and well in this case, that's exactly what I did, a pretty big relief heading into the This is the 16th hole, the SI1, a 467 yard par 4 with two pretty scary fairway bunkers guarding the drive here. I realise there's probably a whole bunch of new people that maybe haven't seen my Instagram content before so I thought I'd introduce myself. My name is Ryan Wallace, I'm from Auckland, New Zealand and now I live in London. About a year ago I moved over and decided to set myself a challenge of playing every golf course in London as my way of discovering the new city I was living in. So far I've played 29 out of 131 golf courses, plenty more to go, and then all of a sudden through creating social content I ended up landing a job with Manners, who are honestly one of my favourite brands in golf, and also get to go on all these crazy adventures out exploring the world through golf, which is amazing. And as part of that I want to find a way to bring you guys along on some of these adventures that I'm very fortunate enough to get to go on. So here we are, but the biggest thing for me is I just love telling stories, especially in the world of golf, so to come here and be able to share this with you in a slightly longer format, share a bit more detail about the golf course I'm playing, and just see the world through my eyes, I think is the exciting part of this channel. Oh that is the worst swing of the day, oh no, that was green light special, I've done that. You're not going to believe me but, look at that, saved four in the end, goodness me. Final hole, one to go, this has been some golf course and some experience, I've been doing this trip basically with no phone, I've got a video coming out, or has either come out on my YouTube channel now, about basically doing a 5 day road trip through the UK without my phone. This is the final round, I've had such a nice time on this trip, this has been a brilliant, brilliant way to end. So teasing future videos aside, I still had a job to do, getting up and down on 17 meant I arrived at the par 5 18th still somehow with a share of the lead, and needing a bogey to avoid slipping out of the qualifying places. Honestly this back 9 so far had exceeded my expectations, that's a great finishing ball, well expectations I guess weren't high after making an 8 on the par 4 second only a few hours earlier, but golf aside, for a course that was younger than me, I was really enjoying the layout. Whilst it certainly feels more like a modern course, with its wider fairways and large undulating greens, that didn't mean it was out of place on such a prestigious coastline. If anything, offering something different in the form of a stadium or championship style test I think only adds to the charm of golf in Scotland, where you can go from a course like Dundonald, to honestly box gems only a stone's throw away on the Isle of Arran for example. Now that's a trip that's on my bucket list, so make sure to subscribe and let me know if you want to see that, but for now I only had one thing on my mind, securing my imaginary place at Royal Birkdale. Not quite the grand finale hole I had in mind, but if we can get this up and down for birdie that'd be pretty epic. Kind of got stuck in between wanting to go up the hill and not just put it in the middle. Story of the day. Somehow after it was all said and done, I'd finished 5 under, and whilst I'd never claimed to be good enough to qualify for the Open, I'm clearly not, it was nice to finish on the right side of this challenge, but to be fair I think I had everything on my side. I had the calmest day of weather I've ever seen in Scotland, all the leaders around me seemed to drop shots on the back 9, and I think my tee boxes were a little bit further forward too. But still, for a kid who grew up wanting to be a professional golfer, it was nice to get a sense of what these pros would have been going through, with that little bit of extra pressure on every putt. And hey, I was even lucky enough to get to play Royal Birkdale anyways, even if it was And that test really did prove I'm nowhere near qualifying standard, but for now it was a challenge completed, and the end of an even bigger story and road trip coming very soon.