McDowell carded 67, 64 over the Old and New course - heading the list of 16 qualifiers from 120 hopefuls to earn the right to play at Carnoustie from 19-22 July.

Dougherty, Ross Fisher and Peter Baker of England and Scotland's Alastair Forsyth were also among the qualifiers, as was popular Spaniard Jimenez.

But controversy reigned as eight players were told to replay a hole because of a difficult pin position.

Among those who failed to make it through were last year's Ryder Cup captain Ian Woosnam, but the Welshman was happy to be playing again as he battles post-viral fatigue syndrome.

England's Brian Davis also claimed a place in the Open Championship after a superb second-round 65 at the US qualifying event at Oakland Hills, Detroit.

Michael Putnam won the event with Ryan Moore and John Senden tied for second.

PGA Tour winners Jerry Kelly and Sean O'Hair also secured their tickets with Duffy Waldorf, Spencer Levin and Australian Mark Hensby coming through a six-man play-off to win the final three spots.

Spanish amateur Pablo Martin failed to win his place, as did England's Greg Owen and Gary Christian, and Swedish trio Jesper Parnevik, Fredrik Jacobson and Daniel Chopra.

Tiger Woods dominates Betfair's Open Championship winner's market as the strong 4.1 favourite, ahead of rivals Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els (both 21).

McDowell is now 95 to maintain his form through to Carnoustie and become the first British player to take home the claret jug since Paul Lawrie in 1999.

Dougherty is available at 120 to win his first Major tournament, while Jimenez is 140 to be smoking a victory cigar on the final Sunday.

The Tredegar man, who is trading at 20 in Betfair's outright winner market, knows he will have the support of family and friends as he bids to improve on his best finish of tied seventh last year at the £1.5million tournament.

Dredge can be backed at 5.8 in Betfair's emerging Top 5 finish market.

"It would be very special to be the first Welshman to lift this title," said the 33-year-old.
"I've always enjoyed playing there, it's a definite advantage playing so close to home, with friends and family supporting you and knowing the course."

Dredge will face strong competition from fellow Welsh professionals Phil Price, Garry Houston, David Park, Mark Pilkington, Kyron Sullivan and Craig Smith, plus invited amateurs Llewellyn Matthews and Rhys Enoch in what could be the last event at the par-69 Roman Road course.

The move to the revamped 7,493-yard Wentwood Lakes course - the home of the 2010 Ryder Cup - is expected to be made next year.

World number 10 Retief Goosen heads the outright winner market on 11, while 2006 winner, Robert Karlsson of Sweden, can be backed at 17 to successfully defend his crown.

Richard Sterne, winner of the 2007 Vodacom Championship on the Sunshine Tour, is available at 25, while this year's BMW Asian Open winner, Raphael Jacquelin, is next best at 26.

The Fiji ace lines up at Wentworth with just a handful of stars from the US PGA Tour, including South Africans Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, but the event is noticeable for the lack of Americans in the field.

Singh feels that the top US golfers should show their support for the European Tour's flagship event the way Europe's elite travel stateside for the equivalent tournament.

"I'm just saddened by the fact that when you have the TPC in the US you have a lot of Europeans going over there and playing," he said.

"The PGA Championship over here is big or even bigger and you have a handful of guys coming over. So that's kind of sad. I would like to see a lot more Americans coming over and trying to play this tournament."

Singh is trading at 14 to land the title, with Els on offer at 8.4 and Goosen priced at 18.

There are also Betfair markets for Top European, top Rest of the World and Top UK and Ireland player at the Surrey venue.

The players head to Oakmont for the US Open in a couple of week's time and Els, a Wentworth resident, believes the course, which he has modified himself since last year's tournament, will help prepare players for the season's second major.

"This course, with the rough, the bunkering, the way the sloping greens are going to play, is not too far off any kind of US Open," he said.

"My plan was to get the field here in May and go to the US Open from here and not feel like, 'Where the hell did this golf course come from'."

Henrik Stenson heads the European challenge and can be backed at 10 to win the event, while Luke Donald trades at 13 and Padraig Harrington is on offer at 17.5.

Locke was the first South African to show that the strength of America could be defeated with a series of unforgettable performances in the 1940s and 50s, while Player proved he was more than a match for the best in the world by carrying on his work in the latter part of the 20th century.

Their desire to be the best and put their country on the map has not been wasted. South African golf has arguably never been healthier or stronger, with Els, Goosen and Trevor Immelman leading the way as major contenders in events all over the world.

Els, Goosen and Immelman are all in the world's top 15 ranked players, with Rory Sabbatini and Tim Clark not far behind in 22nd and 39th place respectively.

Their strength in Europe is even more impressive, with four South Africans in the European Order of Merit's top ten and seven in the top 25. Locke would be very proud.

Having made his name in South Africa, Locke was invited to play on the PGA Tour by golfing legend Sam Snead after he had beaten him 12 out of 14 times in a series of exhibition matches. During his career in America, he won 11 out of 59 tournaments and claimed four Major titles on his way to finishing in the first three an amazing 30 times.

It was here that he also coined the famous phrase 'You drive for show, but putt for dough' and it something his successors have certainly borne in mind as they have set about creating their own world reputations.

Player went five better than Locke in terms of Major titles and is one of only five players to completed the Grand Slam in a year, achieving the feat at the age of 29.

There are also few sportsmen who have ever possessed a greater desire and determination to succeed than Player, and it is this attitude that has helped inspire the modern generation of players from his country.

Els and Goosen are, inevitably, the names that first spring to mind when you think of South African stars of today and justifiably so.

The pair have five Major titles between them - including four US Opens -winning two European Order of Merit crowns each and have long been established in the top ten world rankings.

They also appear to have renewed drive to close the gap on world number one Tiger Woods in 2007, having already tasted success on the European Tour.

Els has already set himself a three-year target to catch Woods, while Goosen's showed the well-being of his game by emerging out of the pack to eventually finish second behind Zach Johnson at this month's US Masters.

Els and Goosen are currently trading at 8.2 and 8 to overtake present leader Henrik Stenson and win their third European Order of Merit crowns, while it would be no surprise to see either player lifting the trophy at the US Open at Oakmont in June.

But the success of present-day South African golf goes a lot deeper than Els and Goosen, with a growing number of players ready to challenge them to take over the mantel of their country's best player.

Immelman has long been touted as a champion of the future by his mentor Player and is now beginning to fulfill his immense promise.

His first PGA Tour win at the Cialis Western Open last year - when he holed a 30-foot birdie putt at the last hole to beat Woods - helped the 27-year-old finish seventh on the money list as he amassed career-best earnings of $5.1 million for a season.

Immelman's game is improving all the time and don't be surprised to see him challenge at The Open Championship this summer - his favourite Major - after being forced to miss the tournament last year due to the birth of his first child.

Sabbatini and Clark both fit into the same category as Immelman and have showed that they're ready to step up to the plate and win a Grand Slam in the last two US Masters.

Clark pushed Phil Mickelson all the way at Augusta last year and shared the lead at the halfway stage this year, before eventually slipping back. He may not be the longest of hitters, but he is deadly accurate and relishes the pressure-cooker atmosphere that playing in the Grand Slam tournaments brings.

Sabbatini has won three times on the PGA Tour during his career and looked like adding the Masters to his list of honours, when taking the lead during the final round at Augusta this year.

Rather than him falling back, it was the inspired play of Zach Johnson that forced Sabbatini to miss out this time but the sometime controversial figure has proved that he can compete with the best and could be worth following this summer.

There are also a shortage of young pretenders to the South African number one crown. The athletic Charl Schwartzel is a youngster with immense talent, who currently lies 16th in the Order of Merit standings after some impressive displays early in the season.

Twenty-year-old Anton Haig announced himself as star of the future by triumphing in a play-off to win this year's Johnnie Walker Classic.

Backers should also be aware of Richard Sterne and Andrew McLardy when making their selections in Europe in 2007.

Sterne had to settle for second best to Haig in Thailand, but has been in contention at events throughout the first part of the season. Meanwhile, McLardy is a player who is somewhat underrated and looks capable of much more judging by his performances over the last 18 months - including finishing joint-second at this month's Volvo China Open.

Defending champion Phil Mickelson has been paired with last week's Shell Houston Open winner Adam Scott and rising Scottish amateur Richie Ramsay - the US Amateur title holder.

Ernie Els will face 2006 US Open winner Geoff Ogily and last year's runner-up and crowd favourite Fred Couples, playing in his 23rd US Masters, while leading European hopes Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald and Justin Rose and Jose Maria Olazabal have been paired together.

But much of the focus will again be centred on world number one Tiger Woods, and his three-ball stands out as the pick of the groupings for the opening two rounds.

Playing with Woods is, of course, no easy task and brings its own pressures, but if ever there were two golfers capable of standing up to the greatest golfer of the modern era and taking him on at the world's most beautiful golf course, it is Englishman Paul Casey and Australian Aaron Baddeley.

The pair have long been mentioned as players capable of challenging Woods' supremacy in the game and the duo have really started to fulfil their immense promise over the last 12 months.

Casey, a key member of Europe's victorious Ryder Cup team that humiliated the Americans in Ireland last September, was a winner three times on the European Tour in 2006 on his way to being named European Player of the Year.

And Baddeley's career has also blossomed in the last year, while he stands seventh in the 2007 FedExCup standings after winning the FBR Open in February and finishing in the top ten at both World Golf Championship events this year.

All three players are already winners in 2007, with Woods having won two of the four PGA tournaments he has contested and Casey having triumphed in Abu Dhabi, and there could be plenty of fireworks from the group on the first two days as the trio are all capable of reeling off a string of birdies.

Woods will start the tournament as the red-hot favourite at 2.7 to claim his fifth Green Jacket, and is, deservedly, the 1.76 favourite to emerge victorious over his group rivals, with Casey trading at 3.35 and Baddeley the outsider at 4.1.

Woods, who finished third behind Mickelson last year, has an incredible stroke average of 70.85 for every round he has played at Augusta and it would seem unthinkable that he will not be among the contenders come Sunday.

In the last eight majors, the American, who can be backed at 7.2 to be the first-round leader, has four wins, a second, third and fourth place with the only blemish coming when he missed the cut at last year's 2006 US Open - his first event after the death of his father.

Woods comes into the tournament in fine form, having comfortably won the WGC-CA Championship a fortnight ago and leads the field in 'greens in regulation hit' on the PGA Tour with 73.61%.

But Woods suffered on the greens at the Masters last year, and it has been the same story in 2007. He is languishing down in 103rd place in the standings for putts per round (29.5) and it may be his undoing again.

The same cannot be said for Casey and Baddeley, with the former first in the putting standing, averaging 27.5 putts per round, and the latter not far behind him in ninth place with 28.04 putts per round.

Casey and Baddeley both have points to prove, having disappointed on their last appearances at the Masters, and the words of Woods this week, when he said you need previous experience if you are to challenge at Augusta, are also likely to fire them up.

After coming sixth on his debut in 2004, Casey, trading at 9.8 to finish as the top European this week, badly missed the cut the following year and was forced to sit and watch the tournament on television by his coach in 2006.

It is not an experience he wants to repeat. Winning the HSBC World Match Play Championship and Ryder Cup last year has given the Englishman the confidence to believe he can beat anyone in the world and end European golf's wretched run in the majors.

Casey, who is available at 50 to be the first-round leader has all the skills needed to score well around Augusta as he hits the ball long but also with a high flight which ensures a soft landing. He is also an excellent putter and could be Europe's best hope of victory this week where he can be backed at 55.

Baddeley will also be appearing at the Masters for the third time and is yet to break par, making his debut in 2000 as an amateur before appearing again the following year.

But he is a very different player now, and his golf this season has shown a growing maturity.

The 26-year-old, who has risen to 26 in the world rankings with a series of impressive displays, chose to take last week off in readiness for his Augusta outing and will have plenty of followers.

While he is trading at 140 to win the event and 85 to be first round leader, he looks attractively priced at 10.5 to finish as the best Australian this week and, like Casey, far from being overawed by playing with Woods, is likely to be inspired by his presence.

Golf is littered with images throughout the last few decades of players who have seemingly had their first Major in their grasp - only for it to slip through their hands at the final moment.

Few people will ever forget the memory of American Doug Sanders stood over a 30-inch putt on the final green to win the 1970 Open Championship at St Andrews - the Home of Golf.

Sanders inexplicably pushed his effort and had to go into a play-off with Jack Nicklaus the next day. He inevitably lost to finish as a runner-up at a Major for the fourth time in his career - and never did manage to fulfil his ambition of winning a Grand Slam tournament.

In recent years, the name of Greg Norman is synonymous with those who have finished as the nearly men in the Majors.

Norman did actually win two Open Championships, in 1986 and 1993, but it is the tournaments that he let get away to which he will forever be associated with.

The Australian amazingly came second in a Major nine times during his career, while he finished in the top five on another nine occasions.

While Norman was the victim of some amazing bad luck at times - most notably when Bob Tway holed a bunker shot at the 1986 US PGA Championship and Larry Mize then chipped in during a play-off at the US Masters the following year - he could also be his own worst enemy.

He three-putted from 15 feet to hand the 1993 US PGA Championship to Paul Azinger and worse was to follow at the 1996 US Masters, when he began the final round with a six-stroke lead only to eventually lose to Nick Faldo by five strokes.

The shattered Norman collapsed into Faldo's arms on the 18th green that day and Colin Montgomerie must have felt like doing the same thing after his latest near-miss in a Major at the US Open last year.

Having already finished runner-up in a Grand Slam event four times, Europe's Ryder Cup talisman must have felt his time had finally arrived as he stood in the middle of the 18th fairway at Winged Foot.

While there was not much he could do about coming second to Tiger Woods at The Open Championship in 2005, this was a title that was his for the taking.

But Montgomerie fatally hit his seven-iron approach fat, forcing him to chip on but he then three-putted to once again miss out by a stroke.

Whether the Scot gets another chance to break his duck remains to be seen, but he should take heart from the likes of Nicklaus, Vijay Singh, Gary Player and Mark O'Meara who all won Majors in their 40s.

Chris DiMarco will have every sympathy with Montgomerie's plight having also suffered the agony of finishing second at a Major three times over the last three years.

DiMarco has been within inches of his first Grand Slam win at the US Masters, The Open Championship and US PGA Championship, only to find his way blocked by Woods, twice, and Singh.

It could well be that the American is destined, alongside Montgomerie, to join the group of outstanding players never to win a Major, but you can guarantee that no two players will be trying harder to end the run in 2007.

Having had a reputation as being something of a bridesmaid at tournaments in the early part of his career, Padraig Harrington finally appeared to throw off that tag in 2006 to win the Order of Merit title.

Harrington went from 1996-2000 without winning, including a run four seconds in five events late in 1999, and has certainly not won as many titles as he should have at this stage in his career.

His struggle to finish tournaments off is backed up by his record in the Majors, where he has come in the top five five times but so far failed to make his big breakthrough.

Davis Love III, Jim Furyk and Retief Goosen are fortunate enough to be included in the group of players that have claimed at least one Major title during their careers, but there is a nagging feeling that the trio struggle down the final stretch when the pressure is on.

Love has won 19 PGA tournaments during his career but only one Grand Slam event - at the 1997 US PGA Championship - having to settle for three second places and three other top-five finishes.

Furyk's record is similar, with his big moment coming at the 2003 US Open, but there have been eight other top-five finishes including two in 2006.

Goosen has two US Open titles to his name, with the second of these coming in 2004, but has had three top five finishes without winning since - blowing a three-stroke lead in the final round of the 2005 US Open and it's uncertain if the scars from Pinehurst No 2 have fully healed yet.

While Tiger Woods has done his best to put a monopoly on tournaments across the world with his brilliance on the golf course, even the modern game's greatest player is not good enough to win every event he enters, as hard as he tries.

And golf has had a tendency to throw up more than its fair share of surprise winners over the years, particularly in the major championships.

From John Daly stunning the golfing world to win the 1991 US PGA Championship after only getting into the tournament as a late replacement, to unknown Americans Ben Curtis and Todd Hamilton upstaging proven winners to claim the 2003 and 2004 British Open titles, golf's history is littered with shock victors.

Curtis, playing in his first major, was available at odds of 250/1 at Royal St.George's four years while he could still be backed at 80/1 on the morning of the final day. Meanwhile, Hamilton was trading at 200/1 on his way to beating Ernie Els in a play-off.

Selecting a pre-tournament winner has proved an even harder job for backers so far in 2007, with the European Tour having produced eight first-time winners already this season while the PGA Tour has not been far behind.

The two tournaments on the two tours at the start of this month are a case in point.

Little-known American Mark Wilson could be backed at a massive 1000 on his way to winning the Honda Classic after a four-way play-off, while talented young South African Anton Haig was trading at 500 before going on to clinch the Johnnie Walker Classic.

Of course, selecting a long-priced winner in the build up to an event is no easy task and involves an awful lot of luck, but there is also value to be had for punters who are prepared to wait to see how a tournament unfolds and back players in-running.

Such is the nature of golf, where the lead can rapidly change hands within a matter of seconds and a couple of putts holed or missed, there are big gains that can be made in the in-play market on long-priced players who look out of a tournament at a given stage.

Up against the likes of Woods, Vijay Singh, Davis Love III and Thomas Bjorn, the unfancied Curtis was still trading at 40/1 when he teed off on the final day at The Open.

With the experts adamant that he wouldn't win, they took bets on Curtis including wagers of £1,900 at 40/1, £10,000 at 8/1 and £8,000 at 7/1 so that he was backed all the way down to 11/8.

Few people would have given Geoff Ogilvy a hope of winning last year's US Open, especially with Colin Montgomerie sitting pretty on the 18th fairway, US Masters champion Phil Mickelson also well placed and the Australian off the back of the par-three 17th hole in two.

But Ogilvy proceeded to hole his chip for an unlikely par before also parring the last, while Montgomerie and Mickelson both wilted under the pressure to hand him an unlikely victory.

The odds on some of the leading players at the start of a week are often short and unattractive, and more value may be found by backing them in-running.

The likes of Woods and Ernie Els can never be written off - both have made a habit of coming from off the pace on the final day to win - while a tournament's constantly changing face means it is worth paying attention to players further down the leader board in events.

Nathan Green came from six shots back in November to win the New Zealand Open, and this season's Malaysian Open champion Peter Hedblom was seven strokes adrift at the halfway stage before coming through the field.

It should not be forgotten that Paul Lawrie was ten shots behind going into the final round at the 1999 Open Championship before his amazing victory, as Jean van de Velde famously capitulated on the last hole.

Paul Goydos was matched at a massive 800 before hauling himself into contention and winning the Sony Open earlier this season, but perhaps the best illustration of the value to be found in backing in-play came at last weekend's Singapore Masters.

With the leader board changing all the time, the odds on Nick Dougherty, Simon Dyson, Iain Steel and Liang Wen-Chong fluctuated with every shot that was taken and each player was favourite at one point, before Liang eventually prevailed in a play-off.

With so many first-time winners already in 2007, it would be a big surprise if there weren't more before the end of the season on both major tours, while backers looking to make a killing with a long-priced outsider at a Grand Slam event could do worse than look at the USPGA Championship.

The fourth major of the year has had a knack of producing shock winners in the past - Daly, Bob Tway, Jeff Sluman, Mark Brooks, Rich Beem and Shaun Micheel to name a few.