PLEASINGTON professional Ged Furey led East Lancashire's Open Championship challenge with a one-under par total at Ormskirk this week.

But the area's three survivors from the regional qualifying stage will start all-square again when they make their final tilt for a place on the first tee at Carnoustie a week today.

Furey and Burnley's Simon Eaton play two rounds at Montrose Links on Sunday and Monday as they chase just a handful of final qualifying slots for the Open.

There are currently just 46 non-exempt places to play for at Carnoustie at the four qualifying venues.

And Simon Townend, who is attached to Wilpshire, will be trying to make the cut at Downfield after joining Eaton with a level-par 70 to be among the 14 to progress from Ormskirk.

Furey made a disastrous start to his bid to set up a repeat of his previous Open appearance at Royal Lytham in 1988.

After three-putting the first at the regional qualifiers, he then dropped a further shot at the next to stand at two-over after just two holes.

However, the former European Tour player hit back after the turn with birdies at the 12th, 13th and 14th to get to one-under, a position he never relinquished. "I knew it was a good course and a fair course. You've got to play well to get round but there's nothing tricky," said Furey, who believes his game is in good shape to deal with the links of Montrose and mount a challenge for a treasured Open berth.

"I am starting to hole a few putts which you need to do because you've got to be shooting three or four under.

"You're just hoping it's going to click over those two days. There's always somebody comes through locally and you just hope you're the one," he added.

While Furey, who will play a practice round over the Montrose course on Saturday to fine-tune his preparations, has seen it all before, this is new territory for Eaton. The 23-year-old head assistant at Burnley has already bettered the reserve place he had for final qualifying for the Open at St Andrew's a couple of years ago.

Despite a late lapse in securing his place in this weekend's final qualifying stage, Eaton is happy with his form as he prepares to tackle some established names from the European tour with the utlimate prize at stake. "I have done well this summer and I'm playing well," said Eaton, who is being backed by Gordon Birtwistle of Stuart Engineering and Steve Ackers of Burnley-based Lanway Computers.

"I'm really looking forward to it and seeing how I compete with the others. It's everybody's dream to play in the Open Championship."

Townend will go it alone at Downside and knows that his chances of repeating his appearance at Birkdale in 1991 are dependent on rising to the occasion again when it matters.

"I am fairly optimistic. I'm playing pretty well apart from the odd mistake," he said.

"There are a lot of good players in final qualifying and a lot of big names. But big names can miss as well. It's on the day. Everybody is capable of doing it."

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