Footballer-turned-golfer Jimmy Bullard has failed in his bid to qualify for The Open for the second consecutive year.
The ex-Fulham fan favourite, 47, was one of more than 2,000 amateur players competing in Regional Qualifying events last weekend.
Only the top 124 players on the day made it through to Final Qualifying and Bullard, who plays off scratch, just missed out at Rochester & Cobham Park golf club.
The former Soccer AM host admitted before-hand that he ‘took a stab in the dark’ by deciding to compete after ‘not playing great’ in the weeks leading up to the event.
And Bullard’s round got off to a nightmare start when he sliced a driver way right of the fairway on the 439-yard par four first hole. It left him no choice but to chip out of the heavy rough, before failing to get up-and-down for a par.
The retired footballer then pulled himself back to level par with a birdie on the third before parring six consecutive holes and birdying the tenth to take him to -1.
Jimmy Bullard has failed in his bid to qualify for The Open for a second consecutive year
The ex-Fulham star recorded a +1 at Rochester & Cobham Park golf club, but missed the cut
However a wayward iron shot on the par three eleventh meant he had to settle for a bogey, before another struggle on eleven saw him finish +1, two shots off the cut.
Speaking on his Golf Life YouTube channel afterwards, Bullard admitted his ‘really bad’ driving on the front nine ultimately cost him.
‘We had a stab at it, didn’t we?’, Bullard told his co-host, Tubes. ‘Started really bad, couldn’t find my driver.
‘I eventually found it, and it was really good back nine. I wedged it well and I was putting so well. I think it (qualifying) was doable, I think I could have done it. I think I had a chance.
‘I just felt it was there. I started so badly with that tee shot on one. Way too aggressive.
‘I loved it though. We’ll keep going. I do believe I can get through to the second stage. It’s in there.’
Ex-Stoke City striker Peter Odemwingie, another keen golfer, also tried his luck at qualification but struggled badly at Enville golf club, recording a measly 12-over 84.
YouTube golfers Peter Finch and Rick Shiels and former Somerset cricketer Peter Trego were also among the list of celebrities to have competed – but none of the trio managed to make the cut.
Bullard, meanwhile, managed to beat his effort at last year’s event on the same course when he finished four strokes adrift of progressing.
The former midfielder has been an avid golfer since retiring in 2012, and previously competed in five of the now defunct EuroPro tour events between 2014 and 2016.
He later joined Tubes’ Golf Life YouTube channel, on which he plays against footballers past and present on the golf course. Stars such as Mason Mount, James Maddison, John Terry and Matty Cash have all featured on the channel.
