FATIGUE finally floored North Yorkshire golf ace Simon Dyson’s drive to qualify for The Open.

After a glorious joint-sixth place in the Celtic Manor Wales Open, Dyson dashed down to Sunningdale to start a bold bid to qualify for The Open, which this year will be held at Scotland’s Turnberry course from July 16 to 19.

He, along with 95 other players, was chasing just ten qualifying places at Sunningdale for The Open. All 96 were scheduled to play rounds on the Berkshire club’s old and new courses.

However, by the end of the first round in which the Malton and Norton Golf Club star had posted a level-par 70, he was just too bushed to continue on into the afternoon.

Another factor was that the scoring in the first round had been so accomplished that, by the half-way stage, Dyson trailed no fewer than 49 other golfers including the leader Graeme Storm, who had blitzed a new course record round of 62 in Sunningdale’s new course.

Advised by his coach Pete Cowen not to over-exert himself ahead of his assault on next week’s US Open in New York, Dyson called it quits.

Along with several other players drained by a daunting schedule, Dyson opted not to take part in the second round and instead returned north.

Now the 32-year-old will spend the rest of this week recharging his energy before jetting out to America on Sunday for the US Open, the second Major of the season, and for which he qualified at Walton Heath in another energy-sapping two-round day straight after a full 72-hole, four-round tournament last month.

At Walton Heath, he was second of the 11 qualifiers for the US Open, which will be held at the Bethpage Park course in upper state New York from a week tomorrow.

However, such were his efforts in making it to the lucrative US Open – only his second appearance in that championship – that Dyson was unable to repeat the feat for The Open this week.

Apart from the understandable Sunningdale flop, Dyson is in excellent form as illustrated by his performance at the Celtic Manor club in Newport.

After an inauspicious first round three-over-par 74, Dyson bounced back with a round of 65 – the joint best of the four rain-saturated days in Wales – before then carding successive level-par rounds of 70 to finish joint-sixth.

That earned him a cheque of just over £50,000 to take his tournament earnings this season to a little over £313,000.

However, more importantly, Dyson improved his position in the world rankings by three places to 118th, and he is also six positions better off in the European Tour Race to Dubai standings, in which he now lies 36th. The leading 60 by the end of the year qualify for the £10million Dubai Championship in November.