FERNDOWN amateur Dominic Knight charged through regional qualifying at the first time of asking to take a giant step towards golf’s most famous tournament – the Open Championship.

The Boscombe-raised ace, 21, carded two-under-par at Remedy Oak yesterday to earn a place in final qualifying by a single shot.

A former England schoolboy international, Knight faced an anxious wait after a bogey at the last but ultimately maintained his place in the top eight by the narrowest possible margin.

Final qualifying takes place at Gailes Links, Hillside, Royal Cinque Ports and Woburn a week today.

Knight comes from fine golfing stock as father and Ferndown member Nigel won the Daily Mail Foursomes in 1997.

And Nigel, who stumped up his son’s £150 entry fee, was a nervous spectator as the final groups came in.

Knight junior told the Daily Echo: “I’m delighted. I came in with no expectations and just tried to shoot as low a score as I could.

“My dad gets very nervous so it was nice to do it for him. I played really solid and didn’t miss many greens and when I did, I got up and down.

“I think the key was not making any big numbers. In an event where you have to shoot a good score, big numbers are a nightmare.

“After I had finished, everyone was telling me I was going to be fine but I thought I would be in a play-off.”

Knight, who attends Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois, had to battle two separate spells of rain during his morning round but for most of the afternoon competitors enjoyed fine, albeit windy conditions.

The youngster was two shots worse off than the top score of the day, carded by both Oliver Baker (Ridgeway) and Robert Gowers (Alresford).

Just behind on three-under was amateur Alister Balcombe (Clevedon), while locked on two-under were Knight, Tyler Hogarty (South Africa), James Ablett (Lee on the Solent), amateur Jack Owen (Sherfield Oaks) and amateur Jamie Mist (Hayling).

Gareth Hawkins (Bournemouth & Meyrick Park) missed out on progress by a narrow margin as he shot even-par.

Ferndown amateur Matt Hector, who played using a borrowed set of irons after his own had been deemed illegal by the R&A, fired eight-over.

The Open, which is in its 144th year, is due to take place at St Andrews next month.

Rory McIlroy claimed last year’s title – then his third major – after edging to a two-shot victory over Sergio Garcia and Rickie Fowler at Hoylake.

Other Remedy Oak scores: Ben Pritchard (Parkstone) +4, Jack Singh Brar (Remedy Oak) +4, James Baldwin (Parkstone) +5, Thomas Parsons (Knighton Heath) +5, Harry Mitchell (Ferndown) +6, Tom Peacock (Parkstone) +6, Chris Tyrell (New Forest) +7, Matt Williams (Dudsbury) +8, Matt Hector (Ferndown) +8, Daniel Clark (Remedy Oak) +16.