Glenn Joyner has taken his form from the SParms PGA Legends Tour to the links of Scotland, topping qualifying for this week’s Rolex Senior Open at Gleneagles.

A day after Cameron Smith’s history-making Open Championship triumph at St Andrews, Joyner was one of three Aussies among the 51 qualifiers to add their names to the field for the Senior Open starting Thursday.

More than 500 over-50s teed it up across four venues chasing one of 12 spots on offer at each course, Joyner’s total of seven-under 65 three clear of the field at the Lansdowne Course at Blairgowrie Golf Club.

A three-time winner on the SParms PGA Legends Tour this season, Joyner was joint winner with Lucien Tinkler at the Kens Plumbing/CUB/Difftrans Bargara Legends Pro-Am prior to leaving Australia.

It will be Joyner’s third appearance in the Senior Open, missing the cut in both 2015 and 2017.

Victorian John Wade – an Open Championship qualifier in 2005 and 2013 – also secured a spot at Lansdowne.

Wade shot a round of two-under 70 to be one of four players tied for sixth, earning his second start in the Senior Open having missed the cut in 2019 at Royal Lytham and St Annes.

Federal Golf Club PGA Professional Andrew Welsford finished third at the Rosemount Course at Blairgowrie to qualify for his first Senior Open, firing six birdies in a round of four-under 69 to finish two back of American pair Tom Gillis and Cliff Kresge.

Joyner has been drawn to play with Englishman James Crampton and Spain’s Jose Manuel Carriles in the fourth group out on Thursday while Wade and Welsford have been drawn together almost eight hours later.

The addition of Joyner, Wade and Welsford takes the total Australian representation to nine, two-time Legends Tour winner Richard Green, Stuart Appleby, Robert Allenby, Peter O’Malley, Peter Fowler also in the field.

Kiwis Steven Alker and Michael Campbell will also tee it up at Gleneagles.

Reigning Australian Senior PGA champion Guy Wall missed the playoff at Rosemount by one stroke and is an alternate while other Aussies who failed to progress were David McKenzie, Denis Brosnan, Sean Herden, Andy Rogers and Matthew McKenna.

Senior Open Round 1 tee times AEST
4.30pm Glenn Joyner, James Crampton, Jose Manuel Carriles
5pm      John Senden, Jean-François Remesy, Michael McCoy
5.50pm Richard Green, Scott Parel, Phillip Price
6.30pm Steven Alker (NZ), Bernhard Langer, Jeev Milkha Singh
9.30pm Stuart Appleby, Yoshinobu Tsukada, Dicky Pride
9.40pm Robert Allenby, Chris Williams, Peter Wilson
10pm    Peter O’Malley, Barry Lane, Niclas Fasth
11.10pm             Michael Campbell (NZ), Paul McGinley, Ian Woosnam
11.50pm             Peter Fowler, Ken Duke, Greg Owen
12.10am             John Wade, Andrew Welsford, Alan McLean