Shropshire golfer Phil Hinton has qualified for the British Senior Open – which starts tomorrow at Royal Troon.

The Chesterton Valley professional led the way in the qualifying at Glasgow Gailes with a score of 73 alongside Andrew Hall and Andrew Reynolds.

“I’m surprised the scores were so high,” admitted Hinton. “In the end I made it quite comfortably.”

Hinton will now line up alongside legends such as Shropshire’s Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam, and their fellow Ryder Cup star Bernhard Langer, who will all be making their Senior Open debuts.

But this will be Hinton’s second Senior Open, having played in it in 2006.

He missed the weekend cut at Turnberry two years ago, but is hoping to go one better this time.

“I’m excited about playing,” said the 53-year-old.

“I played the Troon course in the Open in 1977 – it’s a nice course and it’s looking good.

“There’s a lot of previous winners here and any one of them has a great chance.”

All eyes will be on Greg Norman after the Australian’s exploits in The Open at Royal Birkdale last weekend.

Norman led going into the final day but carded a seven-over 77 to finish six shots behind winner Padraig Harrington in joint third place.

Hinton follows the Open, which finishes on Sunday, with an appearance at the Glenmuir Midlands PGA final at at Moortown in Leeds.

“The Open will be a nice warm up,” he laughed.

“If I make the cut then I will be playing in Scotland through to Sunday and then at Moortown on Tuesday, so it’s busy times for me.”