The Open Championship, St Andrews, 15-18 July
Coverage: Live on BBC TV, Red Button, BBC Sport website, with updates on BBC Radio 5 live Full coverage details

By Ged Scott BBC Sport at St Andrews

Clark has appeared at the 1995 and 1997 Open Championships

Londoner Gary Clark will not forget his first Open Championship in a hurry - even though it was 15 years ago.

Clark was still an amateur when he played all four rounds at St Andrews at the 1995 Open to win a bronze medal.

And, even at 39, there is still a boyish enthusiasm detectable in him at being back at the home of golf to take on the Old Course again this week.

"I'm very excited. This is a very special place to be for an unbelievable tournament," he told BBC Sport.

"The best players normally rise to the top but links golf opens it up to everybody.

"And really we've just got to see what the weather's like and what the wind's doing when we wake up on Thursday morning."

Last time Clark was here he finished within six shots of Tiger Woods.

Had that happened in 2000 or 2005, when Woods was each time a runaway winner, it would have earned him a top three finish each time.

Sadly for Clark, Woods' performance that year was in his first Open, as an amateur, in 1995. And, along with Gordon Sherry, Clark and Woods each had to settle for a bronze medal, for completing all four rounds, behind that year's silver medal winner Steve Webster.

Since then, Clark's career has gone in a rather different direction to Woods. But even the world number one has found out over the past two years what a great leveller life can be. And the beauty of golf is that they all start on the same tee, on the same score on Thursday.

And, despite a poor year that has seen make just three out of 12 halfway cuts on the European Tour, Clark will go into the 139th Open Championship feeling full of confidence thanks to his performance in Final Qualifying at Scotscraig.

The Hertfordshire-based, Middlesex-born golfer, whose home club is Pinner Hill, shot rounds of 68 and 69 to earn a place in a three-man play-off.

The golf course is so tricky. The 17th was already tough and now it's even tougher. You walk off with a four now and it feels like a birdie Gary Clark

And he then held his nerve to book himself a third appearance at an Open (he also played all four rounds at Royal Troon in 1997).

"It has been a hard grind this year," said Clark, who has enjoyed a medical exemption on the European Tour after suffering a painful side injury which kept him out until January.

"But I played well at qualifying. To shoot two good scores and win a play-off gives you hope. And strange things happen, especially at The Open. You never know.

"The golf course is so tricky. The 17th was already tough and now it's even tougher. You walk off with a four now and it feels like a birdie.

"But it doesn't matter because you're in the Open and it's at St Andrews."

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