The Open Championship dreams of three of Sussex's leading golfers lay in tatters today after they failed to grab their last realistic chance of qualifying for St Andrews.

Worthing's Gary Evans was forced to pull out of international final qualifying at Sunningdale yesterday with a back injury while the Nevill's Jamie Spence finished out of the top 12.

Brighton-based New Zealander Stephen Scahill withdrew after the first 18 holes.

It means their only remaining hope of making it to the tournament on July 14 is to finish as the top non-qualified player at this week's European Open or the Scottish Open next week.

Evans, who has finished inside the top 20 at the Open for the past three years, has withdrawn from both those tournaments and admits his season is all but over.

He said: "It is very disappointing but my back has been giving me problems since I had surgery to correct a shoulder problem last year so I had no option but to pull out.

"I left it to the last possible minute before withdrawing because playing in the Open means so much to me but I eventually had to accept that I had no chance. My specialist thinks I will be ready to play again in three weeks but that will be too late. It is so frustrating because the Open has given me so many happy memories."

Evans won the hearts of millions when he screamed that one's for you mum' after sinking a 50ft putt on the 17th green at Muirfield in 2002 to finish one shot off a four-man play-off for the Claret Jug.

The following year he was tenth and last year he topped the leaderboard during the first round after sinking an outrageous albatross at the fifth but slipped back to outside the top 15 and missed out on a place in the automatic qualification places for this year's event.

So far New Zealander Michael Campbell is the only Sussex-based golfer to have qualified for the Open courtesy of his victory at the US Open ten days ago. Ian Woosnam made it back into the Open. Europe's Ryder Cup captain survived the qualifying with a single stroke to spare on six under par after rounds of 66 and 68.

More hopefuls will try their luck in regional qualifying at Royal Ashdown Forest on Monday.