If it came down to it, the guy from Portrush was prepared to take his quest to what he called the last chance saloon.

Buried amid the list of hopefuls signed up for the British Open final qualifying — a 36-hole Tuesday at St. Annes Old Links in England — briefly appeared the name of Graeme McDowell.

“I was starting to make those plans a little bit — really, am I really doing this?” McDowell, the former United States Open winner, recalled last month. “O.K., I guess we are.”

Of all the years to lose an automatic slot in the British Open, the timing could not have been worse. With golf’s oldest major championship returning to McDowell’s Northern Ireland hometown for the first time in 68 years, he was clawing to get in.