WORCESTERSHIRE golf ace John Bickerton had double cause for celebration yesterday.

A final position of joint 11th at the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond not only earned the Droitwich player a £38,000 payday - it also gave him automatic qualification for the Open at Muirfield later this week.

It will be the 32-year-old's fourth British Open and his third in succession, although he has yet to make the halfway cut.

Bickerton finished on a seven-under-par total of 277 at Loch Lomond, helped by a fine third round of 67 which featured an eagle two on the 14th hole.

A one-under-par 70 yesterday was enough to earn him his Open ticket as one of the eight highest non-exempted finishers.

Having become the third oldest winner in European tour history, Eduardo Romero today turned his thoughts to trying to become the second oldest winner of a major.

The smiling Argentinian captured the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond yesterday with a nine-foot birdie putt at the first hole of a sudden death play-off with Swede Fredrik Jacobson.

Romero celebrates his 48th birthday on Wednesday -- the day before Nick Faldo has his 45th -- and after learning something from Tiger Woods in May he now wants to use it to beat him at Muirfield.

The two played together at the Deutsche Bank Open in Heidelberg and what impressed Romero more than anything was the world number one's focus on every single stroke.

"My concentration this week was the best it's ever been," commented Romero last night. "Tiger showed me that every shot is important."

Romero's best-ever finish was seventh at Troon in 1997, but with the help of yoga every morning and evening he believes he is playing better than he ever has.

The massive £366,660 first prize -- more than twice his previous biggest cheque -- took him to third place on the European Order of Merit.

Jacobson has been a runner-up five times in Europe, but has yet to win and it showed as he threw away the lead he had held since the second day.

He somehow got out of the 16th with a par four after first of all hooking his drive and then losing his second shot -- it was Romero who found it embedded in a bank after a three-minute search.

That left the 27-year-old one up with two to play, the same position he was in at the Irish Open two years ago.

At Ballybunion he went bogey-bogey to lose. This time bogey-par brought the same end result, a putt of under three feet on the 17th being his undoing.

"I saw a little shaking when he was chipping and putting," said Romero afterwards. "But it's normal -- it's pressure."