Emiliano Grillo needed to win to get in — nothing else would do it.
Even a playoff loss would put Grillo on the outside looking in for The Open qualifying, forcing him to find another route to Royal Liverpool. Instead, his win at last weekend's Charles Schwab Challenge boosted him into the Official World Golf Ranking top 50, just in the nick of time.
Players can qualify to The Open via a few different routes, including The Open Qualifying series, but arguably the easiest is to play well enough to be in the OWGR top 50 eight weeks prior to the tournament.