Victorian Ash Hall makes his second appearance at The Open thanks to a stellar back half to the 2016 season.

A win at the Victorian PGA Championship early in the season signaled a career year for the 33-year-old, the triumph was followed up by a thrilling T2 finish at the Emirates Australian Open, where he was narrowly defeated in a three-way playoff with fellow Australian Cameron Smith and eventual winner Jordan Spieth.

With a spot in The 146th Open Championship up for grabs, getting to a playoff was far from his mind as he approached his final putt.

“To be honest my caddie Adam and I were standing over the putt on the 72nd and we thought if we can hole this we can get one of those Open spots so I certainly knew that was on the line, I didn’t think it would get me in to that playoff I was more surprised about that,” Hall said.

“Having played it (The Open) once in 2012 I know it’s a pretty big deal.”

A narrow defeat at the hands of a former World Number 1 gave Hall a confidence boost he will take going in the Open week at Royal Birkdale.

“It was good because I hadn’t really contended so much in those bigger events, I didn’t really putt that great that week so it was really good to get in that scenario.

“Then two weeks later at the Australian PGA I played really well again so it means I’m doing the right thing and I can compete with those higher ranked guys.

“It’ll be good to do it in a field of 150 odd Jordan Spieths rather than just one or two at the Aussie events.”

Hall enters The Open no stranger to the Royal Birkdale layout having first played the course in 2005 during The Amateur Championship.

“I played the British Am there in 2005 and I also played there the week before I played The Open in 2012, it was only half an hour away from Royal Lytham & St Annes that year,” Hall added.

“I played with mum and dad there and we did the same thing this year, played a couple of different courses last week to get some links practice.”

On the home front, Hall has made a point of seeking out venues similar to what he’ll tackle this week, he recently spent time at the highly regarded Barnbougle course in Tasmania.

“It was nice to play that sort of course, it’s as close to the U.K. links we’ve got in Australia, I picked probably the two best days ever to go down there, there was no wind!” Hall joked.

“The weather has been a bit like that when I was preparing, I’ve been getting to the course everyday and it’s not been windy, it has been nice to practice in though, I’ve got a lot done.”

While he has been seeking out the wind to little success in the last couple of months, he would welcome a battling breeze at Royal Birkdale needing to analyse each shot would be a welcome advantage to his game.

“I’ve played in the wind since I was a kid basically playing Peninsula district pennant down at Portsea and we actually played Sorrento recently to find some wind as well,” Hall said.

“It doesn’t faze me at all, you’ve just got to have your head switched on and think about it a little bit, which I’d say is my strength anyway, thinking about things rather than just shooting so I think any wind would be an advantage.”

It has been an up and down season on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia for Hall so far, however a top-10 finish in the last event on Tour, the TX Civil & Logistics WA PGA Championship, as well as two wins on the Ladbrokes PGA Pro-Am series out west provided invaluable match practice in the lead up to his second Major.

“Winning any tournament’s good, the second one the three day one was good, especially playing at The Cut on the last day with the lead gets the juices flowing a bit and shooting a good score 15-under for three rounds was very good scoring,” added Hall.

“You can’t replicate that pressure even playing money games so that’s while I’ll always play Pro-Am’s because it’s just proper game time.”