DANIEL Brooks admits he had no idea how close he came to losing a spot at his first major championship.

The 28-year-old, from Basildon, picked up the biggest cheque of his life after finishing seventh at the Scottish Open last weekend.

His finish high up the leaderboard also ensured he picked up one of the three remaining spots to play his first Open Championships at the legendary St Andrews course this week.

But that did not look to be on the cards when Brooks – who had been leading going into the final day’s play – bogeyed two holes in a row at the start of the back nine at the Gullane Golf Course.

That left the former Woodlands School pupil out of the spots for the Open unless he could pick up a birdie in one of the last four holes.

“I had no idea what was going on,” said Brooks. “Before my final round I knew I had a four-shot gap over the others in contention for an Open spot. I knew I was around the mark for qualification, but when you are out there you don’t know that’s going on.”

Brooks held his nerve however and a great shot off the tee at the 16th led to his crucial birdie and after holding par for the final two rounds, he secured his Open spot.

“All I knew was that if I hit a good drive off 16 then there was a chance of a birdie. It’s a tough hole because there are a lot of bunkers but I managed to do it.

“I honestly wasn’t even thinking about the Open on the course. It did not cross my mind the whole day. It was just a bonus at the end of it all.”

Brooks, whose sole European Tour win came in Madeira last year, deserved some luck.

He had been badly out of form for much of the year, missing 13 cuts in a row, before a 20th-placed finish the Open de France a week before the Scottish Open.

That was followed up by his fantastic weekend at the Scottish Open where he led some of the best golfers in the world after three days.

“I’ve been getting better and better actually but haven’t been getting the results to show for it,” Brooks said. “It’s all very well saying you are playing better but when the results don’t show that it’s hard to prove that.

“But I played well in Germany a week before Paris even though I didn’t make the cut. Then I finished in the top 20 in Paris, then came to Scotland and for the first two days everything clicked.”

Brooks hit rounds of 64 (six under) and 65 (five under) on the first two days before finding it a bit tougher over the weekend.

Though his driving was wayward, Brooks’ short game kept him it on the final days as he hit a 69 and 73.

“I didn’t miss any shots for the first two days,” he said. “I knew there was going to be a difficult patch. It’s very rare that you rip it up for four days in a row. You know you will have to grind it out at some point and that’s what I had to do.”

By grinding it out Brooks got his best pay day ever on the European Tour as he took home 117.734 euros, a winning haul that will help him greatly in his quest to retain his tour card next year.

“You need to get around 240,000 euros to keep the card and that was a big chunk of it for me,” said Brooks who now has a year’s earning of 188,388 euros. “It was a big event and there’s still some big events to come and if I can keep playing as I have been, then hopefully I will be able to do well again.”