UPDATED 9 a.m. (Monday, July 23, 2012) - Keegan Bradley closed out his first appearance in the Open Championship with a 3-over 73, good enough to finish T34. The former St. John's University standout shot rounds of 71-72-68-73. He'll defend his PGA Championship title next month at Kiawah Island in South Carolina.

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UPDATED 5:15 P.M. (Friday, July 20, 2012) - Two players with Met Area ties are experiencing their first career Open Championship this week at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, and one of them survived the 36-hole cut of 3-over-par. St. John's University alumnus Keegan Bradley, the 2011 PGA champion, shot a second-round 71 to go along with his first-round 72. He will tee off with S.M. Bae of Korea at 8:50 a.m. local time (3:50 a.m. Eastern) in Saturday's third round.

Five-time MGA major winner Johnson Wagner did not have the Open Championship debut he hoped for. The three-time PGA Tour winner shot 73-76 to miss the cut, and will look to next month's PGA Championship at Kiawah Island Resort in South Carolina for his next chance to win his first professional major.

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UPDATED 3:45 P.M. (Thursday, July 19, 2012) - On a day when many players in the field at the 141st Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Annes took advantage of prime scoring conditions, five-time MGA major winner Johnson Wagner and 2008 St. John's University alumnus Keegan Bradley did not fare as well as they might have hoped as they made their debut's in golf's oldest major championship. Wagner played in the morning and carded a 3-over-par round of 73, while Bradley played much of his round during the afternoon and finished at 1-over 71.

While those are normally good scores in a major championship, recent rains have softened the 7,086-yard, par-70 layout that last hosted the Open Championship in 2001, and players were greeted with relatively calm winds. Bradley and Wagner will look to rebound with better scores in Friday's second round in order to ensure a spot on the weekend. Bradley goes off at 9:20 a.m. local time (4:20 a.m. Eastern), while Wagner begins play at 1:10 p.m. local time (8:10 a.m. Eastern).

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ELMSFORD, N.Y. (July 17, 2012) - Five-time MGA major winner Johnson Wagner and 2008 St. John's University alumnus Keegan Bradley will make their British Open debuts when they tee it up with the rest of the world's finest players at the 141st Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club in England on Thursday. Both Wagner and Bradley, the 2011 PGA champion, were exempt into the championship.

This is the first time that Wagner, a professional since 2002, will be playing competitive links golf. Wagner's family moved to Westchester County, New York when he was a teenager and he was a frequent MGA tournament competitor. Wagner spent three summers caddying at Hudson National Golf Club and went on to win the Met Amateur when it was held there in 2001. Later that summer he won the Met Open at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course, but that year was just a warm-up for the summer of 2002, right after he graduated from Virginia Tech.

That year, he accomplished what came to be known as the “Wagner Slam”—becoming the first player in MGA history to win the Ike Championship, Met Amateur, and Met Open in a single year. Wagner turned pro right before the 2002 Met Open at Winged Foot, and his win marked the beginning of his professional career.

It's a career that has now included three PGA Tour victories, and this year Wagner moved into the Top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time after his win at the Sony Open in Hawaii in January.

Wagner is currently 13th on the FedEx Cup Points Rankings, allowing him to be exempt into The Open, and so far this year he has played in 20 PGA Tour events with 4 top-10 and 6 top-25 finishes.

Royal Lytham’s challenging links, with more than 200 bunkers, calls for a game of accuracy and precision. Wagner, who competed in this year’s Masters, will be put to the test this week as he seeks to win the coveted silver Claret Jug trophy on his first attempt.

Wagner is playing the first two rounds with 2009 Open champion Stewart Cink and Rafael Cabrera-Bello. Their group tees off at 8:09 a.m. local time (3:09 a.m. Eastern). Bradley is grouped with Rory McIlroy and Louis Oosthuizen, teeing off at 2:21 p.m local time (9:21 a.m. Eastern). Coverage begins on ESPN starting at 5 a.m. on Thursday. Full coverage can be found on The Open Championship's website.