ALAN SHEARER came to the rescue when his friend Phil Harrison had his clubs stolen on the eve of the British Open Championship regional qualifier at Carlisle yesterday.

A desperate Harrison telephoned Formby Hall, Southport, where the Newcastle and England soccer player, a 14-handicap golfer, was playing in a celebrity tournament, to ask if he could borrow his clubs which were the same model as his own.

He said: "The message was passed on to him as he left the course and he rang me straight away. I told him I would travel to Newcastle to pick them up but he insisted on sending them over with a driver."

Harrison, a teaching pro at Maffen Hall who regularly plays with Shearer, qualified by birdying the first two holes in a play-off after shooting 71.

Gary Nicklaus, who played alongside his famous father in the US Open last month, failed to survive qualifying at Glenbervie. The 28-year-old's one-over-par 72 saw him miss out on a play-off by two strokes.

"I had hoped to play better but I dropped shots at three of the short holes and you can't afford to do that," he said.