Americans Palmer and O'Hair target Open spots at Lytham

REUTERS - Former PGA Tour winners Ryan Palmer, Sean O'Hair, Stuart Appleby and Jhonattan Vegas will line up in Plano, Texas on Monday in a strong field of 78 at the U.S. leg of international qualifying for the British Open.

The quartet will compete over 36 holes at Gleneagles Country Club for eight spots on offer at the year's third major, to be held from July 19-22 at Lytham St Annes in England.

American Palmer, who tied for 30th on his British Open debut last year at Royal St George's, will tee off in good form at Gleneagles after tying for ninth at the Byron Nelson Championship in Irving, Texas on Sunday.

"This year it's kinda gotten better," three-times PGA Tour champion Palmer told reporters of his season, having produced two top-10 finishes in his last three starts on the U.S. circuit.

"I knew everything was going in the right direction, it was just a matter of putting it all together at once."

Fellow American O'Hair will be bidding to compete in his eighth British Open, having posted a best finish of joint seventh at St Andrews in 2010.

Australian veteran Appleby was runner-up in the 2002 British Open at Muirfield, where South African Ernie Els triumphed after a four-way playoff.

Emerging Venezuelan talent Vegas, who clinched his maiden PGA Tour victory at last year's Humana Challenge, has never played in the British Open and has competed in only two majors.

Other international contenders competing at Gleneagles on Monday include Britons Greg Owen and Brian Davis, Swede Henrik Stenson and Colombia's Camilo Villegas.

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Julian Linden)