LIV Golf's Sergio Garcia OUT of The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool
Sergio Garcia will miss his first Open Championship since 1997.
LIV Golf's Sergio Garcia will not play in the Open Championship this month for the first time since 1997 after narrowly missing out on one of five qualifying spots in the field at West Lancashire on Tuesday.
Garcia, 43, opened brightly in the 36-hole qualifier with a round of 67 but he could not build on that in the afternoon and his second-round 71 saw him finish at 6-under par and three strokes shy of one of the five qualifying spots.
"Obviously I am a little disappointed right now but that's the game of golf," said Garcia.
"You can't take things for granted. I am very thankful I've been able to play 26 or 27 Open Championships (it's 25), that's not an easy task to achieve, so I wanted to keep that going but unfortunately I couldn't keep it going today."
England's Matt Wallace won the qualifier at West Lancs with a 36-hole total of 11-under par.
The recent PGA Tour winner finished one stroke clear of compatriot Matthew Jordan and South Africa's Kyle Barker.
See you at The Open, @matthew_jordan7
Rounds of 65 and 69 to qualify for the championship at his home course at Royal Liverpool, Hoylake. pic.twitter.com/C7GqYyccZt— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) July 4, 2023
Qualification to The Open is extra special for Jordan, who will now compete on his home course at Royal Liverpool.
It will mark Jordan's second appearance at The Open having missed the cut at St Andrews in 2022.
The 151st Open Championship takes place at Royal Liverpool from July 20-23.
Matt Fitzpatrick's brother Alex Fitzpatrick also picked up one of the five qualification spots at West Lancs when finishing tied fourth on 9-under par alongside German amateur Tiger Christensen.
LIV Golf's Graeme McDowell also missed out on a spot in The Open as he finished a further two strokes behind Garcia on 4-under par.
Garcia and McDowell will now remain in England this week to compete in LIV Golf London at Centurion GC.
There were four different Open Final Qualifiers taking place in the UK on Tuesday.
Five players qualified from West Lancs, Royal Cinque Ports and Royal Porthcawl, while four players qualified at Dundonald Links.
Belgium's Thomas Detry and South Africa's Martin Rohwer topped the leaderboard over at Royal Cinque Ports, finishing one stroke clear of LIV Golf Stinger GC duo Branden Grace and Charl Schwartzel, and France's Antoine Rozner.
LIV Golf's Laurie Canter topped the charts over at Royal Porthcawl with a 36-hole total of 8-under par.
Canter's English compatriots Brandon Robinson-Thompson and Matthew Southgate also came through in second and third spots respectively.
Thailand's Jazz Janewattananond and Wales' Oliver Farr also picked up the final qualification spots on 1-under par.
Meanwhile at @DundonaldLinks, an epic play-off reached the fifth extra hole...
...before Graeme Robertson did this to qualify for The Open. pic.twitter.com/V0zwZBTMRd— The Open (@TheOpen) July 4, 2023
Over at Dundonald Links, Scotland's Michael Stewart flew home to win the event on 7-under par, finishing two strokes clear of England's Marco Penge.
Australia's Connor McKinney and Scotland's Graeme Robertson came through a three-man playoff to take the last two spots.
US PGA sensation Michael Block will unfortunately not be teeing it up at The Open as he finished well down the field at 9-over par at Dundonald Links.
The 19 Open Qualifiers from the four qualifiers in the UK on Tuesday:
West Lancs
-11 M Wallace (Eng)
-10 M Jordan (Eng), K Barker (SA)
-9 A Fitzpatrick (Eng), T Christensen am (Ger)
Royal Cinque Ports
-3 T Detry (Bel), M Rohwer (SA)
-2 A Rozner (Fra), B Grace, C Schwartzel (SA)
Royal Porthcawl
-8 L Canter (Eng)
-4 B Robinson-Thompson (Eng)
-2 M Southgate (Eng)
-1 J Janewattananond (Tha), O Farr (Wal)
Dundonald Links
-7 M Stewart (Sco)
-5 M Penge (Eng)
-3 C McKinney (Aus), G Robertson (Sco)*
* came through playoff
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