10 surprising players missing the 2024 Open Championship
Patrick Reed and Sergio Garcia are two of the biggest names missing from this year's Open Championship.
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There are 157 people in the field at this year’s Open Championship, which means there are roughly 7.95 billion who aren’t.
Among those there are a few surprises — guys you’d think might be playing but aren’t. Let’s run through 10 of ’em.
LIV DIVISION
LIV has 18 pros in the field — but plenty more big names who aren’t.
10. Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey, Graeme McDowell, Richard Bland
We’re already breaking our own rules here but let’s start by grouping this U.K. fivesome together. Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey and Graeme McDowell have been mainstays on golf’s international stage for decades, and Richard Bland is coming into his own as the Senior PGA and Senior U.S. Open champion. It was strange not seeing them at last fall’s Ryder Cup and it’s strange not seeing them at their home major. In fairness, there’s no way to know whether they would have qualified had they not defected to LIV — but there’s no question the move accelerated their drop. None of these five remain inside the top 500 in the world.
9. Talor Gooch
Talor Gooch was a notable addition to the PGA Championship because it seemed as though his exceptional play on LIV last season was being recognized by one of golf’s governing bodies. No such luck at the Open, and Gooch did not attempt to qualify.
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8. Carlos Ortiz
With two victories on his 2024 resume — one at LIV’s Houston event and the other at the Asian Tour’s International Series event in Oman — Carlos Ortiz has established himself as one of LIV’s better players. DataGolf has him as one of the 50 best golfers in the world at the moment. But he’s ranked just No. 260 in the OWGR and failed to advance through Open qualifying.
7. Patrick Reed
The most recent major champion to miss this year’s Open will be Patrick Reed. When the 2018 Masters champ missed the U.S. Open last month it ended a decade-long streak of playing in every major — but now he’ll miss two in a row. Reed, who is No. 104 in the world, recently played two DP World Tour events but his T29 and T13 finishes weren’t enough to boost him into the field.
6. Sergio Garcia
There’s no LIV golfer whose quest for the U.S. Open and Open Championship drew more attention than that of Sergio Garcia, a testament to his standing in the game. He finished T12 at the U.S. Open, his best major result since winning the Masters in 2017. But he’s fallen to No. 323 in the world and came up short in qualifying for the Open. The fact that he won last week’s LIV event in Spain served as further reminder of golf’s ongoing divide — and Garcia’s ability.
NON-LIV DIVISION
These guys are good, too.
5. Mark Hubbard
When Mark Hubbard missed the cut at last week’s Genesis Scottish Open, it was his first MC of 2024 in his 20th start. His ’24 campaign hasn’t all been spectacular — other than the two-man Zurich Classic, he doesn’t have a top 20 since early February — but you’d figure one of the game’s most consistent performers would be in the Open. He’s not.
4. Keith Mitchell
The favorite to win this week’s opposite-field Barracuda Championship is Keith Mitchell, who has played well this year, racking up nine top-20s on the PGA Tour, but not quite well enough; none of those results have been higher than T9 and so he remains No. 84 in the world — despite his talent and aspirational style.
3. Taylor Pendrith
You’d think that a win like Taylor Pendrith’s at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson would be enough to get him into every major, and Pendrith’s game seems good enough by any measure — he’s No. 59 in the world, DataGolf ranks him No. 61 and he’s No. 36 in the FedEx Cup — but wasn’t quite high enough in any given category to get into the field at Troon.
2. Nick Dunlap
Speaking of high-profile winners, Nick Dunlap won on the PGA Tour earlier this season as an amateur, immediately boosting himself into the Signature Events as well as into the collective consciousness of every big-time golf fan. He also played in each of the first three majors of the year. But the Open has no guarantees for Tour winners and therefore Dunlap’s OWGR, which now sits at No. 71, wasn’t quite strong enough to get him through.
1b. Thomas Detry
If there’s someone who truly seems to have slipped through the cracks at this year’s Open it’s Thomas Detry. He could have qualified had he finished in the top 10 at Hoylake last year; he finished 13th. If he’d been inside the top 50 in the OWGR at the cutoff date he would have been in; he was 53rd. He played his first full PGA Tour season in 2023, which meant he fell outside the DP World Tour’s eligibility criteria but he didn’t play well enough to make it to the Tour Championship, either, which would have qualified him. But it’s strange to see him omitted given he was a factor at the PGA Championship, where he wound up T4, and at the U.S. Open, where he finished T14. He’s arguably having the best golfing year of anyone not in the field. Again, just not quite good enough.
1a. Cam Davis
An admission: When I was drafting this article I left Davis off my list altogether because I didn’t realize he’d been left off the Open’s list, too. Feels like a bad omission on both parts!
Here’s the deal: Davis just won the Rocket Mortgage Classic two weeks ago, a victory that got him up to No. 37 in the world. He’s now No. 41. Unfortunately that win came too late for the OWGR cutoff; the tournament had already accepted the world’s top 50 players five weeks earlier.
The good news is that his standing in the world has him at first alternate, so he’s on site — but that’s where things get even more frustrating. The R&A wants a field of 156 players but began the week with 159. When David Duval withdrew they were left with 158. When Sebastian Soderberg withdrew they were left with 157. But Davis won’t get the green light unless their number drops to 155, so he’ll need two more WDs to get his shot, despite some open spots in tee times.
Even worse? This is the second consecutive year Davis is first alternate. He waited around all Thursday last year at Royal Liverpool, but no dice. And according to an interview with Golf Digest, in 2022 he said officials told him his alternate number was too huigh, so he stayed home — but would have gotten in.
Maybe 2025 is his year.
Others receiving votes:
-LIV Golfers: Martin Kaymer, Eugenio Chacarra, Marc Leishman, Anirban Lahiri, more
–David Duval — Past champ and former World No. 1 who played as recently as 2022 and was listed in the field before a late scratch
–Harry Hall — Won last week’s ISCO Championship but that didn’t qualify him. No worries: His wife is due with their first child this week.
–Colin Montgomerie — Hasn’t played in several years but drew plenty of attention for his comments on Tiger Woods’ ongoing chase, particularly after Woods’ rebuttal.
–Webb Simpson — I expect to see Simpson in every major for the rest of time; he’s only played one in each of the last two years but my brain hasn’t yet adjusted.
–Alex Fitzpatrick — His first major came at last year’s Open and he played remarkably well all week (and appeared on Netflix) but his T17 finish wasn’t enough to earn him a return berth.
-Everyone else I’ve omitted — Many, I’m sure. Maybe we’ll get ’em next year.
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