On Tuesday at Final Qualifying for the 2025 Open Championship, LIV pro Sam Horsfield walked off the course after struggling through nine holes. The R&A disqualified the pro for his actions.
Horsfield was only disqualified because he failed to report his withdrawal from the event, leaving the course without alerting tournament officials.
But on Tuesday night, Horsfield broke his silence to explain the reasons for his walk-off, which involved a late arrival from last week’s LIV event, a late-night fire alarm and a phone alarm that failed to wake him up.
Sam Horsfield explains Open qualifier DQ
Horsfield was one of 14 LIV Golf players who entered one of four Final Qualifying events for the Open Championship on Tuesday. He played the event at West Lancashire Golf Club in England, where only the top 5 in a 72-player field would earn Open spots after a 36-hole marathon.
But Horsfield only lasted nine of those holes, walking off the course with a score of seven-over 43.
Tuesday night, Horsfield posted a lengthy explanation for his actions in an Instagram story, superimposed over a @NUCLRGOLF social media post about his DQ.
In his message, Horsfield explained that he arrived at Heathrow airport at 4 p.m. local time on Monday before making his way to West Lancashire, finally falling asleep at around 11 p.m. for a 6 a.m. wake-up.
But Horsfield claimed that a fire alarm went off at 1 a.m. in the morning, and he was forced to “stand outside for an hour or so.” He said he didn’t fall back asleep until 5:30 a.m. following the fire alarm, then slept through his own 6 a.m. alarm before being woken by his caddie.
The whole affair left Horsfield “completely dizzy and out of it all day,” leading to his poor play and his eventual walk-off.
You can read the full text of Horsfield’s Instagram explanation below.
“So I flew back home Sunday night and landed into Heathrow at 4pm by the time I got up to west lancs it was about late. Had a bit of dinner and fell asleep at 1030/11. At 1AM the fire alarm went off and we had to go stand outside for an hour or so. I eventually got back sleep around 530 for a 6am alarm which I slept thru but fortunately my caddy woke me up.. I felt completely dizzy and out of it all day. Don’t listen to the propaganda out there against liv players by some of these pages. Hope this clears things up. See you guys in valderamma next week.”
While Horsfield added a message denouncing “propaganda out there about [LIV] players,” he did not explain why he withdrew without telling officials running the Open Final Qualifying event at West Lancashire.
Who secured Open Championship spots on Tuesday
While Horsfield was DQ’d, fellow LIV pro Lucas Herbert was one of five pros who secured spots in the Open Championship at the West Lancashire Final Qualifying event.
Herbert was joined by 20-year-old amateur Richard Teder, who holed out in a playoff for the final spot. Sampson Zheng, George Bloor and Oliver Linedell were the other qualifiers from West Lancashire.
At the Royal Cinque Ports qualifier, LIV star Dean Burmester successfully earned tee times at the Open along with Curtis Knipes, Nathan Kimsey, Sebastian Cave and John Axelsen.
Harry Hall, Justin Walters, Jacob Skov Olesen, OJ Farrell and Frazer Jones qualified at Burnham and Berrow in England, while LIV pro Lee Westwood, Connor Graham, Daniel Young, Angel Hidalgo and Jesper Sandborg advanced out of the qualifier held at Dundonald Links in Scotland.
