Sergio Garcia cost himself Open Championship spot with shocking 3-foot miss

Sergio Garcia came to Macau this weekend looking to play his way into “his favorite” major. In the end, a three-foot birdie putt stood between Garcia and a spot in the 153rd Open Championship at Royal Portrush.

But golf is a brutal sport. Garcia missed the short putt and left the Asian Tour’s International Series Macau event with a fourth-place finish and not much else.

While Garcia failed to qualify for the Open via a top-three finish in Macau, his fellow LIV mates Carlos Ortiz (first), Patrick Reed (second) and Jason Kokrak (third) all punched their ticket to Portrush. Garcia’s three-foot birdie putt on the last would have had him finish tied with Kokrak and earn the final spot in the Open via a countback system based on his world rankings points. Garcia is currently 513 in the world, while Kokrak is 775 due to LIV’s inability to earn Official World Golf Rankings points at LIV events.

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For Ortiz, the win gives him his second career start in golf’s oldest major. His only previous start came in 2021.

Ortiz and Reed began the day tied for first, but Ortiz quickly distanced himself from early birdies on one and three. An eagle on the par-5 12th gave him more breathing room, and he coasted to a three-shot win.

“Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get the win,” Reed, who will play in his 10th Open, said after the round. “But, you know, anytime you can play bogey-free on Sundays, always positive. To go and finish solo second, get a spot in The Open, yeah, it means a lot.”

Twenty LIV players teed it up in Macau this week looking to take advantage of an event that is part of the R&A’s Open Qualifying Series. Since LIV has limited avenues to major championships due to their world rankings issue, this event served as a way to get to Royal Portrush without having to rely on local qualifying or the newly-created LIV standings exemption.

In February, the R&A unveiled a new exemption that will be given to the top player in the individual LIV standings who is not otherwise qualified after the league’s Dallas event in late June. Garcia, who won LIV Hong Kong two weeks ago, is currently third in the standings behind Joaquin Niemann and Jon Rahm, both of whom have already qualified for the Open.

The 2017 Masters champion is still in a good spot to earn his way into the Open and U.S. Open via this new exemption, but he’ll have to continue to play good golf on LIV to hold off a number of other non-exempt players who are right behind him in the standings.

Three feet could have ensured Garcia wouldn’t have to worry about missing the Open for the third consecutive year. But he missed the shorty and now will have to rely on sustained quality play or a run at local qualifying to play at Royal Portrush.