Garcia played Open Championship Final Qualifying for the second year in a row. After coming up short last year, the LIV Golf star again missed on Tuesday at West Lancashire Golf Club, posting a 71-70 for a 36-hole total of three under to miss nabbing one of four available spots by two strokes.
The 2017 Masters champion’s day was marred by an episode during his first round after his group was one of several warned for slow play. Bunkered’s Ben Parsons reported that Garcia, by far the biggest name in the field of 72 hopefuls, had the largest crowds of the day and had to wait on “most tees” for fans to move off of his playing line.
Parsons captured video of Garcia having a testy exchange with two R&A officials in the 8th fairway during his first round.
Sergio Garcia furious at his slow play warning at Final Open Qualifying – saying fans are causing the delays. Here he is taking his anger out at two R&A officials.
With strong winds at West Lancs Tuesday, it’s tough to make out exactly what Garcia is yelling, but the conversation ends with some blunt sarcasm from the European Ryder Cup legend.
Parsons tweeted that Garcia was upset because it was taking marshals “3-4 minutes” to move people out of Garcia’s way for each shot and thus he was unable to maintain a normal pace.
Garcia even needed to navigate through spectators in the middle of the fairway to get to the 18th green during his first round.
Garcia walking through the fans before his birdie at the last to finish his first 18 one under. Big crowds here @WestLancsGC now. pic.twitter.com/5ETlgt3imf
Garcia elaborated on his frustrations after the round.
“It’s very simple,” he told bunkered. “When you have 2,000 people following us with no ropes, nothing.
“The marshals were trying to do the best job they could do but obviously we had to stop pretty much on every tee for two to three minutes to hit our tee shots because people were walking in front of the tee and on the fairway.
“Unless we wanted to start hitting people we couldn’t hit. I don’t think they took that into account and that was unfortunate. It made us rush. On a day like today when the conditions are so tricky and you might need a little of bit of extra time here and there it doesn’t help out. Because of that I made a couple of bogeys that might cost me getting to Troon.”
It’s far from Garcia’s first run-in with officials on course. Two years ago at the Wells Fargo Championship, while upset over a lost ball ruling, Garcia exclaimed, “I can’t wait to leave this Tour.” That was a sign of things to come: he joined LIV Golf the next month when it launched.
The cut at West Lancs fell at 5 under. Garcia’s fellow LIV Golfer Sam Horsfield finished as co-medalist with English amateur Matthew Dodd-Berry. England’s Daniel Brown and Japan’s Masahiro Kawamura grabbed the other two spots.
Garcia was attempting to qualify for his 100th career major after getting into June’s U.S. Open as an alternate. The 44-year-old was the odd man out in brutal fashion at a seven-for-six playoff in the Dallas U.S. Open Final Qualifier, bogeying the first playoff hole. But he was added to the field at Pinehurst on Monday of Championship week as one of four alternates to fill the field. It was his 25th consecutive U.S. Open after he advanced through final qualifying for the 2023 U.S. Open as well.
Garcia is among a host of LIV pros who have seen their Official World Golf Ranking points — and thus their major championship status — dwindle in recent years after joining the rival tour. Along with Horsfield, fellow LIV pros Branden Grace, Carlos Ortiz and Peter Uhlein were among those attempting to qualify for Troon. LIV’s bid for its events to earn OWGR points was denied and later dropped by the league last year.
Garcia’s 100th career major start will now come at next April’s Masters, having earned a lifetime exemption thanks to his 2017 green jacket.
Jack Hirsh is the Associate Equipment Editor at GOLF. A Pennsylvania native, Jack is a 2020 graduate of Penn State University, earning degrees in broadcast journalism and political science. He was captain of his high school golf team and recently returned to the program to serve as head coach. Jack also still *tries* to remain competitive in local amateurs. Before joining GOLF, Jack spent two years working at a TV station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a Multimedia Journalist/reporter, but also producing, anchoring and even presenting the weather. He can be reached at jack.hirsh@golf.com.
