Sergio Garcia emotional after failed Open qualifying bid

Sergio Garcia of Spain was among the veteran players who failed to qualify for The Open Championship, coming up just two strokes shy in his final qualifier on Tuesday.

It marks the second consecutive year the 44-year-old member of LIV Golf will not play in the historic major.

“I come here and I try my hardest to get into The Open,” Garcia said after his day was done. “It would be nice to make The Open my 100th major, but it was tough conditions and sometimes things don’t go your way. … I tried everything that I could and that’s all I can ask myself for.”

Garcia shot 71 and 70 over two rounds at Liverpool’s West Lancashire Golf Club, one of four sites hosting final qualifying Tuesday. That gave him a score of 3 under par, but he settled for a tie for sixth and was not among West Lancashire’s four qualifiers.

Amateur Matthew Dodd-Berry and Sam Horsfield, both of England, shot 6 under. Daniel Brown of England and Masahiro Kawamura of Japan finished 5 under.

Garcia also was caught in a social media video complaining to R&A rules officials after being put on the clock for slow play.

“It’s OK, don’t worry. You’re always right, we’re wrong,” Garcia can be heard saying.

He later told reporters that the players were slowed down by fans on the property.

“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,” Garcia said.

“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.”

Garcia has never won The Open. He came closest when he lost to Ireland’s Padraig Harrington in a playoff in 2007; he later tied for second in 2014. Garcia’s lone major win was the 2017 Masters.

Other notable players attempting to qualify Tuesday include veteran Englishman Justin Rose and LIV golfers Anirban Lahiri of India and Abraham Ancer of Mexico. Rose, Lahiri and Ancer were competing at Burnham & Berrow in Somerset, and there was a possibility that all three would qualify as the second round concluded Tuesday evening.

–Field Level Media