06 July 2023 , 18:09
819
0
Sergio Garcia was left frustrated with a photographer during his final round of Open Qualifying at West Lancashire, where he missed out on a place at Royal Liverpool.
Garcia has been involved in every Open since 1998, but his remarkable run is now over. The Spaniard was forced to earn a spot the hard way this year, after tumbling down the Official World Golf Rankings following his move to LIV Golf last summer.
In a bid to make it to 25 straight opens, Garcia headed to West Lancashire to compete in Final Qualifying, where five spots were up for grabs. And the 2017 Masters champion started well, sitting in a tie for second on five-under-par following his opening 18 holes.
It was not to be in round two, though, as the Spaniard could only card a one-under 71 in the afternoon to finish the event on six-under, three shots off the all-important top five.
With a bumper crowd behind him, Garcia of course knew he needed to find birdies over his final few holes to have any chance of earning a spot at Royal Liverpool. He appeared to have the perfect opportunity at the par-five 16th, where he had just a five-foot putt for birdie.
Bubba Watson shares details of horror knee injury ahead of LIV Golf debut
Things did not go to plan though, as the Ryder Cup stalwart was forced to step off his shot after being disrupted by a photographer, according to the Irish Independent. Garcia then subsequently went on to miss the putt, and unsurprisingly the fiery Spaniard was less than impressed.
Sergio Garcia will miss his first Open since 1997 (PA)As tensions boiled over, the former Masters champion was heard saying: "D***! As if it’s not frickin’ hard enough," in the direction of the photographer in question. At that point it probably sank in for the Spaniard that his chance to earn an Open spot had vanished.
Speaking afterwards a disappointed Garcia said: "I gave it everything I had, but unfortunately it looks like it is going to come up a little short... If you come here [to qualifying] you put yourself in that situation [to miss out]. You can play well and make it, and you can play not as well and miss it.
"If you are willing to put yourself in that spot, there is going to be a little bit of disappointment for sure. That is what it is, if you don't even come here you can't get disappointed because you are not even trying. That is what I was doing, I was trying and unfortunately it wasn't good enough."