England’s Justin Rose qualified Tuesday for this month’s British Open at Troon as former Ryder Cup teammate Sergio Garcia again failed to book a place in golf’s oldest major championship for the second-straight year.
Attempting to qualify at the West Lancashire course, Garcia finished two strokes adrift of the top four, just as he had done 12 months ago.
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The Spaniard’s low world ranking after joining LIV Golf means the only major he currently qualifies for on merit is the US Masters as a former champion.
Garcia, however, remains a popular figures as was clear from the hundreds of spectators who followed him on Tuesday, although that created problems as there were lengthy delays on each hole because of the large crowd.
That resulted in his playing group being given a warning for slow play, which Garcia said was unfair and had contributed to a couple of dropped shots that proved decisive.
Golf reporter Ben Parsons captured Garcia’s frustrations in a social media post and claimed the Spaniard’s frustrations centred around his group being placed on the clock despite marshals needing time to clear spectators before hitting their tee shots.
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“It’s very simple,” Garcia told Parsons afterwards.
“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.”
Garcia ultimately carded five bogeys in his failed bid to qualify for The Open.
The 43-year-old Rose, the 2013 US Open champion, took one of the four places on offer in final qualifying at Burnham Burrow in Somerset.
Rose has missed the cut at four of his last five majors, but he still believes he has it in him to win the British Open, a tournament where he made his name by finishing fourth as a 17-year-old amateur at Birkdale in 1998 and later tied for second place at Carnoustie in 2018.
“Right now, I feel a little bit of buzz,” 2016 Olympic champion Rose told Sky Sports.
“I guess I came in with a good attitude … I still feel like I can win the Open. To win it, you’ve got to be in it.”
The 152nd Open at Troon, on the southwest coast of Scotland, runs from July 18-21, with Brian Harman of the United States set to defend the title he won last year at Hoylake.
