Sergio Garcia to miss first Open Championship in 25 years
Sergio García will miss his first Open Championship in 25 years after falling agonisingly short in final qualifying in Tuesday, but Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick will become the first professional English brothers to appear in the same major in more than half a century at Hoylake this month.
Alex joined the paid ranks less than a year ago, but the 24-year-old will make his major debut at the Wirral links when teeing it up alongside his sibling, who is four years his elder and, at world No 9, 523 places higher in the rankings.
Alex fired a brilliant afternoon seven-under 65 at West Lancashire to reach nine under and so snatch one of the five places on offer in that 72-man field.
Matt was quick with his congratulations and pointed out the family symmetry. “Ten years ago I qualified for the Open for the first time,” he tweeted. “Today my brother has done the same thing. I couldn’t be prouder and can’t wait to be playing the same major as him.”
Matt Wallace’s 11-under total at West Lancashire was the lowest of the four courses that staged final qualifying. As a multiple DP World Tour winner who finished third in the 2019 US PGA, a sizeable gallery followed Wallace at the celebrated links just north of Liverpool.
But the biggest crowd centred on García, the 2017 Masters champion, who was taking the scenic route to the Open for the first time since he earned his debut as the European Amateur champion, as a skinny 16-year-old at Lytham in 1996.
For much of a marathon day, it seemed likely that García would repeat his feat in Dallas in June, when he qualified at the last-gasp stage for the US Open, where he eventually finished 27th.
Yet after standing just two off the pace after his morning 65, he struggled to a one-under 71 and missed out by three strokes. García was sanguine afterwards, despite not qualifying for just the second time in the 98 majors that have taken place since he turned professional in 1999.
“It’s a shame but it’s the game,” he said. “I felt I had it close, in the grasp of my hand, but that’s what it is.”
While fellow Ryder Cup veterans such as Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter chose to skip qualifying to concentrate on this week’s LIV event at the Centurion Club in St Albans, García, a two-time Open runner-up, believed he had made the right choice.
There were 17 LIV golfers at the quartet of venues, stretching from Dundonald Links in North Ayrshire to Royal Porthcawl in South Wales. Only three advanced. Charl Schwartzel progressed from Royal Cinque Ports, as did another South African, Branden Grace.
Bath’s Laurie Canter was the other LIV golfer to grab his spot, prevailing by four shots at Porthcawl.
Yet perhaps the widest smile came from Matthew Jordan, a 27-year-old who is a product of Hoylake. “To play with Sergio and be able to get through to an Open at my home course is a dream come true,” he said.
