Dundonald Links, Royal Cinque Ports, Royal Porthcawl and West Lancashire hosted final qualifying events on Tuesday, with a total of 19 places available for The 151st Open at Royal Liverpool; watch the final men's major of the year live from July 20-23 on Sky Sports Golf
Wednesday 5 July 2023 06:35, UK
Sergio Garcia will miss The Open for the first time since 1997 after being among the former major champions to fail to progress through final qualifying.
The 2017 Masters champion, who finished tied-second behind Rory McIlroy the last time The Open was held at Royal Liverpool in 2014, was unable to grab one of the five places on offer in the 36-hole qualifying event at West Lancashire.
Garcia mixed seven birdies with two bogeys during an opening-round 67 on Tuesday morning, leaving him well-placed to make a 25th consecutive appearance at The Open, only to slip down the leaderboard with a second-round 71 to leave him three strokes outside the qualification spots in tied-sixth.
"Obviously I am a little disappointed right now but that's the game of golf and you can't take things for granted," Garcia told Sky Sports. "I'm very thankful that I've been able to play 25 Open Championships, that's not an easy task to achieve.
"I wanted to keep that run going, but unfortunately I couldn't do it today. I love the game of golf, I love playing, I love competing and I love playing majors. It doesn't matter if you then play them well or not, but just to be part of them is always a treat and I've been fortunate to play many throughout my career."
Matt Wallace, who claimed his maiden PGA Tour title earlier this year, topped the leaderboard after a second-round 65 lifted him to 11 under, while South Africa's Kyle Barker and England's Matthew Jordan - a Royal Liverpool member - shared second spot.
German amateur Tiger Christensen and Alex Fitzpatrick - brother of last year's US Open champion Matt - claimed the final two spots at West Lancashire, while former US Open champion Graeme McDowell and 2014 Ryder Cup winner Jamie Donaldson both failed to qualify at the same venue.
Former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel and Stinger GC team-mate Branden Grace, who carded the lowest round in Open history during the 2017 contest, were among five players to qualify at Royal Cinque Ports.
Fellow South African Martin Rohwer, Belgium's Thomas Detry and three-time DP World Tour winner Antoine Rozner took the remaining places, with LIV duo David Puig and Dean Burmester joining David Howell and PGA Tour regular Harry Hall in failing to qualify.
Michael Block, who grabbed the spotlight when he fired a hole-in-one alongside McIlroy at the PGA Championship, failed to advance at Dundonald Links after rounds of 77 and finished 16 strokes behind lead qualifier Michael Stewart.
Marco Penge was second behind Stewart with the final two spots decided in a three-man play-off, Connor McKinney advancing with a birdie on the second extra hole and Graeme Robertson edging out Craig Ross on the fifth.
Laurie Canter claimed a four-shot victory at Royal Porthcawl, where Brandon Robinson-Thompson, Matthew Southgate, Jazz Janewattananond and Wales' Oliver Farr took the other qualification places.
The 151st Open takes place from July 20-23, with exclusive coverage throughout tournament week live on Sky Sports. Live coverage of the opening round begins on Thursday July 20 from 6.30am on Sky Sports Golf.
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