Sergio Garcia’s hopes of qualifying for The Open were derailed at West Lancashire – but not for the reason you might think…
Sergio Garcia says a rogue meal midway through Final Qualifying at West Lancashire derailed his chances of appearing at a 26th Open Championship.
The Spaniard, who was making a third attempt to reach golf’s oldest major here on the Merseyside links, was in prime contention for one of five spots after opening with a first round 68 in this 36-hole marathon.
But then Garcia entered the player’s lounge in the West Lancs clubhouse before his second round. A chicken lasagne was on the menu, and as soon as he finished gorging on his lunch, the problems began.
“I had a little bit of food there in the players lounge and it did not sit well with me,” Garcia told a handful of reporters afterwards.
“I only ate a lasagne. I thought maybe have a little pasta and stuff, but for some reason it didn’t sit well with me and I just felt nauseous the whole front nine. In the afternoon, I felt like I was going to vomit pretty much on every hole.”
By the time Garcia had reached the turn, he had dropped four shots and was considering withdrawing. He stuck with it, signed for a 75 and then bemoaned an unusual case of bad luck.
“I thought about stopping after nine,” he admitted. “But I thought, well, let’s play a couple more and see if I get something going, but unfortunately it didn’t happen.
“Obviously I love The Open and I want to give myself as many chances as possible to play it. Ideally, hopefully I’ll keep playing well and get in the top 50 in the world and then I won’t have to worry about coming in and qualifying.”
Garcia added: “I’m still working hard. When I was feeling healthy today I felt pretty good. I hit a lot of good shots this morning. Even on the second nine when I kind of started feeling a bit better again, I hit a lot of good shots. But those first nine holes killed me.
“It’s a shame. It’s tough. When you’re this age and you’re playing 36 holes you feel like you need to eat a little bit between the rounds and you do that and it doesn’t sit well with you and you’re struggling with your stomach pretty much the whole second round, it’s tough.
“You come all the way here to give it your best shot and not feeling 100% there, it hurts a lot.”
Among the other notable names frustrated at West Lancs were fellow Masters champion Danny Willett and Matt Wallace. Willett finished on four-under, four shots shy of a playoff, while his playing partner Wallace walked in with a few holes remaining.
The Englishman is nursing a back problem, and, as he fell out of contention down the stretch, decided to call it a day ahead of a flight to Illinois on Wednesday morning for the John Deere Classic.
The five players to get through qualifying at West Lancs were Sam Bairstow, Kazuma Kobori, Tiger Christensen, Jose Ballester and Matthew Jordan.