Sergio Garcia’s rival ‘would have quit golf’ if he suffered same Open heartbreak

Sergio Garcia has failed to book his spot at the Open Championship after falling two shots short in a qualifying event at West Lancashire Golf Club on Tuesday.

The Spaniard had hoped to secure his 100th major championship start at Royal Troon later this month. Despite a promising start to the day, carding a one-under-par 70 in tough conditions, Garcia’s performance in the second round wasn’t enough to see him through.

This marks the second year in a row the LIV Golf star has failed to qualify for the Open. This adds to Garcia’s history of heartbreak at the event. Back in 2007, Padraig Harrington defeated him in a playoff at Carnoustie in Scotland to clinch his first major championship.

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Harrington, who became Europe’s first winner of a major in eight years, quickly confessed that if he had lost, he would likely have retired from golf. “I never let myself think I had blown the Open,” said Harrington, who retained his title 12 months later.

“If I had lost I would have struggled to come back out and be a professional golfer. It meant that much to me. It would have been incredibly hard to take. If I’d lost I don’t know what I’d think about playing golf again.”

Garcia, who finally claimed a major title at the Masters in 2017, admitted that more Open heartbreak will hurt. He revealed post-event on Tuesday that it would have been a dream to qualify for his 100th major at Royal Troon.

“I was fighting as hard as I could to make it through,” Garcia told reporters. “It would have been a dream come true to make The Open my 100th major because I love The Open, everybody knows how much I love playing here in the UK and you could see it with the amount of people we had following our group this year and last year.”

Since joining LIV Golf, Garcia has seen his Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) drop and has needed to qualify to play at both the Open and the US Open in recent years. However, he does have a lifetime invite to the Masters thanks to his 2017 victory.

He added: “It is a little bit disappointing (the Open not being major 100). I guess though it will be The Masters which is also not a bad choice. It would have been nice to be at Troon. The only thing I can do is come here and give it everything I have and see what happens. I’m going to be a little short, but that is life, and that is golf.”