Sergio Garcia was 3 feet from an Open Championship berth.
And then he wasn’t.
Garcia missed the short birdie putt on his final hole Sunday at the Asian Tour’s International Series Macau, settling for par and a fourth-place finish, one shot behind fellow LIV Golf member Jason Kokrak.
Kokrak earned the final of three invites into this summer’s Open at Royal Portrush. The two other qualifiers from the event, which is part of the Open Qualifying Series, were also LIV players: runner-up Patrick Reed and winner Carlos Ortiz.
What makes this particularly painful for Garcia is that he would’ve won a tiebreaker with Kokrak based on their Official World Golf Ranking positions (No. 513 to No. 775).
This continues a frustrating trend for the Spanish star. After competing in 22 straight Opens, Garcia has now failed to qualify in each of the past two years. He’s tried his luck in final qualifying both times without success.
The good news? He’s still got options. Garcia can attempt final qualifying again, but he’s also got another path. There’s a new exemption that’ll go to the top player inside the top five of LIV’s standings after the LIV Dallas event in June who isn’t already exempt. Garcia is currently third in LIV points, trailing only Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann, who are both already qualified for Portrush.
LIV players are making their presence felt in Open qualifying. Following Marc Leishman at the Australian Open, four LIV players have now earned spots via the qualifying series, which continues at the Kolon Korea Open in May.
The field for July 17-20 at Portrush currently features 14 LIV players: Ortiz, Reed, Kokrak, Rahm, Niemann, Leishman, Bryson DeChambeau, Tyrrell Hatton, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Tom McKibbin, Phil Mickelson, Louis Oosthuizen and Cameron Smith.
