For me, it was a very close toss-up between the lasagne, and salmon and potatoes. Both would’ve done it, but I couldn’t resist the former. I stacked the empty gaps on my plate with salad and a generous portion of chips.
What a treat on what is already one of my favourite days of the year.
I live in the same village as West Lancs. So I wake up like it’s Christmas Day, drive around to a nearby road, and pitch up in the room upstairs set aside for media, which once used to house two full-size snooker tables.
Part of this exhilaration is also milling around with the players in the upstairs dining. When my media colleagues and I queued up for our buffet, Sergio Garcia was standing behind us, AirPods in after a solid four-under-par 68 in the morning round.
I don’t know if the record Ryder Cup points scorer and Green Jacket owner behind me went through the same thought process, but he emerged with the same verdict: lasagne. I sat and scoffed my lunch, while Garcia did the same, sat on the table over from us with his playing partner Marcus Armitage.
In 2023, 2024 and now 2026, former Masters champion and LIV Golf rebel Garcia has taken the trip to Crosby to earn a spot at golf’s oldest major, and it has never been without excitement. He narrowly missed out on the first two occasions, and he was in the headlines the second time around after his group were given a slow play warning.
Ex-PGA Tour player and YouTube star Wesley Bryan was sitting eating too, with fellow YouTube star Peter Finch, who nobly caddied for Bryan all day (guiding his remote-controlled trolley).
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Call me psychotic, but I didn’t watch Garcia eat his lunch, nor could I see the bowel movements underneath his black Fireballs shirt. I’d go as far as to say no one in the room knew what was bubbling inside the Spaniard’s body. Probably for the best.
BBC MasterChef won’t be head-hunting me, but I’ll do my best. I thought the lasagne was tasty. In any form, it must be in the top 10 of my favourite meals – possibly pushing for a Europa Conference League spot.
A combination of pasta sheets, ragù sauce and creamy cheese layers is never going to disappoint me. The texture was soft, and the flavour was oozing as each bite disappeared down the hatch. I combined the odd mouthful with a couple of chips, but not for any particular reason. All in all, I was more than satisfied – an Editor’s Choice Lasagne (5 stars), if you will.
Not only did I clean up my plate and live to tell the tale – I was replenished, all set for more golf in the afternoon.
In all seriousness, it was exceptional, and West Lancs have always been mightily generous with hospitality for the media at Final Open Qualifying, for which we should all be eternally grateful.
So when the other reporters and I gathered around Garcia after he shot 75 in a temporarily rain-soaked second round, we were shocked to hear that it wasn’t his iron play or putting that cost him a place at the 154th Open at Birkdale, but the Italian delicacy he gobbled about five hours before.
He went as far as saying he felt like vomiting and considered withdrawing.
A glance at NCG’s social media channels will reveal what fans make of that explanation.
Let us pray the person sat next to him on his flight to the DP World Tour event in Munich wasn’t in the splash zone.
As for West Lancs, I reckon the clubhouse facilities are among the best in the business. While the course itself is even better – standing very comfortably in the company of its near-neighbours Birkdale, Formby, Hillside and S&A. I can’t wait for the next opportunity to play or spectate here – and an added bonus would be a hearty bowl of pasta to enjoy after a morning on the links.
Maybe we will always look back on West Lancs-agne gate.
NOW READ: Who earned a spot at The Open Championship through Final Qualifying?
NOW READ: Sergio Garcia: Lasagne made me feel like vomiting at Open Qualifying
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