Sergio Garcia’s three-ball was given a pace-of-play warning in the first round of Final Open Qualifying at West Lancs.
The former Masters champion and now LIV Golf star was heard complaining to the referee walking down the 8th hole at the Merseyside venue, shortly after missing a short putt on the 7th hole.
NCG learned from the referee that the group including Alex Maguire and Sam Bairstow had been given an official warning for falling four minutes adrift of the expected time, with the gap to the group in front widening.
Garcia was heard complaining to the referee. One fan following the Spaniard joked, “At least we’ve got the sun, Sergio.” Having teed off at 7.50 am from the 1st hole, Garcia’s group completed three holes in just under an hour.
Sergio Garcia: Open Qualifying bid begins with slow play warning
“It’s very simple,” he said. “When you have 2,000 people following us with no ropes, nothing. The marshals were trying to do as good a job as they could do but obviously we had to stop pretty much on every tee for two or three minutes to hit our tee shots because people were walking in front of the tee and on the fairway.
“Unless we wanted to start hitting people, we couldn’t hit. I don’t think they took that into account and that was unfortunate because it made us rush.
“On a day like today where the conditions are so tricky and you might need a little of bit of extra time here and there it doesn’t help out. Because of that I made a couple of bogeys that might cost me getting to Troon.”
Final Open Qualifying events offer fans the chance to get closer than ever to the stars looking to play at Royal Troon later this month, and often stewards are required to hurry along spectators and move them to allow for the players’ line of sight.
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This happened on several occasions with onlookers following the record Ryder Cup points scorer on a blustery day in Liverpool, but the referee informed NCG that fans were not to blame for Garcia’s group falling behind.
Having tried and failed to qualify for The Open at the same venue 12 months ago, Garcia returned to try again on the same day Justin Rose and Graeme McDowell were respectively attempting to qualify at Burnham & Berrow and Royal Cinque Ports. Dundonald Links in Scotland is the fourth and final venue that will provide a portion of the 16 spots up for grabs.
Last year was the first time that Garcia hadn’t qualified for The Open Championship since 1997. He carded one-over-par on his first nine on a grey day that contrasted the sunshine he played in last year.
A post from Garcia’s X account (formerly Twitter) was posted shortly after the warning.
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