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Garcia, who has fallen down the Official World Golf Rankings as a member of the LIV Tour, will not play in the Open.
Sergio Garcia has long since been a mainstay at the oldest major of the year, the Open Championship. He has participated in the last 25 tournaments going all the way back to 1997. That streak has officially been snapped.
Garcia failed to qualify for the 2023 Open Championship. He finished tied for sixth in the final qualifying round overseas and will not play Royal Liverpool later this month.
⛳️ JUST IN: LIV Golf star Sergio Garcia will miss the 2023 Open Championship after finishing T6 in final qualifying.
This is the first @TheOpen played without Sergio since 1997. pic.twitter.com/BPTRSFyKyg
— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) July 4, 2023
Normally, the Spaniard would have easily qualified through his play during the season. However, he fell victim to one of the biggest problems LIV golfers are facing.
Anyone who left the PGA Tour for the rival league have not been accruing Official World Golf Ranking points. As of May 2023, Garcia had fallen out of the top 150 ranked players in the world and currently ranks 219th.
There are four ways for players to earn their way into the field at arguably the most prestigious tournament of the year.
Approximately 65 percent of the field earns an exemption. They can do this through a number of ways including winning the Open previously, or capturing other major titles in the recent past. Garcia has not done that.
He was ineligible to play in the Open Qualifying Series, another way to earn your spot.
That forced him to have to play his way in. He was successfully able to do this both for the 2023 U.S. Open earlier this year.
After making his way through Local Qualifying, he needed to finish top three in Final Qualifying to earn his way in. The T6 finish doesn’t cut it.
Finally, if the field does not reach 156, the highest ranked players not in the field will be invited.
It remains to be seen how, or if, the OWGR problem will continue to hamper LIV Golf.
Sergio Garcia has come as close as you can in the past to capturing the Claret Jug. He finished solo 2nd in 2007 and T2 in 2014. But the 2017 Masters champion will not play the sport’s oldest major this year.
