“Deflect and blame”, “Play better”- Golf world reacts to Sergio Garcia calling out fans for failing to secure 2024 Open Championship spot

Sergio Garcia failed to qualify for The Open Championship, the last Major of the 2024 season, through open qualifying. Garcia received warnings for playing slow and seemed upset on the course.

After finishing his round, Sergio Garcia blamed improper crowd control among other factors and said (via NUCLR GOLF):

“Unless we wanted to start hitting people we couldn’t hit. I don’t think they took that into account and that was unfortunate. It made us rush.

On a day like today when the conditions are so tricky and you might need a little 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.”
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Golf fans on X (formerly Twitter) reacted to Sergio Garcia’s statement, and most criticized him for justifying his result with issues unrelated to his own performance. One fan wrote:

“Deflect and blame”
Another fan wrote:

“Hmmmm dam shame. But complain they should be given automatic exemptions & the world ranking system is unfair to them. Cant even make a qualifier. Play better…..”
Here are a few other reactions from X:

“Well, someone else dealt with it and made the cut,” one fan posted.
“Carpenters never blame their tools,” another user wrote.
“The other players may have done 2 strokes better also? Same course, same conditions,” another fan posted.
Sergio Garcia played in the open qualifier at the West Lancashire Golf Club in England. The Spaniard carded two rounds of 70 and 71 to finish T6 with a score of 3 under.

However, the event only awarded four tickets for The Open Championship, so Garcia missed out by two strokes. The event was won by amateur Matthew Dodd-Berry (6 under), while the other three qualifiers were Sam Horsfield (6 under), Daniel Brown (5 under), and Masahiro Kawamura (5 under).

This is the second consecutive year that Garcia has failed to reach The Open Championship via open qualifying.

Sergio Garcia’s record at The Open Championship at a glance
Sergio Garcia is one of the most successful European players of the last 25 years. His professional career, which began in 1999, includes 36 victories, of which 11 came on the PGA Tour and 16 on the European Tour.

Garcia has previously showcased good performances at The Open, even though he has never won the Major. He has participated in 25 editions of the tournament (three as an amateur), with 20 cuts passed. He has finished 10 times in the Top 10, including two second-place finishes.

Between 2000 and 2009, Garcia played at all 10 editions of The Open, missed only one cut, and finished in six Top 10s. In the next 10 editions, he added another four Top 10s to his record while missing only two cuts.

Garcia’s record in Majors includes 99 appearances with 65 cuts made and 23 Top 10s. His best result has been winning the Masters in 2017.

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Edited by Prathik BR