Sergio Garcia loses his cool at Open qualifying with demand to officials

Sergio Garcia complained about the organisation of his Open Qualifying event mid-round after the Spaniard appeared unimpressed with the crowd control.

Garcia is competing at West Lancashire in a bid to earn a spot at this month’s Open Championship at Royal Troon. The Spaniard has been forced to turn to the 36-hole event having lost his Open exemption, and fallen down the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) amid his links to LIV Golf.

And in testing conditions, the Fireballs captain has already got his day underway, kicking off his first round at 7:50 a.m. BST alongside DP World Tour stars Sam Bairstow and Alex Maguire.

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Unsurprisingly, there is a healthy crowd following Garcia, with the former Masters champion the marque name in the field. This strong following however has left the Spaniard frustrated, after making complaints to tournament officials about the crowd control on the eighth tee.

Course marshals were seen waving the West Lancashire crowd down the left-hand side of the hole, with Garcia and his playing partners waiting on the tee box. The former PGA Tour star then pulled his effort left into trouble, and was left agitated when making his way down the fairway.

“It needs to be organised better,” Garcia was heard commenting which appeared to be in the direction of the officials. This then continued a hole later, before the Spaniard went on to make the turn at one-over-par, three shots off the early leader – and his playing partner – Maguire.

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This is not the first time Garcia has taken to the qualifying event on The Wirral, having competed at the same venue 12 months earlier. Unfortunately for the former green jacket winner he fell short after 36 holes in 2023, missing out on earning one of the prized spots at Royal Liverpool.

On the back of his disappointment a year ago, Garcia heaped praise on the support he received from those watching on. “I’m sure that a lot of the people who were following me today would’ve loved to have seen me at Hoylake, but hopefully, I’ll be back soon,” he said at the time.

“I’ve always felt very blessed about the love I get, but here in the UK even more. To see the kind of crowds we had for a British Open qualifier, it was pretty impressive. I hope they enjoyed it, but I would just have loved to give them a couple more things to cheer for.”

Garcia had previously played 24 Open Championships on the bounce before failing to qualify last year, a run that stretched all the way back to 1998. He will be hoping to make his return to the final major championship of the year this time around, with four spots up for grabs at West Lancashire.