Sergio Garcia will miss the Open Championship for the third time in four years, and this time he’s blaming the pasta.
The 2017 Masters winner shot a solid 4 under 68 in the morning round of Tuesday’s 36-hole final qualifier at West Lancashire Golf Club, only to follow with a 75 in the afternoon. The seven shot difference between rounds left him outside the qualifying spots, and Garcia had a very specific explanation for the collapse.
“I thought maybe have a little pasta and stuff,” he said, “but for some reason it didn’t sit well with me, and I just felt nauseous the whole front nine. In the afternoon, I felt like I was going to vomit pretty much on every hole.”
Garcia said he considered stopping after nine holes of the second round but pushed on hoping for a recovery that never came.
“I thought, let’s play a couple more and see if I can get something going and a miracle happens. But unfortunately, it didn’t happen.”
He has has now played Open final qualifying in three of the past four years without advancing. He did appear at the Open last year through a LIV Golf exemption. Garcia has played in 26 Open Championships in his career and finished runner-up twice, making this run of missed appearances a tough stretch for one of the game’s most experienced major players.
By not qualifying, Sergio Garcia ends his major year with just one appearance in 2026, the Masters, where he finished 52nd. That week was also eventful for the wrong reasons. Garcia smashed a tee box and a cooler stand on the second hole after a wayward tee shot during the final round, earning a code of conduct warning. It followed a similar incident at last year’s Open, where he broke his driver on the same hole.
Looking ahead, Garcia said qualifying pressure would ease if he could climb back into the world’s top 50. “I’m still working hard,” he said. “When I was feeling healthy today, when I was feeling well, I felt pretty good. It’s a shame.”
Qualifiers and Notable Absentees
Matthew Baldwin secured one of the five spots at Dundonald Links in Scotland and will play the Open at Royal Birkdale on his home turf. “I get emotional just thinking about it. It will be incredible,” he said.
Jake McDonald took medalist honors at Dundonald, with amateurs David Howard and Nevill Ruiter, and Army veteran Marcus Plunkett also advancing.
At Royal Cinque Ports, medalist Baard Bjoernevik Skogen was joined by Peter Uihlein, M.J. Daffue, Matthew Southgate, and Antoine Rozner. At Burnham and Berrow, James Nicholas and Caleb Surratt qualified alongside Tom Sloman, Austen Truslow, and amateur Alejandro de Castro Piera.
Uihlein, Nicholas, and Surratt are notable for having also qualified through 36-hole qualifiers for the US Open, making them among a rare group to secure spots in both of golf’s oldest major championships.
At West Lancashire, Sam Bairstow led the qualifiers, joined by Kazuma Kobori, Josele Ballester, Tiger Christensen, and Matthew Jordan, who grabbed the final spot in a playoff.
Among others who failed to qualify were LIV Golf players Thomas Detry and Anirban Lahiri, Thriston Lawrence, 2016 Masters champion Danny Willett, and Florida junior Luke Poulter, son of Ryder Cup stalwart Ian Poulter. YouTube golf personality Wesley Bryan, a former PGA Tour winner, missed the playoff at West Lancashire by a single shot.
The Open Championship tees off July 16-19 at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England.
