Sergio Garcia blames slow-play warning for jeopardising Open qualification

'You're right, we're always wrong,' was Sergio García's message to a marshal at Open qualifying - Getty Images/Jan Kruger

Sergio García believes the lack of understanding displayed by the referees at Open final qualifying on Monday could have cost him a berth at Royal Troon.

‌Twice a runner-up at the British major, the Spaniard was determined to return to the tournament he rates above all others for the first time in three years. But with only four spots on offer in the 72-man field at West Lancashire, García finished in sixth, agonisingly two shots short in the 36-hole shootout.

‌The 2017 Masters champion’s day was marred by a contretemps with officials during his morning round and, although he is notorious for rowing with the rules-keepers, his reaction in these circumstances was, at the very least, understandable.

His group were given a slow-play warning on the eighth hole after falling five minutes behind the three-ball in front and were under threat of being hit with penalty shots. But as García pointed out, the fact that there were thousands of fans following him and barely anyone watching anyone else on the Lancashire course and that there were no restrictions of where galleries could stand, put him at a notable disadvantage in terms of the stopwatch.

‘Unless we wanted to hit people, we couldn’t hit’

The 44-year-old made his point in characteristic fashion by shouting across the fairway to one referee, “You’re right, we’re always wrong”. Afterwards, the LIV Golf player was more diplomatic.

“It’s very simple,” García told Bunkered. “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, but we had to stop pretty much on every tee for two or three minutes because people were walking in front off the teebox and on the fairway.

The crowds were out in force to watch García's qualifying attempt - Getty Images/Jan Kruger

“Unless we wanted to start hitting people, we couldn’t hit. I don’t think they took that into account and it made us rush. When the conditions are this tricky and you need a bit of extra time here and there it doesn’t help. Because of that I made a couple of bogeys that might cost me getting to Troon.”

For his afternoon round, the R&A enlisted more marshals to assist with managing the fans. Credit to García for staying and signing autographs for the scores of young supporters despite his disappointment.

Local lad Matthew Dodd-Berry enjoyed a dream day at West Lancashire, topping the standings, while at Burnham & Berrow, former world No 1 Justin Rose tied with another English amateur in Dominic Clemons to book his spot at the Ayrshire links in a fortnight’s time.

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