Garcia emotional after failed Open Championship qualifying bid
It marks the second consecutive year Garcia of LIV Golf will not play in the historic major.
"I come here and I try my hardest to get into The Open," Garcia said after his day was done. "It would be nice to make The Open my 100th major, but it was tough conditions and sometimes things don't go your way. I tried everything that I could and that's all I can ask myself for."
Garcia shot 71 and 70 over two rounds at Liverpool's West Lancashire Golf Club, one of four sites hosting final qualifying Tuesday. That gave him a score of 3 under par, but he settled for a tie for sixth and was not among West Lancashire's four qualifiers.
Amateur Matthew Dodd-Berry and Sam Horsfield, both of England, shot 6 under. Daniel Brown of England and Masahiro Kawamura of Japan finished 5 under.
Garcia also was caught in a social media video complaining to R&A rules officials after being put on the clock for slow play.
"It's okay, don't worry. You're always right, we're wrong," Garcia can be heard saying.
He later told reporters that the players were slowed down by fans on the property.
"The marshals were trying to do the best job they could do, but obviously, we had to stop pretty much on every tee for two to three minutes to hit our tee shots because people were walking in front of the tee and on the fairway," Garcia said.
"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."
Garcia has never won The Open. He came closest when he lost to Ireland's Padraig Harrington in a playoff in 2007; he later tied for second in 2014. Garcia's lone major win was the 2017 Masters.
Englishman Justin Rose was the co-medalist at Burnham & Berrow, tying English amateur Dominic Clemons at 8 under. The 43-year-old Rose tied for second at the 2018 Open, and he tied for sixth at the PGA Championship earlier this year, but he was not otherwise exempt into this year's Open at Royal Troon before qualifying.
A three-for-two playoff to decide the final two berths from Burnham & Berrow featured a pair of LIV golfers, Abraham Ancer of Mexico and Anirban Lahiri of India, along with Charlie Lindh of Sweden. Ancer and Lindh made par on the first playoff hole to eliminate Lahiri and grab the final spots.
At Dundonald Links, Englishman Sam Hutsby was the medalist at 8 under. Spaniard Angel Hidalgo, Irish amateur Liam Nolan and Scotland's Jack McDonald also qualified.
At Royal Cinque Ports, England's Matthew Southgate was the medalist at 6 under par. The other spots went to Australian Elvis Smylie and two Spanish amateurs, Jaime Montojo Fernandez and Luis Masaveu.
LIV Golf's Branden Grace came out on the wrong end of a three-for-one playoff against Masaveu and England's Jamie Rutherford at Royal Cinque Ports. The South African, who in 2017 became the first man to shoot 62 at a major during The Open at Royal Birkdale, will be shut out of all four majors in 2024.
