Sergio Garcia at the gates of the British Open

• golf

Four different courses in the United Kingdom hosted the last qualifying phase of the British Open (July 20-23 at the Royal Liverpool, in Hoylake), which is known as the qualifying final. The venues were Dundonald Links, Royal Porthcawl, Royal Cinque Ports and West Lancashire.

In three of them five places were distributed and in the other (Dundonald) four. In total, 19 tickets to play the last Grand Slam of the season in two weeks.

Sergio Garcia, statements

The previous one was played over 36 holes in a single day and in the end there were 9 Spaniards in the fight (Rafa Cabrera resigned).

And none could finally achieve the exemption. The ones that came closest (they will be reserves) were in West Lancashire Sergio García (he was inside after the first 18 holes, 3rd with 67 shots, -5), 6th tied at the end with 138 (71 in the afternoon, -6 total) and at Royal Cinbeque Ports David Puig, who was battling all day but was sixth in the end.

Luis Masaveu was fifteenth. It must be remembered that seven Spaniards were already exempted by other means: Jon Rahm, Pablo Larrazábal, Adri Arnaus, Adrián Otaegui, Jorge Campillo, Alejandro Cañizares and the amateur Josele Ballester.

This figure equals the record for home golfers present in a 'major' in the 21st century. Ten is the absolute record. Among the Spaniards, the presence of Sergio García stood out especially. He has already qualified for the US Open and yesterday he sought the same for The Open.

The objective was to be able to add his 25th consecutive appearance in this tournament and the 27th in total. It could not be. Among the golfers who did not play this preview, many names of the current members of LIV Golf stand out, who chose not to gamble with this opportunity and miss the Open.

Case of Martin Kaymer, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Bernd Wiesberger, Harold Varner III, Carlos Ortiz, Mito Pereira, Kevin Na or Bubba Watson.