After 117 players advanced from regional qualifying for the 2023 Open Championship, just 16 spots are left to fill the field for the final men’s major of the year next month in Royal Liverpool, July 20-23.
One LIV Golf player will look to earn his spot the hard way, just as he did for the U.S. Open, while another will end a nearly three-decade streak of competing in his national open.
Sergio Garcia has entered final qualifying, while Lee Westwood will miss his first British Open in 28 years. Westwood was also recently denied entrance to the Senior Open due to unpaid DP World Tour fines related to his move to the Saudi Arabia-backed circuit. Ian Poulter has also elected not to enter final qualifying. The Telegraph was first to report.
Garcia will play a 36-hole qualifier on Tuesday, July 4, between a pair of LIV Golf League events in Spain (June 30-July 2) and London (July 7-9). In fact, of the 52 players to tee it up this season for LIV, 21 have entered final qualifying across the four sites:
Dundonald Links
- Jason Kokrak
- Sebastian Munoz
- Andy Ogletree
- Carlos Ortiz
- Peter Uihlein
Royal Cinque Ports
- Dean Burmester
- Branden Grace
- Wade Ormsby
- David Puig
- Charl Schwartzel
- Brendan Steele
- Kieran Vincent
Royal Porthcawl
- Laurie Canter
- Matt Jones
- Anirban Lahiri
- Marc Leishman
- Cameron Tringale
West Lancashire
- Sergio Garcia
- Graeme McDowell
- Mito Pereira
- Scott Vincent
Other notable names to enter final qualifying include Alex Fitzpatrick, Aaron Wise and Matt Wallace at West Lancashire, Thomas Detry at Royal Cinque Ports and Matt Kuchar, Michael Block and Mackenzie Hughes at Dundonald Links.