Sergio Garcia, 18 holes, at West Lancashire Golf Club.
Then he said that they should bring him lunch.
Playing Tuesday’s final qualifying event for the Open Championship in two weeks, Garcia shot a 68 over his first 18 holes of the 36-hole tournament, then followed with a 75 to finish seven strokes back from the Open. And the reason for the seven-shot difference between rounds?
Lasagna, Garcia told reporters afterward.
“I thought maybe I had pasta and something,” he said, “but for some reason it didn’t feel right, and I just felt nauseous all over the 9th course. In the afternoon, I felt like I was going to throw up a lot on every hole.”
The 2017 Masters winner and LIV Golf player has appeared in 26 Open Championships and has finished second twice. He has played in three of the last four qualifying finals and has not improved; last year, he played in the Open for free at LIV Golf.
“I felt like I played well this morning. I finished well, and things were slow,” Garcia told reporters. “I had a little food over there in the players’ lounge, it didn’t feel good to me.
“I really struggled in my first nine holes in the afternoon – I was nauseous and I felt like I was going to bogey every hole. So obviously that made it very difficult for me to focus on what I wanted to do, which was to play well and give myself a chance, and I thought about stopping after nine.
“I thought, let’s play a few more and see if I can get something going and a miracle happens. But unfortunately, it didn’t happen.”
Disqualifying, Garcia would cap off a big year with one appearance, at the Masters, where he finished 52nd. In the final round at Augusta National, the Spaniard smashed the tee box and cool stand on the 2nd hole after the tee shot, leading to a disciplinary warning from the Masters. That followed a blowout at last year’s Open, where he again smashed his driver in 2nd place in the final round.
Looking ahead to next year, Garcia told reporters on Tuesday that he hopes to be ranked in the top 50 in the world “and I’m not going to worry about getting in and qualifying.”
“I’m still working hard,” he said. “I felt like today, when I felt healthy, when I felt good, I felt really good. I hit a lot of good shots this morning. And even on the second nine, when I felt a little better again, I hit a really good shot. But obviously those first nine holes killed me.
“It’s sad, it’s hard, when you’re at this age and you play 36 holes, you feel like you need to eat a little bit in the middle of the round, you do that and it doesn’t sit well and you’re struggling with your stomach almost every second round, it’s hard.
“Because you come here to play well and you don’t feel 100% there, it hurts a lot.”
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