Ian Poulter: Why I skipped Open Qualifying

For the second time in two seasons, Ian Poulter rejected the chance to play at Final Open Qualifying.

A number of Poulter’s LIV Golf colleagues entered the 36-hole marathon on Tuesday in a bid to punch their ticket to Royal Troon, with 16 places made available across four qualifying sites.

Sam Horsfield and Abraham Ancer joined 14 other LIV players at the final major of the season with strong performances, but Sergio Garcia agonisingly missed out at West Lancashire.

Garcia’s wait for a 100th major start will go on until next year’s Masters, but his ex-Ryder Cup teammate Poulter has now not played in a major tournament since the 2022 Open at St Andrews.

Poulter has plummeted outside the top-600 in the Official World Golf Rankings since joining LIV two summers ago and is no longer eligible for any of the ‘Big Four’ events in the men’s season.

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“My world ranking is not high enough to get into the Open Championship,” the Englishman told talkSPORT.

“I had the ability to go and qualify and I didn’t. I was on holiday with the family in Switzerland instead. That is what LIV Golf has given me, a bit more family time. I still have got a busy schedule with LIV playing 14 tournaments.”

Instead, Poulter will have a week-long break between next week’s LIV showpiece at Valderrama and their inaugural tournament at JCB Golf & Country Club in Staffordshire.

His Majesticks GC teammate Lee Westwood also turned down a shot at Final Qualifying, but the team’s third co-captain Henrik Stenson will return to Troon as the last player to lift the Claret Jug on the Ayrshire links back in 2016.

Alongside Ancer, Horsfield and Stenson, the LIV golfers in the field at Troon include Bryson DeChambeu, Tyrrell Hatton, Brooks Kopek, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Jon Rahm, Cameron Smith, Joaquin Niemann, Dustin Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen, Andy Ogletree and Adrian Meronk.

Ben Parsons is the Senior Writer at bunkered and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.