LIV golfer walks out of Open Final Qualifying after horror show

LIV Golf’s Sam Horsfield walked out of Final Qualifying just nine holes into his bid to make The Open.

Horsfield was disqualified after he packed the clubs away following a nightmare start to the 36-hole marathon at West Lancashire Golf Club.

The Englishman, who qualified for the game’s oldest major here last year, was seven-over par after playing the front nine in 43 shots as his Royal Portrush dream came to a rather abrupt end.

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An R&A official later confirmed to bunkered.co.uk that Horsfield made a swift exit from the Merseyside links just as he had reached the turn.

He was later disqualified on the basis he had failed to notify officials that he had retired early.

Horsfield’s LIV Golf’s colleagues Lucas Herbert, Andy Ogletree and Harold Varner III were among the 72 players chasing five tickets to Portrush in benign morning conditions just north of Liverpool.

The quartet had teed it up on the Merseyside coast barely 48 hours after finishing their final round at LIV’s event in Dallas on Sunday.

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In total, 14 LIV players have made the journey to the four qualifying sites in a last attempt to qualify for The Open.

Lee Westwood and Adrian Meronk are playing at Dundonald, with Graeme McDowell, Ian Poulter (and son Luke), David Puig and Dean Burmester among the stacked field down at Royal Cinque Ports.

Sergio Garcia, who has twice tried and failed at Final Qualifying, claimed LIV’s sole spot into The Open after the R&A awarded the breakaway league an exemption this year.

Despite finishing T25 on Sunday, Garcia was the the leading non-exempt LIV player inside the top five in the league’s season-long points race.

So far, there are 17 LIV players listed in the field for The Open at Portrush.

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.