LIV golfer explains why he walked out of Open Final Qualifying

There was a fair amount of confusion around West Lancashire Golf Club on Tuesday when Sam Horsfield was listed as disqualified from Open Final Qualifying.

Horsfield, who made it through to the game’s oldest major on the same course last year, was seven-over par through nine holes when his run came to a sudden end.

It emerged that the Englishman had packed his clubs away after a seven-over par 43 on the front nine, with an R&A official confirming to bunkered.co.uk on site that Horsfield was DQ’d on the basis he had failed to notify officials that he had chosen to retire early.

By late afternoon, Alex Fitzpatrick, Kieran Vincent and Kazuma Kobori had all chosen not to finish the 36-hole marathon at West Lancs.

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The quartet, including Horsfield, have since been listed as NR (no returns) on The Open’s results page.

And Horsfield has now provided some context behind his swift exit from Merseyside.

The 28-year-old had just travelled 4,700 miles after finishing Sunday’s LIV Golf event in Dallas and his struggle could be explained by a nightmare preparation that was out of his control.

“So I flew back home on Sunday night and landed in Heathrow by 4pm,” Horsfield said on Instagram.

“By the time I got up to West Lancs it was about late. Had a bit of dinner and fell asleep at 10:30/11. At 1am, the fire alarm went off and we had to go stand outside for an hour or so.

“I eventually got back sleep at 5:30 for a 6am alarm which I slept thru but fortunately my caddie woke me up. I felt completely dizzy and out of it all day.”

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Horsfield then suggested there was “propaganda out there against LIV players.”

“Hope this clears things up,” he added, “See you guys in Valderrama next week.”

In total, 14 LIV golfers were in the field across the four qualifying sites on Tuesday.

Lee Westwood, Dean Burmester and Lucas Herbert – who all won their qualifiers – punched their ticket to Royal Portrush with 19 LIV players now in the field for the final major of the season.

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.