Sergio Garcia hurt after frustrated swipe at gorse

Sergio Garcia was left unhappy after a frustrated swipe of a gorse bush almost ‘screwed’ his Open chances.

The Spaniard required medical attention from the on-course physiotherapist on his shoulder following the incident on the par-3 fourth hole, where after a wayward tee shot found the gorse, he slammed his club against it with emotions running high.

Garcia went on to bogey the hole but, remarkably, then eagled the fifth hole. He then received medical attention which helped control the pain for the remainder of the round.

He played well for a one-under-par 69 – one of very few sub par rounds – to comfortably make the cut but afterwards, rued the moment of madness for almost scuppering his chances in the championship.

“Obviously I’m not happy about it because I almost screwed up my British Open,” said Garcia. “Fortunately for me I didn’t. But it’s not what you want to do. Sometimes you’re out there and you’re trying your hardest, and when you can’t do it, it gets a little frustrating. We’ve all had those moments.

“The eagle cheered me up a little bit, but at the same time I didn’t know if I was going to be able to finish the round. I was very concerned about it.

“It feels better than it felt when I did it. Obviously it took a good amount of pills to make it feel better and a little bit of treatment. I want to see how it feels tonight. But I’m going to go to the physio track and make sure I get some work on it because it still feels a little bit sore around it. So we’ll see. Hopefully it will be fine.”