Golf
LIV Golf star receives last-minute spot in the 2024 US Open!
LIV Golf star and 2017 Masters champion Sergio Garcia has been added to this week’s US Open field at the last minute.
It brings the number up to 13 LIV Golf players that will compete in the 2024 US Open.
That is the same number that competed in The Masters, but three short of the 16 that contested the US PGA last month.
Garcia, 44, looked set to miss out on the US Open for the first time since 1999 after he lost out in a playoff at a qualifier in Dallas last month.
The Spaniard opened with a 66 but then shot a 73 and lost out in a seven-man playoff for the final six spots.
After making a bogey in the playoff, Garcia was the lone man out.
However, Garcia was down as a first alternate, and he has now been given a green light by the USGA to play in the 2024 US Open at Pinehurst No.2.
The last time Garcia failed to play in the US Open was 25 years ago when the tournament was also at Pinehurst.
Garcia warmed up nicely for this week’s US Open with a solo fifth at LIV Golf Houston on Sunday.
He is still winless on LIV Golf though.
Garcia’s best result in the US Open is a T3, and fortunately for him that came at Pinehurst in 2005.
News was also confirmed on the eve of the third major of the season that another former Masters champion (2013) in Adam Scott was heading to the 2024 US Open at the last minute.
Scott, like Garcia, was down as a first alternate after failing to come through his qualifier in Ohio last week.
However, it was confirmed by the USGA over the weekend that Scott would narrowly secure his start at Pinehurst No.2 after removing Grayson Murray, who sadly passed away last month, from its ranking criteria.
The decision was made by the USGA that if Murray’s position on the OWGR (59th) was going to affect any player who might have qualified via the top 60 category, then they would be allowed to compete in the 2024 US Open.
Scott, who was ranked 60th in the OWGR last week (he’s now 61st), will now incredibly play in his 92nd consecutive major tournament.
That is the longest active streak of any player right now.
Only Jack Nicklaus has made more consecutive major appearances with 146.
The record 18-time major champion unbelievably played in every major from the 1962 US Open through to the 1998 Masters.