Turns out Tiger will play the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool. Not the injured Tiger Woods, but a German teen amateur who plays college golf at Arizona State. Christensen – as well as Royal Liverpool member and DP World Tour pro Matthew Jordan, and Matt Fitzpatrick’s younger brother, Alex – were the standout stories among 19 golfers who secured spots in the Open via 36-hole Final Qualifying from four sits on Tuesday.
Christensen, 19, birdied three of the final six holes at West Lancashire to lock up one of five Open Championship spots from a field that included major winners such as Sergio Garcia and Graeme McDowell. The West Lancashire site saw England’s Matt Wallace, who won the PGA Tour’s Punta Cana Championship earlier this year, take medalist honors at 11 under par (68, 65). Wallace’s fellow Englishman, Jordan, and Kyle Barker, were a shot further back at 10 under. Alex Fitzpatrick, the younger brother of U.S. Open winner Matt, joined Christensen in securing the last two spots at nine under.
Royal Liverpool, hosting its 13th Open Championship, took to Instagram to celebrate Jordan’s qualification. “He’s done it! Huge congratulations to Matty Jordan on securing a spot at his home Open here at #RLGCHoylake in a couple of weeks’ time, courtesy of a fantastic performance in Final Qualifying at @westlancsgc Lancs today,” the club wrote.
“Playing in from of the home [English] crowd was brilliant; I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like in two weeks’ time,” Jordan said after qualifying. “It was great playing with Sergio [Garcia] today; he brought more people along. I can’t wait to get there; see you at Hoylake.”
Alex Fitzpatrick, who walked inside the ropes when his older bro won the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club at Brookline, secured his major debut. Matt took to Twitter to celebrate on what will be the 10-year anniversary of his Open Championship debut.
“10 years ago yesterday I qualified for The Open for the first time,” Fitzpatrick, who was low amateur at the 2013 Open at Muirfield, wrote on Twitter. “Today my brother does the same exact thing!! Couldn’t be prouder and can’t wait to play a major championship with him!”
At Royal Cinque Ports, in the English seaside town of Deal, South Africa’s Martin Rohwer and Beglium’s Thomas Detry shared the low 36-hole score at three under, while a shot back was the LIV golf duo, South Africans, Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace. Frenchman Antoine Rozner secured the last of five spots at two under.
Royal Porthcawl was dominated by Englishmen; LIV golfer Laurie Canter topped the leaderboard at eight under, while countrymen Brandon Thompson Robinson (four under) and Matthew Southgate (two under) joined Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond and Oliver Farr rounded out the five who got through.
The only Scottish site, Dundonald Links, offered four spots compared with five places available at the other three. Homegrown player Michael Stewart finished at seven under, followed by England’s Marco Penge (five under) in second. Australian Connor McKinney (three under) and Scotland’s Graeme Robertson clinched the third and fourth spots in a playoff.
“I putted beautifully this morning, hit the ball in play pretty much everywhere and holed a lot of putts,” Robinson said. “It was good fun out there. I hit a couple of loose shots this afternoon with the weather coming in for four or five holes but I battled through it.”
There were 21 LIV golfers who entered Final Qualifying. Among those who did tee it up, three progressed – Schwartzel, Grace and Canter.
From a large Australian contingent, McKinney was the only of his countrymen to advance. Australians across the four Final Qualifying sites included: Marc Leishman, Matt Jones (both WD), Kevin Yuan, Elvis Smylie, Austin Bautista, Daniel Gale, Louis Dobbelaar, Connor McKinney, Josh Greer (amateur), Zach Murray,Quinnton Croker (a), Phoenix Campbell (a), John Lyras,Daley Loumanis (a), Nick Lloyd.
