After carding a 7-over 43 on his opening nine Tuesday morning at West Lancashire, Sam Horsfield decided his chances of qualifying for The Open were wrecked. So, Horsfield, a member of LIV Golf’s Majesticks GC, did what players have often done in his situation and walked off the course.
The only issue is Horsfield, per the R&A, didn’t notify an official of his withdrawal and was subsequently handed a disqualification.
Semantics, sure, though the 28-year-old Englishman certainly earned himself quite a few headlines, including one from a British outlet that read, “LIV golfer walks out of Open final qualifying after horror show.”
Horsfield took issue with the coverage and posted an explanation of his premature exit to his Instagram account. As the former University of Florida standout from Manchester wrote, he didn’t land at London’s Heathrow airport from last weekend’s LIV Dallas event until around 4 p.m. local time and didn’t get to bed at his accommodations near the course until nearly 11 p.m. Then a fire alarm forced him outside at 1 a.m., and from there, he struggled to fall back asleep until about a half-hour before his 6 a.m. alarm, which he slept through.
“Fortunately, my caddie woke me up,” Horsfield added. “I felt completely dizzy and out of it all day. Don’t listen to the propaganda out there against LIV players by some of these pages. Hope this clears things up.”
Horsfield, who has just one top-10 finish in nine LIV starts this year, will compete in LIV Andalucia next week in Spain.
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