'The Oldest Major' Stars You Can't See at The Open

Woods and Zalatoris 'Injury Tears'
Garcia, Westwood, Poulter LIV Move Stalled by Ankle
Block, Kocher, Simpson Fail to Enter Top 50 World Ranking

The 151st Open Championship (total prize money of $16.5 million) is the "oldest major" tournament. This year, it will be held over four days starting on the 20th (local time) at Royal Liverpool Golf Club (par 71, 7,383 yards) in Hoylake, Wirral, England. A total of 156 world-class players, including Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland), Scottie Scheffler (USA), last year's champion Cameron Smith (Australia), Kim Joo-hyung, Im Sung-jae, and An Byeong-hun, will compete. However, there are also stars who will not be seen at The Open for various reasons such as injuries and failure to enter the top 50 in the world rankings.

The "Golf Emperor" Tiger Woods underwent ankle surgery after withdrawing from the Masters in April and gave up participating in The Open.

The absence of "Golf Emperor" Tiger Woods (USA) is the most regrettable. He is a "living legend" with 82 PGA Tour wins, including 15 major championships. He has also collected three Open Championship trophies. In particular, he has fond memories of winning at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in 2006. Woods qualified for the Masters in April, known as the "Tournament of Champions," but withdrew due to plantar fasciitis after completing the 7th hole of the third round. Since then, he has undergone ankle surgery and is focusing on rehabilitation. Will Zalatoris (14th, USA), the 2020-2021 Rookie of the Year, is also sidelined due to a back injury.

Players who moved to LIV Golf and did not receive ranking points also failed to make the entry list. A representative player is Sergio Garcia (239th, Spain), the 2017 Masters champion. He even participated in the qualifying rounds to secure a spot at The Open but was unsuccessful. This will be the first time since the 1997 tournament, when he competed at age 17, that he will not appear on The Open stage. Other "LIV Golf members" such as Lee Westwood (409th), Ian Poulter (321st, both England), Mark Leishman (197th, Australia), and Mito Pereira (59th, Chile) will also be absent.

It is also unfortunate that Michael Block (581st, USA), who caused an upset at the major PGA Championship, will not be seen. A former lesson pro, he drew attention by finishing tied for 15th in that tournament. It was one of the best results ever achieved by a club pro in PGA Championship history. On the final day, he played alongside McIlroy and even made a hole-in-one. At that time, his world ranking jumped from 3,580th to 577th in just one week. Other players who failed to qualify include Matt Kuchar (60th) and Webb Simpson (201st, both USA), who have struggled this year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.