There will be a Tiger in the Open Championship field at Royal Liverpool, but not the one most people will associate with Hoylake as amateur Tiger Christensen booked his spot in Final Qualifying.
Christensen finished in T4 at West Lancashire to earn a spot in the 151st Open Championship in a few weeks – joining Matt Wallace, Matthew Jordan and Kyle Barker.
Alex Fitzpatrick, younger brother of 2022 US Open champion Matt, also qualified while Sergio Garcia just missed out – ending his run of competing in every Open Championship since 1997.
One name that will be on the leaderboard though is Tiger – but not the three-time Open champion who won the Claret Jug at Hoylake in 2006 with a memorable two-shot victory.
Woods is unable to compete at this year’s Open as he recovers from ankle surgery that he hopes will help to prolong the latter stages of his career in the Majors.
Carrying the Tiger name around the fairways of Royal Liverpool though will be 19-year-old German amateur Christensen.
Originally from Hamburg, Christensen currently plays college golf for Arizona State after previously spending a season and a half at Oklahoma State.
And after qualifying for the Open, Christensen says he remembers Rory McIlroy winning the Claret Jug at Hoylake in 2014 – and will adopt a similar approach by launching bombs off the tee.
“It feels amazing to qualify for The Open,” said Christensen. “I’ve played really good golf over the last two weeks, especially at the European Amateur where I fell just short.
“It was good to see the putts drop today though and play my way into a Major championship.
“I remember Rory winning at Royal Liverpool and hitting a bunch of bombs. I’ll go there and figure out a game plan. I’m long off the tee so hopefully I can make that work for me.”
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