Dustin Johnson will miss his first Open Championship in seventeen years after he withdrew from Final Qualifying for next month’s edition in Royal Birkdale.
Johnson is the latest big name player to withdraw from The Open following confirmation over the weekend that Phil Mickelson, a 2013 Open winner, would miss all four major championships for the first time in his professional career.
The former world number one and two-time major winner had appeared in every staging of The Open since making his debut at Turnberry in 2009.
The 42-year-old’s decision to withdraw is a surprising one given his positive form in the first three majors of the year so far where he made the cut at the Masters, PGA Championship and US Open including being in contention after day one of the latter.
“[My game] feels really good,” Johnson said at Shinnecock Hills a fortnight ago. “Finally, the last couple months, I feel like the game is starting to come back into form and swinging it really nicely. Yeah, looking forward to seeing what I can do.”
Johnson’s next competitive appearance looks likely to be at next month’s LIV UK event at JCB Golf and Country Club, the week after The Open. Fellow LIV professionals David Puig and Carlos Ortiz have also withdrawn from Final Qualifying which gets underway tomorrow.
At Open Final Qualifying played across Royal Cinque Ports, West Lancs, Burnham and Berrow and Dundonald Links, seven Irish will be in the field looking to survive a mammoth 36-hole shootout for a place at Royal Birkdale.
Big names still pencilled in to compete tomorrow are Sergio Garcia, Sahith Theegala, Matt Wallace and Danny Willett.
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