Tiger (Not That One) Qualifies For Open Championship
There'll be a different Tiger at Hoylake this year after German amateur Tiger Christensen booked his spot at the Open Championship
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.
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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.
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“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.”
Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website. Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.
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