Traffic chaos caused inconvenience for players ahead of round one at The Open
Garcia and Fitzpatrick Struggle To Get To Royal St George’s Due To Open Traffic
Open traffic was causing headaches for players ahead of the 149th Open at Royal St George’s.
The gridlock meant that Matt Fitzpatrick was forced to walk to the course and Sergio Garcia was delayed and needed help from the police to arrive on time.
“Obviously very happy with the finish. Even happier after how the morning started, where because of terrible traffic coming in,” Sergio Garcia said of the traffic after his opening 68.
“Even though I left the house with plenty of time, I needed a little bit of help from a couple very nice English policemen on the bikes to get me here with only about 35, 40 minutes to tee off, when usually I like to be here around an hour and a half, hour and 25.
“It just, I don’t know, we just got stuck. We couldn’t move, and thankfully they helped us a little bit and got us here in time.
“I was able to do a very quick practice, very quick warmup, but it worked out okay because I played nicely.”
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Twitter user @Lin2911 wrote that she had to abandon the park and ride bus and walk to the course after spending an hour on the bus in traffic:
Had to abandon bus and walk the last mile as nothing was moving.
— Linda Officer (@Lin2911) July 15, 2021
Royal St George’s in Kent hosts its 15th Open this week and first in 10 years after Darren Clarke’s triumph in 2011.