I was brain dead, admits Garcia as he counts the cost of a poor final round

With Tiger Woods absent, the star names of Garcia, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson could all have entertained ambitions of lifting the Claret Jug but none came close.

Garcia, who dropped out of the top 10 in the running for an automatic Ryder Cup place, got worse as the event went on and was furious with himself after finishing on 17 over par, despite being among those who had the more favourable draw over the first two days.

'Whatever chances I had today I threw them away on the back nine,' said the Spaniard, who triple-bogeyed the part-hree 12th.

'I was just brain dead, my body didn't react to my thoughts. I didn't make any good decisions.'

Els, who ended 12 over, was also unable to take advantage of Woods' absence and blamed his poor first round.

'I played myself out of the tournament on the back nine on Thursday, going nine over in nine holes. How do you come back from that?' asked the South African.

Both he and Mickelson agreed that, despite the high scoring, there was nothing to complain about in terms of the course's set-up. 

'It's as challenging a wind as I've played in over four days but it's a fair test,' said Mickelson, whose closing 71 saw him finish 14 over.

'The course was set up fair and even in the conditions there was a score out there. You could make some birdies on some holes and fight for birdies on others. They want to test golfers in adverse conditions and have been successful in that.'