LIV Golf star Sergio Garcia has warned that concessions will need to be made by himself and the DP World Tour if he is to return and potentially resurrect his Ryder Cup career.
At the 2025 Ryder Cup launch in New York, European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald revealed that he had held talks with Garcia about a possible return to the European Ryder Cup team in Bethpage Black for the Spaniard.
Garcia has played on ten Ryder Cup teams and is the record points scorer in the biennial contest. The 44-year-old has yet to pay the fines imposed upon him by the DP World Tour for joining LIV Golf in 2022 and he still has a number of ‘outstanding sanctions’ to settle before he can reapply for membership of the DP World Tour.
Garcia is eager to return to the DP World Tour with an eye towards playing his way onto the Europe team next year alongside fellow LIV players Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton but he admits there is still some negotiating to be done between himself and the tour.
“If things improve a little bit with the European Tour and the things that they ask for and the things that we are asking for get close, the decision is 99 per cent,” Garcia told GolfMagic ahead of hosting his third annual FORE Kids ATX golf tournament & PAR-Tee on 1-2 November that contributes to the Sergio & Angela Garcia Foundation and has raised over $5m.
“But if they don’t make things a tiny bit easier, I’m giving up some things, but they also need to give up a few things, and if we can find that middle ground then you will see me playing a handful of European Tour events.
“If not, then it will be a little bit tougher, but hopefully that won’t be the case.”
The 16-time DP World Tour winner has just over a month to confirm his decision on whether to reapply or not with the deadline set at the end of the DP World Tour Championship on Sunday November 17.
Garcia also seems to have patched things up with his Ryder Cup teammate Rory McIlroy and believes the Northern Irishman has realised that fighting against LIV Golf isn’t going to help anything as far as unifying the game of golf is concerned.
“Yeah I think it’s great. I think at the end of the day it shows we’re all very emotional and we try to defend our positions and stuff like that, but at the end of the day it shows we all want to go in the same direction and make golf better. That’s the most important thing.
“Rory has seen that, he realises that trying to fight each other is not going to help anyone, and it’s definitely not going to help the game. If you look at it with a good perspective, in a few years unfortunately we are going to be gone and the game is the only thing that is going to stay here. The players will come and go, and it doesn’t matter how good you’ve been or how much of a legend of the game you’ve been, the only thing that stands is the game and that’s what we have to make better and protect.”
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