Sergio Garcia has hit back at comments made by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy after the pair insisted that LIV CEO Greg Norman would have to relinquish his post to allow peace talks to commence between golf’s warring tours.
The former Masters winner, who has fallen outside the world’s top-100 since joining LIV, has questioned the good versus evil narrative portrayed by both players and media in relation to the debate, insisting those on the PGA/DP World Tours are far from blameless.
“They say that Greg Norman has to go; and Monahan has to stay or go?” Garcia told Marca. “It’s very easy to say those on the other side have to go. And those on your side? There are also people who have done things wrong.
“You have to look at everything. Greg Norman is our CEO and we support him. We all wish we could come to an agreement. There are people who could have done wrong in both places, but it seems that there are only bad guys on one side.”
Garcia, who didn’t play the minimum number of DP World Tour events in order to maintain his membership for 2023, also spoke about missing next year’s Ryder Cup in Rome, claiming some of his former teammates have displayed little class since he made the move to LIV.
“I don’t know if I want to be part of the team,” said Garcia.
“Because if there are three or four that if I’m there they’ll be looking at me badly and they don’t want me to be there … what do I contribute to the team? I really want to be there to be me, to be the Sergio who plays the Ryder Cup, who loves it and who puts an arm on everyone’s shoulder to help.
“And if you then have people there who, because you have decided to go on another tour, are no longer their friend, you are the bad guy, you are such and such, that has disappointed me and has taught me that those who I thought were really friends of mine are not. Jon (Rahm) is not one of them but there are others who have shown very little class.”
Despite calls for golf’s warring factions to sit down and talk, Garcia also poured cold water on the prospect of the tours co-existing peacefully.
“First everything has to be settled,” he said. “It’s not easy now that we’re involved in a legal process and also because everything we want is prohibited. If you’re sitting with someone who every time you propose something is a ‘no’ … in the end, how are you going to reach an agreement if only what they say is worth it? I don’t know how we will reach an agreement.”
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