Sergio Garcia has ruled out any likelihood of returning full-time to the PGA, even should the gates open in allowing LIV golfers to rejoin the Tour following recent news of a likely end to the war in men’s pro golf.
Garcia was aged just 21 when he captured a maiden PGA Tour title at the 2001 MasterCard Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas, and then won again at the Buick Classic in New York the same year. In doing so, Garica became the youngest Tour winner since a then 20-year-old Tiger Woods in 1996.
In 2002, García won the Mercedes Championships in early January, and in 2004, he won the EDS Byron Nelson Championship and the Buick Classic for the second time. His sixth PGA Tour victory came at the 2005 Booz Allen Classic.
In total the now 43-year-old and also father of two has eleven PGA Tour victories, including the 2017 Masters Tournament, among his 36 worldwide victories, and Garcia very much the epitome of an international player teeing-up on the PGA Tour.
Though he was also among the first to join LIV Golf, he spoke then of a strong desire to play less tournament golf and particularly, not be tied down by a commitment of having to play a minimum number to retain membership, and thus spend more time with his young family.
Now with the one-year anniversary of the inaugural LIV event just a week away, Garcia’s views have not altered ahead of this week’s inaugural LIV Golf Valderrama.
“I mean, to be totally honest, I came to LIV because of different reasons, but one of them was to be able to play a little bit less. Obviously that’s not going to change,” he said.
“If everything goes according to plan like we expect it to be, I will not be playing much at all on the PGA Tour because I don’t plan on playing 30 events a year.
“That’s not something that is in my mind at the moment. Obviously as things settle and we know exactly where we all stand, then we can make decisions. But I wouldn’t think so. Not at the moment, I guess”.
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