Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia are set to put their differences aside in the wake of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf seemingly bringing their bitter feud to an end.
The world of golf has been plagued by civil war over the past year, with the PGA Tour and LIV Golf the opposing sides. Earlier this month though a truce was called after it was confirmed the two rivals - along with the DP World Tour - were now set to work under one entity with backing from the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia.
Amid the recent rivalry the world of professional golf was torn in two, with a whole host of friendships and relationships broken due to players taking opposite sides.
The biggest came in the breakdown between European Ryder Cup stalwarts McIlroy and Garcia. The latter became one of the big names to defect to LIV Golf last summer, whilst the former has been arguably the breakaway circuit's biggest critic.
However, with the powers that be finding peace, it seems friends-turned-rivals, McIlroy and Garcia have too. According to Spanish outlet Ten Golf, McIlroy gestured over to Garcia that he would call him at last week's US Open in a bid to finally settle their differences.
The offer came whilst the Northern Irishman was kicking off his final round on Sunday at Los Angeles Country Club on the first tee, whilst the Spaniard was finishing up on the 18th green. This comes after Garcia had already text McIlroy about reconciling heading into the tournament.
It was a text message at last year's US Open that fuelled the breakdown in their relationship, after the 2017 Masters champion took aim at McIlroy's Tour-heavy stance amid the emergence of LIV. "He [Garcia] was basically telling me to shut up about LIV, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,” McIlroy shared in an interview with the Irish Independent.
"I was pretty offended and sent him back a couple of daggers and that was it." Garcia - who had the four-time major champion as one of his groomsmen at his 2017 wedding - was given the chance to respond in February, taking aim at Mcilroy's lack of 'maturity'.
The Spaniard said: "I think it is very sad. I think that we’ve done so many things together and had so many experiences that for him to throw that away just because I decided to go to a different tour, well, it doesn’t seem very mature; lacking maturity, really.
“But Rory’s got his own life, and he makes his own choices, the same way that I make mine. I respect his choices, but it seems like he doesn’t respect the ones I make. So, one-way street.”
