Sergio Garcia is making no secret of his desire to play on the European Ryder Cup team at Bethpage, backing up his words of reconciliation with his play.
The all-time points leader in the event’s history won the LIV Golf Hong Kong event Sunday with some vintage Garcia iron play.
And then he continued lobbying captain Luke Donald.
“I think he’s watching,” Garcia said after his final-round 63 beat Dean Burmester by three shots. “We’ve been in touch, so I know that he’s keeping an eye. The only thing I can do is keep playing good golf, and I just want to help the European team like I’ve tried to do every single time I’ve been a member of that team, and hopefully he will think I’m good enough for it.”
After a couple of lackluster years when he first joined LIV Golf, Garcia had a resurgence last year, winning in his native Spain and posting five other top-10 finishes. He finished third in LIV’s seasonlong points standings behind Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann.
He also made the effort to try and qualify for both the U.S. Open and British Open. He failed to make it to Royal Troon, but at Pinehurst he finished tied for 12th, narrowly missing a full exemption into this year’s tournament at Oakmont by finishing in the top 10.
But will playing well in LIV events be enough?
Garcia will give his plight a huge boost by performing better in the majors.
Since winning the Masters in 2017, he’s missed the cut five times, including the last two years.
He has received an invite to the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow and can get in both Opens if he remains LIV’s season points leader, which puts a much-needed and interesting premium on how he continues to perform in the 54-player league. Making a mark in the biggest tournaments will help him quell any controversy.
And there will be some.
Garcia last competed in the Ryder Cup in a losing effort in 2021 at Whistling Straits, where he managed to perform well enough to move to the top of the points table with 28½ points over 10 Ryder Cups.
He missed the 2023 European victory, and there wasn’t much reason to have him there.
His play at the time certainly didn’t warrant inclusion, and the volatile manner in which he left both the PGA Tour and DP World Tour to join LIV Golf seemed to be a torched bridge too far.
But things have calmed down in many ways over the past three years as the PGA Tour is actively seeking a deal with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which backs LIV Golf.
There are no obstacles to competing in the Ryder Cup this time, unless there are internal grievances. Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton are expected to be there for Europe. Bryson DeChambeau could very well qualify for the U.S. team on points and with any success at all would be a pick. So would Brooks Koepka.
Garcia is 45 but still possessing plenty of skills. His love for the Ryder Cup is unquestioned, as is his record. He’s gone 25-13-7 across his 10 Ryder Cups, missing only one during an 11-match stretch from 1999—when he was 19—through 2021.
There’s no doubt that playing Garcia in match play is no joke, although he is likely to be on the tough end of a considerable amount of bad blood from U.S. fans at Bethpage—something that is bound to go over the top and is not welcomed, but likely inevitable.
Garcia has this week’s LIV event in Singapore plus another in Miami prior to the Masters, which will be his 100th major championship. That milestone is a significant testament to his longevity.
It would also be a good place for him to show more form at which point the Ryder Cup talk would intensify even more.
“It’s still early,” Garcia said. “We still have a month to go. We still have two big tournaments coming up in Singapore and Miami, so we’ve got to focus on that, and when we get to Augusta, then we’ll focus on that.
“Obviously it’s going to be a very special week for me because it’s my 100th major, so I’m super proud of that. It’s not a number that a lot of people get to achieve. I just want to have a lot of fun there no matter what happens, and that’s my goal.”
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Sergio Garcia Wants to Play in Another Ryder Cup But Needs More Than LIV Golf Success.
