WATCH; LIV GOLF’S SERGIO GARCIA MAKES SHOCK REVELATION TO RICK SHIELS
Sergio Garcia tells Rick Shiels he will return to the DP World Tour in order to make European Ryder Cup team.
“Sergio Garcia has informed Rick Shiels that he plans to unexpectedly rejoin the DP World Tour this year with the goal of earning a spot on the European Ryder Cup team in 2025.”
Garcia, the all-time leading scorer in European Ryder Cup points at the age of 44, was not considered for a role in Luke Donald’s 2023 European Ryder Cup team due to his choice to end his membership with the DP World Tour. Garcia decided to tear up his DP World Tour card in response to the league penalizing and barring all players who joined the Saudi-funded LIV Golf League.
Other European legends of the Ryder Cup, like Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, also chose to end their memberships with the DP World Tour when Garcia did.
Although Garcia paid his heavy £700,000 fine to the DP World Tour last season, it was too little too late where the European Ryder Cup team and DP World Tour was concerned as the Spaniard played no part in the action at Marco Simone last September.
Donald’s European side went on to defeat Zach Johnson’s United States team by five points in Rome.
But in recent comments made to YouTube golf sensation Rick Shiels, Garcia has revealed his determination to play his way into at least one more Ryder Cup team.
Garcia, who recently finished runner-up to Joaquin Niemann in LIV Golf’s first event of the season, admits he is eager to be involved in Donald’s 2025 European Ryder Cup team at Bethpage Black in New York.
In order to give himself the best possible chance to make the next team, Garcia told Shiels he not only intends to play well in the upcoming major championships, but that he will regain his DP World Tour card this year and compete in the minimum four tournaments required of a member.
NOTE: Garcia’s interview on The Rick Shiels Golf Show below was filmed in November 2023, but only made public by Shiels during his latest podcast episode this week.
Watch from 49 minutes on Shiels’ video below for Garcia’s thoughts on the DP World Tour and Ryder Cup….
Garcia told Shiels:
“I am going to be a member again of the European [DP World] Tour, so I will play my four events or something like that. Maybe if I do well in those, maybe I can get myself in [to the European Ryder Cup team] somehow.”
Garcia added:
“I always said that I wanted to – when I joined LIV – I wanted to still keep being a member of the DP World Tour and play my minimum four events and keep my card. Obviously they didn’t make it too easy to be able to do that, but one of the reasons why I joined LIV was to play less so I can spend more time with my family.”
Shiels then asked Garcia how many tournaments he intends to play around the world in 2024, to which he replied:
“If all goes well, I will be playing around 21 or 22 events.”
The total number will consist of 14 competitions on LIV Golf, four standard DP World Tour tournaments to fulfill his membership obligations, and four major championships assuming Garcia qualifies for all of them.
Garcia earned lifetime eligibility for The Masters by winning the green jacket at Augusta National in 2017.
During a usual season, the Spaniard informed Shiels that he would have participated in 27 tournaments if he was playing on both the European Tour and PGA Tour.
These days, Garcia has fewer competitive golf events to participate in and is looking forward to rejoining the DP World Tour. He is optimistic about his chances of making it onto the 11th Ryder Cup team.
Garcia said:
“I want to give myself the best possibility for it [of playing the Ryder Cup]. Only playing a handful events, it is not easy to make it unless you do super, super well. But I guess at the end of the day if I am eligible, they see I am making the effort and I do well in LIV and I am consistent then at least hopefully I can be considered, not only because of my game but because of what I can bring to the team, and my history in the event.”
Garcia, owner of a record 28.5 points at the Ryder Cup, told Shiels he is not yet thinking about being a future Ryder Cup captain.
He said:
“At the moment I am not thinking about Ryder Cup captaincy. I feel like I can still bring a lot as a player but yes, obviously it is a possibility, we will see what happens.”
The Rick Shiels Golf Show, introduced in November 2019, now has over 250,000 subscribers on YouTube.
Presented by popular online golf personality Shiels, whose main YouTube channel has 2.75 million subscribers, the podcast with the same name debuted on the video platform in February 2020.
It has since garnered 33 million views and 5.7 million hours of content watched.
Will Garcia make the 2025 European Ryder Cup team?
