Sergio Garcia tells Rick Shiels he will return to the DP World Tour in order to make European Ryder Cup team.
Sergio Garcia has surprised Rick Shiels with the news that he will be making a comeback to the DP World Tour this year. His main goal is to secure a spot on the European Ryder Cup team in 2025.
Despite being the highest scorer in European Ryder Cup history, Garcia, who is now 44 years old, was not selected to be a part of Luke Donald’s team in 2023. This decision came after Garcia decided to end his membership with the DP World Tour.
Garcia’s choice to leave the tour came after all members who joined the Saudi-funded LIV Golf League were fined and suspended by the DP World Tour.
Not only Garcia, but other Ryder Cup legends like Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter also made the decision to terminate their memberships with the DP World Tour at the same time.
Garcia’s £700,000 fine to the DP World Tour last season came too late for the European Ryder Cup team. He missed out on the action at Marco Simone in September. Donald’s European team triumphed over Zach Johnson’s United States team in Rome.
In a recent interview with YouTube golf star Rick Shiels, Garcia expressed his determination to secure a spot in another Ryder Cup team. After finishing second to Joaquin Niemann in LIV Golf’s inaugural event, Garcia is eager to be part of Donald’s 2025 European Ryder Cup team at Bethpage Black in New York.
Garcia informed Shiels that he is determined to perform at his best in the upcoming major championships to increase his chances of making the next team. Additionally, he expressed his goal of reclaiming his DP World Tour card this year and participating in at least four tournaments as per the membership requirements.
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.
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 will consist of 14 tournaments on LIV Golf, four standard DP World Tour events to fulfill his DP World Tour membership obligation, and four major championships (assuming Garcia qualifies for each one).
Garcia secured a lifetime eligibility at The Masters after winning the green jacket at Augusta National in 2017.
In a typical season, he would have participated in 27 events while playing on both the European Tour and PGA Tour. However, with fewer tournaments on his schedule now and a return to the DP World Tour, Garcia aims to make it to his 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, which first launched in November 2019, has now amassed more than a quarter of a million subscribers on YouTube.
Fronted by the world’s most watched online golf personality Shiels – whose original YouTube channel has 2.75m subscribers – the eponymous podcast first aired on the video sharing platform in February 2020 and has subsequently received 33m views with 5.7m hours of content watched.
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