After Sergio Garcia attempted to challenge for the Ryder Cup last year after being excluded, Rory McIlroy is eager to have LIV Golf rebels return for the 2025 event in the United States.
Sergio Garcia, the rebel of LIV Golf, attempted to buy his way back into Ryder Cup contention last year, but thanks to Rory McIlroy’s appeal, he won’t have to in 2025.
Garcia essentially gave up his DP World Tour membership in 2022 after joining the breakaway league supported by Saudi Arabia. This membership is necessary for any player to represent Europe in the Ryder Cup.
In an attempt to find a last-ditch way to be able to play, the 44-year-old, the 2017 Masters champion and Ryder Cup legend, offered to rejoin the DP World Tour and pay the £700,000 fine he incurred by joining LIV.
“I contacted him and inquired about the potential of rejoining the Tour,” Garcia informed me. “I was aware that in order to have any chance of joining the European squad in Rome, I had to be a member. If I completed the necessary number of tournaments and paid all of my fines, that’s what I would have preferred. Although it would not have been ideal, I was willing to do both because I would have had to play for 10 of the 11 or 12 weeks (before (before the end of the season).
“There was no chance,” was the response. When he informed me that there was no sense in continuing anything further. If I’m not going to receive love in return, I won’t put in the extra effort. Pelley did not encourage me to become a member, but he did say that perhaps things will be better for all of us the following year.
“I will make that decision in consultation with my family, and we will work to determine the best course of action. It’s not an amazing feeling right now. When the new year begins, we’ll see where we wind up. It is what it is, really.
Team Europe eventually defeated Team USA in Italy, but with Garcia and other LIV Golf rebels like Jon Rahm eligible to compete in the Bethpage Ryder Cup in 2025, the former will receive a significant boost. According to McIlroy, “Jon will be in Bethpage in 2025.” The European Tour will need to revise the requirements for eligibility for the Ryder Cup as a result of this decision. Indeed. There is no doubt about it.
After years of acrimonious division, McIlroy has tempered his position on LIV Golf in 2024 as the major golf tours look for collaboration and a united sport. According to McIlroy, golf should aim for a World Tour. “I believe you would simply arrange a tour for thetop 80 athletes in the world Rory.
Everything seems to lead up to that one, in my opinion. It would be similar to the Champions League in European football, in my opinion. In my opinion, it sort of sits above the other leagues, and then all of those leagues kind of feed into that, with the best of the best competing against one another in the Champions League. Everyone has different interests in this game, as I mentioned at the end of last year, and that’s what happens when the landscape is so fractured at this point.
“So trying to align everyone’s interests and trying to convince everyone that this is the right thing to do for the game of golf as a whole, and if you can convince everyone of that, then it would be pretty simple. But right now it’s just trying to get everyone singing off the same hymn sheet.”
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