Inside Sergio Garcia’s complicated (and costly) Ryder Cup decision

of 2025 Ryder Cup The press conference with captains Keegan Bradley and Luke Donald in New York earlier this week was little more than a formality. The event was held to mark that we are roughly 12 months away from Team USA taking on Team Europe at Bethpage Black next fall. However, buried inside the car came plenty of intrigue about one particular Ryder Cup legend: Sergio Garcia.

We didn’t expect to hear news about Garcia, a LIV golfer ranked 390th in the world, but that’s because there’s a lot of smoke in the game right now. You have to go through it. Garcia has played as one of the best players on the planet for most of 2024 – DataGolf ranks him 22nd – and would benefit Europe in playing capacity. At least he could serve in the role of assistant captain. But he has some work to do first.

Garcia’s name came up during the press conference in a very blatant way: What does Sergio Garcia have to do to have a chance to make the team? Donald volunteered some information we didn’t know before: that the European captain has been in contact with Garcia in recent weeks and the Spaniard is considering making moves to rejoin the DP World Tour, a necessary step if Garcia has any hope to play for him. Donald next fall.

“Well, first of all, obviously he resigned his membership a couple of years ago,” Donald said Tuesday. “But we have had some conversations. He is thinking of getting back together. He will have to follow all the rules and regulations like everyone else, and if he does, again, he will be eligible to participate in the Ryder Cup.

A natural follow-up question came a few minutes later. Do you think it is a serious option?

“Yeah, we talked on the phone a few weeks ago,” Donald said. “You know, he’s certainly very interested in doing that. He understands all that is involved, and again, the decision should rest with him, if he is prepared to do all this.

Most golf fans are aware of Ryder Cup Accessibility Regulations in recent months, while Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton have pushed their schedules (and filed complaints) to play at least four tournaments in the DPWT to maintain membership for 2025. The only way to qualify for the Ryder Cup team is to first be a member.

Garcia’s situation is similar but different. The 44-year-old was among a number of LIV players who were once members of the DPWT and were fined for taking part in the tournament without a conflicting event release form. Garcia was one of the only LIVEs who stubbornly refused to pay those fines, eventually resigning his DP membership in 2023. To regain membership, those fines must first be paid, a decision already judged by an arbitrator.

If Garcia applies for membership (his agent did not respond to a request for confirmation), he can thank his former self for making the process easier. Thanks to his fourth-place finish on the DPWT career money list — and because he’s won multiple times on the DPWT (including a major) — Garcia would qualify through the Legends category. While Garcia’s comeback pursuit looks strictly to play in a specific event next September, the Legends categorization would also allow him easy entry into almost any DPWT event he’d like to play in… for as long as that he has paid the fines and served suspensions, or filed an appeal similar to what his LIV stablemates Hatton and Rahm did this summer.

It is the last point that is the most sticky. Garcia has been contracted to play a full LIV 2025 golf program, which will include 14 tournaments from February to September. Depending on how the events line up on the calendar – LIV’s schedule has yet to be finalized – Garcia will have to serve 14 weeks’ worth of DPWT suspension and also pay 14 weeks’ worth of fines. As it currently stands, members who compete in LIV Golf during weeks where the DPWT is hosting an event receive a £100,000 fine.

In short, it will cost Garcia a lot of money to make this Ryder Cup reality, but it seems like something he wants to do. James Corrigan reported on Telegraph in the year 2023 that Garcia was ready and willing to pay his fines for a place in the Ryder Cup held in Rome. That number, Corrigan reported, had reached £700,000. LIV has even come up with the idea of ​​paying fines on behalf of its players. Bob Harig reported on Sports Illustrated that LIV applied to the DPWT for payment of Jon Rahm’s fines, but was refused.

In the end, if this saga plays out the way Garcia seems to want it to, it will come down to him winning one of Captain Donald’s six picks. Ryder Cup Europe recently announced the qualifying criteria, which notably do not take into account any performances at LIV Golf. Garcia excelled at LIV events this year, winning once and placing second three times. How does that rank for Donald? We’ll have to wait and ask that as the results come in next summer.

Garcia could certainly perform better in the majors, but that would start with actually getting him IN in major championships. As a former Masters champion, Garcia will have a brief stint at Augusta in April, but no other majors are guaranteed to be part of his schedule. He will rely on an invitation from the PGA Championship or advance to the final qualifiers for the Open and the US Open. He has not finished in the top 10 of a major since winning the Masters in 2017.