Sergio García appears to have made one last attempt to mend his relationship with the DP World Tour and enter the Ryder Cup.
However, it seems that the change of face was too late.
Garcia, approached the DP World Tour earlier this month and offered to pay all of his outstanding fines (nearly $1 million) with the European league in order to compete on the European Ryder Cup team in end of this month in Rome.
Garcia gave up his DP World Tour membership to join LIV Golf, as did several other prominent European players. Garcia, however, the league imposed on him.
“Suddenly they came to us and said not only would he pay the £100,000 but all outstanding fines if he was allowed to play,” a DP World Tour source told The Telegraph.
This total was estimated to be over £700,000, which is about $867,000. It is not clear what the other fines were for.
While the feud between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf has died down since the proposed new partnership was announced, the DP World Tour apparently told Garcia it was still not interested.
“They also said they would play in any events we wanted, apart from those that clashed with the remaining LIV tournaments,” the source told The Telegraph. “But it has been explained that despite the ongoing peace talks, as he had renounced his membership, he is not entitled to join until next year. It was all a bit strange, as made it clear all along.”
Earlier this summer, shortly after a UK-based arbitration panel upheld £100,000 fines handed down by the DP World Tour after 17 of its players competed in LIV Golf events without a launch in 2022 . for not actually paying the fine, which equates to about $126,000.
As one of the requirements to make the European team is to be a member of the DP World Tour, Garcia was not eligible to compete or take a leadership role.
Garcia has scored 28.5 points in his 10 Ryder Cup appearances, making him the highest-scoring European player in history. He has a career record of 25-13-7. Garcia won 11 times on the PGA Tour and earned his first and only major championship victory at the Masters in 2017.
“I think that’s a shame, don’t you?” Rory McIlroy said of Garcia, along with Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, . “I think it’s a shame that you have the leading scorer ever in the Ryder Cup and two guys who, when they look back on their careers, probably a big part of their legacy is the roles they’ve played in the Ryder Cup. Cup for Europe. If these three guys don’t captain Europe one day, it’s a shame.”
While Garcia and other members of LIV Golf may be eligible to compete in future Ryder Cups, depending on how the merger of the three leagues pans out, Garcia will not be in Italy next week.
The Ryder Cup will begin on September 28 at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club outside Rome.
