Exclusive: Sergio Garcia has paid his fines and will return to DP World Tour in 2025
Exclusive: Sergio Garcia has officially submitted his application to return to membership of the DP World Tour for the 2025 season, and he will now have a golden chance to return to the 2025 European Ryder Cup team.
Sergio Garcia has officially submitted his application to return to membership of the DP World Tour for the 2025 season ahead of the deadline of Sunday November 17, a DP World Tour spokesperson has confirmed to GolfMagic.
Garcia, 44, has paid his fines and he will now need to serve his suspensions before he is able to play again on the DP World Tour.
The 2017 Masters champion is now a member of the DP World Tour for the 2025 season under Category 1.
World Exclusive:
The DP World Tour's Category 1 membership is reserved for winners of the Race to Dubai Rankings 2017 to 2024 and the four majors from 2017 to 2025.
"Sergio Garcia submitted his application to return to membership of the DP World Tour for the 2025 season ahead of the deadline on Sunday November 17," a DP World Tour spokesperson confirmed to GolfMagic.
"He has paid his fines. He will now need to serve his suspensions before he is able to play on the DP World Tour, but he is a member for 2025 (in cat 1)."
After news was confirmed, Garcia told GolfMagic's Andy Roberts: "Yeah it's all confirmed, I am a member of the DP World Tour again so very happy about it.
"Really excited to be back being part of the DP World Tour and excited to play a few events next year, support the Tour and obviously have the possibility of being eligible for the Ryder Cup.
"It's now just time to play good golf and do some nice things."
Garcia resigned from the DP World Tour in May 2023 after a sports arbitration panel ratified the sanctions imposed on him and other Tour pros that joined LIV Golf without releases.
The DP World Tour then revealed Garcia was the only one of 17 players initially sanctioned not to have paid his £100,000 fine, "nor has he given any indication that he intends to."
It is understood Garcia's fines on the DP World Tour ended up exceeding £1m in total.
Garcia last played in a DP World Tour event in September 2022.
That came at the BMW PGA where he withdrew after an opening 76.
The decision for the LIV Golf star to return to the DP World Tour in 2025 means Garcia now has a golden chance to return to Luke Donald's European Ryder Cup team.
Garcia will be looking to play in his 11th European Ryder Cup team at Bethpage Black in New York from 26-28 September.
Related:
Garcia is the record European Ryder Cup points scorer with 28.5 points.
European captain Donald was pressed for comment recently about whether Garcia could indeed make his 2025 team.
“He thinks he can play,” Donald said. “He wants to play. I don’t think he has talked to me about being an assistant captain, but again, he would have to re-join the tour for him to be eligible. He’s certainly very interested in doing that. He understands everything that’s involved and again, the decision has to go to him whether he’s prepared to do all that. But certainly we’ve had that discussion.”
Garcia only played in two majors in 2024.
He missed the cut at The Masters in April but finished T12 at the US Open.
Garcia won his first LIV Golf title on home soil in Andalucia during the summer.
The DP World Tour has also confirmed that Garcia's LIV Golf peers Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Adrian Meronk, Dean Burmester, Joaquin Niemann, Thomas Pieters, Lucas Herbert and Patrick Reed have also taken up membership on the DP World Tour for 2025.
Rahm, Hatton and Meronk recently appealed their fines for playing in conflicting events on LIV without a release from the DP World Tour.
That appeal is pending, which means they can continue to play on the DP World Tour until it takes place.
Garcia told GolfMagic last month that he was keen on a return to the former European Tour circuit in a bid to resurrect his Ryder Cup career.
"It's something I've been wanting to do since I joined LIV Golf," Garcia told GolfMagic in an exclusive interview in October 2024.
"Mostly because I want to be eligible for the Ryder Cup and the possibility of making another team and helping the European team retain the Cup in this aspect, but I've said from the beginning, the European Tour is the Tour I came from.
"To me it's my home Tour and I want to support it. I feel like I still have a good push in the game that I can help some of the tournaments I would be willing to play in, and hopefully things with the European Tour and the players and stuff like that, hopefully things improve for everyone and we can achieve that.
"It's my main goal. I want to see the European Tour get better, be stronger, and if I can help in any way to do that, it's what I want to do."
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