Exclusive: Sergio Garcia opens up on Ryder Cup future after Luke Donald bombshell

Sergio Garcia has told GolfMagic that if he and the DP World Tour can 'find middle ground' then he will return to the former European Tour circuit and resurrect his chances of making Luke Donald's European Ryder Cup team in 2025. 

Garcia, 44, was speaking exclusively to GolfMagic ahead of hosting his third annual FORE Kids ATX golf tournament & PAR-Tee on 1-2 November that contributes to the Sergio & Angela Garcia Foundation.

The Spaniard spoke to GolfMagic Editor Andy Roberts just 48 hours after Donald confirmed he was in talks with Garcia about a possible return to the European Ryder Cup team.

Related:

• European Ryder Cup captain drops revelation about LIV Golf's Sergio Garcia
• Exclusive: Sergio Garcia confirms new player will join Fireballs GC in 2025

After discussing his upcoming charity golf event, which has now raised more than $5m since its inception in 2022, Garcia spoke openly about a number of hot golf topics. 

Garcia confirmed that one of his players on Fireballs GC will be leaving the team ahead of the 2025 LIV Golf season, and that he will be replaced by someone who is 'a little bit of a different profile kind of player'.

The 2017 Masters champion also gave us his thoughts on Saudi PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan meeting and striding the fairways with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan at the Home of Golf last week, before declaring Rory McIlroy now 'realises trying to fight each other is not going to help anyone'.

Garcia then updated us on his latest chats with 2025 European Ryder Cup captain Donald and the DP World Tour as he contemplates the possibility of returning to the European Ryder Cup team for an 11th time in his career. 

According to a DP World Tour spokesperson, Garcia still has a number of 'outstanding sanctions' to sort out before he can reapply for his membership of the DP World Tour. 

Garcia was fined for having joined the Saudi-bankrolled LIV Golf League in 2022. 

The Telegraph claims Garcia has fines in the region of $2m (£1.5m) with which to settle at Wentworth HQ. 

Garcia terminated his DP World Tour card in May 2023 alongside the likes of Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood.

That came after a sports arbitration panel ratified sanctions imposed on him. 

In our exclusive with Garcia, we very much got the impression the record European Ryder Cup points scorer is eager to return to the DP World Tour, a circuit he calls 'home'.

But at the same time he admits concessions will need to be made by the DP World Tour and by himself if he is to come back. 

"If things improve a little bit with the European Tour and the things that they ask for and the things that we are asking for get close, the decision is 99 per cent," Garcia told GolfMagic on a potential return to the DP World Tour and European Ryder Cup team.

"But if they don't make things a tiny bit easier, I'm giving up some things, but they also need to give up a few things, and if we can find that middle ground then you will see me playing a handful of European Tour events.

"If not, then it will be a little bit tougher, but hopefully that won't be the case."

Garcia will need to make his decision by the end of the DP World Tour Championship on Sunday 17 November, it has been confirmed to us by a DP World Tour spokesperson.

Scroll down to read our full exclusive interview with Sergio Garcia...

Sergio, your FORE Kids ATX event is some three weeks away now. You and Angela must be really excited to get it all underway for a third time?

Yes definitely we can't wait, it's getting close now. We are super excited. Obviously like you said it's our third year running, and we have raised over $5m so far. The event is sold out already and it's great for us to be able to give back to children and the community. I've always said we feel so blessed to have the life and the success we've had and to be able to give back to people that need it the most, it's really something that fulfils you and we are super proud of it.

Has that $5m figure exceeded your expectations from when you first started this event with your wife in 2022?

Without a doubt. We were standing there, obviously we did one in Switzerland in '16 that was great and we raised just over $1m there, and we thought we could do something similar to that. To be able to raise $2.4m the first year, and $2.7m last year, it was something we were just super happy about. We didn't expect to do so well. It's funny, we were talking about it last year and I was telling Angela maybe we should try to do it every other year so it feels fresher or something like that, but we did another event last year and everyone was telling us they couldn't wait for the next event to come back, so we were like okay well it looks like we are going to do it next year then!

I understand you've got a few of your LIV Golf peers including Patrick Reed coming to join you for the two-day event?

Yeah we've got a handful. The first year we did it with a few more players but we realised it's difficult to get so many of the guys to come and make it fit into their schedules, so it's difficult to organise it that way. We've only got maybe five or six players but that way it makes it a bit more unique for the people who are part of it, our donors and sponsors. 

How important to you is your mentorship through youth golf and giving back to the game in general?

As a player it's great to play golf and do it for a living, do what I love and create excitement for the fans and stuff, but what can you really do that is going to keep building into the game as you play less and less and then eventually retire? What footprints can you leave in the game? That all comes down to events like our charity event, our golf academies that we are starting to build, and just bringing the game closer to people and to kids. That's very important to me.

Have your own little ones, Azalea and Enzo, taken a keen interest in golf just yet?

Yeah they like it. They do several sports but golf is definitely one of them. They both enjoy it and they both have a good time. They probably play a couple of times a week. They like it, they enjoy coming to watch me play as well which is a positive! It's fun to see them not only play golf but also playing lots of other sports.

Sergio, just moving on to LIV Golf where you finished a very solid third on the individual standings this year, you must be delighted with how your season panned out, especially winning your first LIV Golf title on home soil in July?

Yes definitely. I had a couple of solid years on LIV but this year was definitely extra sweet with the way I played all year. Obviously you can think oh I lost a couple of playoffs early in the year, but at the same time, the way I look at it was that I gave myself a lot of good chances to win. Finished second three times, won, and had a few other top 10s. It's been a very solid year, and had a really good US Open appearance finishing 12th there so that was nice to see. Another good show in the majors, which obviously is super important to us as you know. To top it off but not just winning as an individual on home soil but to win as a team was the cherry on the cake. It was just electric in front of the home fans, and then obviously Carlos Alcaraz winning Wimbledon and Spain winning the Euros - sorry to bring that up, Andy - it was just an unbelievable weekend. That was just so fun to be a part of, to be in Spain and for me and the Fireballs to be a part of all that was just extra special. 

How hopeful are you, and I know you sort of alluded to this after the last regular season event in Chicago, that your third place finish on the individual standings could possibly lend itself to some major invites next year?

Yeah I hope so... at the end of the day I just need to play like that and put myself there and hopefully the majors and the organisations that take care of the majors take a look at that and give it the credit it deserves. That's all I can control at the end of the day. If for whatever reason they don't think it's good enough then I'll just keep doing what I'm doing, I'll go and play in the qualifiers and just try to get in as many majors as I can. Obviously The Masters I always get to play but the others I will try to see what I have to do to qualify for them. That's pretty much all I can do.

Obviously there are still no Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points on LIV Golf, have you guys thrown in the towel now?

To be totally honest, I don't think world ranking points are worth it anymore for us. Even if we got world ranking points now with the rankings we have like myself down in 390th, it just wouldn't really help the majority of us. We were looking at it and for someone to be able to stay in the top 50 in the world, you would probably have to win like 10 of the 14 tournaments on LIV Golf. But I think other options are being talked about at the moment and hopefully they come around in the very near future. I think at the end of the day the governing bodies that run the majors want to have the best players in the world, and a lot of the guys are on the league with us, so they are going to have to figure something out to have the best players there. 

Just looking ahead to 2025, will Fireballs GC remain unchanged or could we see some changes ahead of the first LIV Golf event in Saudi Arabia in February?

For the most part it's going to be pretty much the same team, but there is going to be one new player. Unfortunately, Eugenio Chacarra finished outside the top 24 and his contract is up. We are very thankful for everything he's done this last two and half, three years. But we want to see if we can get someone new, a little bit of a different profile kind of player. We are working on it and hopefully we'll have something before the year ends. It's exciting to look at different options and looking at someone who could make the team better in every aspect. I think that's the end game, to make the team better as LIV Golf moves forwards. Sometimes you have to make little changes here and there I guess. 

Sergio, you can't leave me hanging like that?

[laughs] We don't have him yet... I wish I could tell you who it is, but it's a work in progress.

Obviously Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Jay Monahan met at the Home of Golf last week. What did you make of that, and do you feel the pro game is moving any closer to some sort of unification?

I hope it's moving closer. I don't know exactly what they talked about last week but yeah I hope it went well. I think that's the goal for everyone. I wish it had happened a while back, but you know, everyone has their own agendas in a way and the way they want things to happen. But look, it's good, they're sitting, they're talking, it's a good start and hopefully we will hear something soon.

Sergio, I know you are good friends with Rory McIlroy, but what have you made of his U-turn on all things LIV Golf from being highly critical of the league two years ago to now seemingly being fully behind the idea of everyone coming together again?

Yeah I think it's great. I think at the end of the day it shows we're all very emotional and we try to defend our positions and stuff like that, but at the end of the day it shows we all want to go in the same direction and make golf better. That's the most important thing. Rory has seen that, he realises that trying to fight each other is not going to help anyone, and it's definitely not going to help the game. If you look at it with a good perspective, in a few years unfortunately we are going to be gone and the game is the only thing that is going to stay here. The players will come and go, and it doesn't matter how good you've been or how much of a legend of the game you've been, the only thing that stands is the game and that's what we have to make better and protect.

Luke Donald revealed on Tuesday that you are considering rejoining the DP World Tour next season to once again become eligible to make the European Ryder Cup team... is that something that you are likely going to do, and has anything changed your mind?

It's something I've been wanting to do since I joined LIV Golf. 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.

So would you say you're leaning more 60/40 in favour of a return to the DP World Tour?

To be totally honest, if things improve a little bit with the European Tour and the things that they ask for and the things that we are asking for get close, the decision is 99 per cent. But if they don't make things a tiny bit easier, I'm giving up some things, but they also need to give up a few things, and if we can find that middle ground then you will see me playing a handful of European Tour events. If not, then it will be a little bit tougher, but hopefully that won't be the case.

Were you pleased to see Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton get themselves back on the DP World Tour last month to ensure their European Ryder Cup team eligibility?

Yeah it's great. We all want to support the European Tour and have the possibility of making the Tour as strong as possible for the Ryder Cup. Obviously players like Jon, Tyrrell and hopefully myself and maybe a couple of others can do that. This is what we want to do. I think we are all trying to grow in that direction.

How confident are you of being able to make the next Ryder Cup team, if you do go ahead and rejoin the DP World Tour?

If the selection was right now I would say I would have a good chance, if things were all good with the European Tour and stuff like that. But there is a long way to go until the selection process, so I just need to keep playing well, continue to show good form. Everybody knows what I can bring to the team aside from my game, I have made that clear in my 10 previous Ryder Cups. There is still a way to go but the only thing I can do is keep playing well, keep enjoying what I'm doing and give myself the best options so I can go and help the European team, which is what I love to do the most.

How much of a goal is it for you to one day emulate Donald and captain the European Ryder Cup team yourself, or have you not really given that much thought given everything else that's going on right now?

To be honest I haven't thought about it that much but it has crossed my mind every now and then. I feel like my game is still good enough to play in future Ryder Cups. I think if you start thinking that way then you've sort of given up on the possibility of being a player. Being a captain is amazing, I'm sure, but there is nothing quite like being a Ryder Cup player. I am still in that frame of mind, so until that changes I don't want to really think about being a captain just yet, if that makes sense.

Just on that then, what do you make of Keegan Bradley being appointed 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup captain? Was that a shock to you?

Yeah it was a surprise, but he's played in a few Ryder Cups and a few Presidents Cups so he's got good experience there. I'm sure he's going to do the best job he can, and I hope he does a great job and finishes second!

Sergio Garcia was speaking exclusively to GolfMagic ahead of FORE Kids ATX, a two-day golf charity event founded by himself and his wife, Angela Garcia. 

Since its inception in 2022, FORE Kids ATX has raised more than $5m for organizations that improve the lives, programs and healthcare services for children and families in Texas. 

For more information, please visit the FORE Kids ATX website here.