With the Ryder Cup on his mind, Sergio Garcia is targeting a sensational return to the DP World Tour

Sergio Garcia roaring with delight after winning LIV Golf Andalucia

Exclusive: Sergio Garcia wants to play in the 2025 Ryder Cup – and he’s prepared to pay over $1 million to do it.  

It is mid-afternoon at JCB Golf & Country Club in Staffordshire and Sergio Garcia is reminiscing about some of the shots he hit when he won the Irish Open as a fresh-faced teenager.

“I remember the birdie putt on 13, a par 4,” he says, using his hand to demonstrate. “A nice, kind of longish, right to left putt. That was a good one. Then obviously I remember hitting the shot on the last, I think it was a 5-iron. There was water on the right and I hit it to five feet. An unbelievable shot. Yeah, I remember a bit.”

In truth, his memory is almost as impressive as the performance that saw him become the fourth youngest winner on the European Tour at 19 years and 176 days. It’s 25 years this month since that breakthrough victory and a little over two weeks since his last. It’s a fact that hasn’t gone unnoticed.

“I give myself a lot of credit for that,” he admits. “I’ve won in four different decades, not many people can say that. I heard some stats that Jack Nicklaus, the greatest player to ever play the game, won his first and last title 23 years apart. Mine is 25 at the moment so that’s got to mean something, right?”

While many of his contemporaries were battling the elements in The Open Championship at Royal Troon, the 44-year-old was busy celebrating his first individual victory in LIV colors on a beach in Mykonos 2,500 miles away. The bronzed tan suggests he made the most of his time off.

“We celebrated for sure, and the champagne was flowing,” he says with a broad grin. “It was nice to relax with the kids, with the family and some friends, and to just enjoy the moment because it has been a while.”

You have to go back to the Sanderson Farms Championship – when he was still a PGA Tour member – for the last time he experienced the sweet taste of victory. That was almost four years ago. A lot has happened since then. Bad breaks and big life choices. Twice he has lost in a sudden-death play-off this season. Three times if you include Singapore last year. He swore to himself that he wouldn’t make it four; he just didn’t expect to follow through on his promise in such dramatic circumstances.

Trailing by seven heading into the final round of LIV Golf Andalucía, Garcia shot a five-under 66 to force a playoff with overnight leader Anirban Lahiri. Only this time he wasn’t to be denied. He rarely is at Valderrama these days. He has now won there four times, including three in his last five starts.

“It’s funny, it’s just one of those courses for some reason that suits my eye,” he says, trying to make sense of it. “I love it, obviously. I feel comfortable there and things seem to happen for me. After losing a couple of play-offs this year, I was proud to give myself another chance. The cherry on the top was being able to win the play-off, on my favorite course, and with the Fireballs winning too. It was just amazing, an unbelievable feeling. Hopefully there’s more to come.”

His popularity at LIV can be seen by the number of players and caddies who have come up to congratulate him in the players’ lounge. What made it extra sweet was the team’s success, their fourth in the last 21 months. He takes his captaincy role very seriously and appears to be embracing the fraternal side as a mentor to Spanish duo James Puig and Eugenio Chacarra.

“Being a captain is something I’ve always enjoyed. I enjoy helping the younger guys, in the same way Jose Maria Olazabal and Seve looked out for me. I try to help them and tell them my experiences because when you’re 22 or 24, you think you know a lot, but you really don’t. They are very talented, obviously very young, but they are impressive when they’re in the right frame of mind.”

He stops short of bigging them up too much. You sense for their own good. He has a big say on player transfers and knows he may be forced into a decision about whether to retain both players should they fail to finish inside the top 24 at the end of the regular season.

There’s a lot to do and consider which is why he’s recently recruited a Director of Team Operations to alleviate some of the stress. He’s got other projects on the agenda, like the opening of his first major course design – The Torre Course at Terras da Comporta – in Lisbon next June, and still needs to sit down with the Head of Design at Stuburt later today to decide on the look and style of the team outfits for the Fireballs next season.

His own future as a LIV golfer is secure until the end of 2025, but everything points to him being in it for the long haul. He is excited by what the future holds and even talks up the possibility of a women’s division and each team having their own headquarters and academies in a different city in the world.

“It is a lot of fun being involved in those kinds of conversations… and the good thing about it is that even after I’ve finished playing or when I’m 60, I can still be involved in the team as a non-playing captain.”

Retirement remains a long way off yet and with three tournaments to go, it is reasonable to think he will pass through the $30 million barrier in on-course earnings as a LIV golfer before the year is out. He currently sits fourth, behind Tyrrell Hatton, Jon Rahm and leader Joaquin Niemann, in the individual standings and needs a big performance at LIV Golf Greenbrier to remain in contention for the $18 million jackpot at the Championship finale in Chicago in September.

He is understandably cautious about getting too far ahead of himself, though you sense he wants to prove a point after being cast aside by the Ryder Cup committee last year and refused an exemption into The Open Championship this year. He says he isn’t bitter and is still holding out hope of forcing his way into Luke Donald’s plans for Bethpage in 14 months’ time.

Speaking on the Rick Shiels Golf Show last November, he surprised everyone by revealing plans to rejoin the DP World Tour this season in order to save his Ryder Cup career. Ultimately, he missed the November deadline to do so, raising doubts from officials about the seriousness of his intentions. He tells us he is and doubles down when asked if he still plans on regaining his membership on the European circuit.

“Yes, definitely! I was going to apply last year but unfortunately the options that I was given were not very helpful. I mean, I was willing to pay my fines and all the money I had to pay, but if they are going to suspend me for like a year and I can’t play, then there is no point. Hopefully that will change. My plan is to apply for membership again, play the minimum number of events, and then we’ll see if I play well enough and have a chance to qualify for the Ryder Cup.”

Whether he would be welcomed back with open arms is perhaps a conversation for another time. Multiple reports claim he still needs to pay off close to $1 million in fines, as laid out in the Sport Resolutions verdict on players who breached the Tour’s regulations by competing in conflicting LIV Golf and Asian Tour events. The DP World Tour have refused to comment on the exact figure, but a spokesperson did confirm that he would need to serve a nine-week ban before he would be eligible to enter any events.

One thing that may help his cause is that he is still close friends with Luke Donald, who sent Garcia a congratulatory message after his comeback victory at Valderrama. We make the point that an all-Spanish partnership with Rahm would please a lot of fans, especially as they won all three matches together in Europe’s last away match at Whistling Straits. He responds in kind.

“I’d love to do it again. I think Jon would love to after the conversations we’ve had… but it doesn’t depend on us.”

Many armchair experts have long since concluded that team play brings out the best in him. The passion that can often boil over the brim doesn’t always endear him to fans or officials, but you can’t argue with his record which marks him out as the all-time record points scorer in the Ryder Cup. He’s not about to change his ways anytime soon.

“Well I am Spanish,” he says, laughing. “We run on hot blood. People love the excitement that I show when I do something right. It’s difficult to be flat and to not show emotion all the time. At the end of the day, if I wasn’t the way I am I wouldn’t have as many fans. That’s the way they connect to me.”

Anyone who saw his reaction to being put on the clock during Final Qualifying for The Open at West Lancashire will know he has lost none of his fighting spirit or patience since his controversial move to LIV Golf two summers ago. Age, he suggests, has mellowed him to a point, though he remains relentless in his desire to win. Sometimes too much.   

“Even though I’m not 25 anymore and my body doesn’t move the same way, I still love competing and I practice really hard,” explains Garcia, who is set to make his 100th Major start at the Masters next April. “I definitely feel like if I’m in the right frame of mind and playing the kind of golf I did at Valderrama, I can have a chance at winning another Major.

“At the US Open, I think I showed that and I felt like I competed really well. Even though I was three-over through four holes on both Saturday and Sunday, I still came back and had a really strong finish.”

In the past his putting has let him down in the big moments, but those who know him best say it is no longer the weakness it once was. He talks a lot about feeling more comfortable over the ball now and is excited by the prospect of gaming a smaller version of the Golfyr Maker putter he used at the start of the season.

It’s clear he hasn’t got it all figured out just yet, but recent results back up his belief that he still has lots to offer. Whether he can sustain his form for the next 12 months may well determine what kind of message he receives from Luke Donald next.

Stuburt is a British brand worn by many leading Tour players, including Louis Oosthuizen, Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell. In 2024, Stuburt became the first apparel brand to work with multiple LIV Tour Teams with The Fireballs, Stingers and Torque teams wearing bespoke apparel collections.

• I attended LIV Golf UK by JCB and this is what I thought

Michael Catling – Features Editor

Michael Catling is Today’s Golfer‘s Features Editor and an award-winning journalist who specializes in golf’s Majors and Tours, including DP World, PGA, LPGA, and LIV.

Michael joined Today’s Golfer in 2016 and has traveled the world to attend the game’s biggest events and secure exclusive interviews with dozens of Major champions, including Jack Nicklaus, Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm, Tom Watson, Greg Norman, Gary Player, Xander Schauffele, and Justin Thomas.

Get in touch with Michael via email and follow him on Twitter.