Sergio Garcia sets sights on more Ryder Cup records as LIV Golf season gets underway

Could we see Sergio Garcia returning to the Team Europe fold? The Spaniard seems quietly confident

While the 2025 LIV Golf season begins under the lights in Riyadh, Sergio Garcia is looking ahead to September and dreaming of what might be.

The Spaniard has paid off his DP World Tour fines, following talks with his good friend and captain Luke Donald, and is on course for a record-equalling 11th appearance in the biennial showdown between Europe and the United States.

But while he is now almost $1 million out of pocket, it will be worth every penny if he is to slip on the blue and gold again.

“I love the Ryder Cup – everyone knows that,” Garcia told the Saudi news channel Al Arabiya.

“It’s my favourite event of the year in golf. I think that we’re members of the European Tour again, of the DP World Tour. That was the first criteria to be eligible to be a part of the Ryder Cup.

“Now it’s going to depend on how I play throughout the year. And hopefully, with the amount of tournaments that I’m going to play, hopefully if I play really, really well I can make it on my own.

“If not, then obviously I will depend on a pick from the captain. But we’ll see. The only thing I can do is play the best golf that I can play and then see where that kind of puts me.”

• Rick Shiels exclusive: Why I had to join LIV Golf

• Ryder Cup standings: Who’s headed to Bethpage?

• ‘No hiding place’: LIV Golf makes huge format change for new season

As well as LIV Golf’s 14 events, Garcia, who finished third behind Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann in the league’s individual standings last season, will play at the Masters, where he has lifetime exemption as a past champion, and the PGA Championship, to which he was extended an invite last month. He will also have a shot at getting into the US Open after the USGA announced a direct pathway for LIV golfers earlier this week.

Garcia had initially resigned his DP World Tour membership in May 2023 when an arbitration panel ruled that the Wentworth-based circuit could fine and ban any players teeing up on LIV Golf. But the 45-year-old is hoping to return to the BMW International Open in Munich, which takes place at the start of July before a three-week run that see The Open sandwiched by two LIV events.

If he does book a ticket to New York for the 45th Ryder Cup at Bethpage, Garcia – who is already Europe’s all-time leading points scorer – will match the appearance record held by Nick Faldo and Lee Westwood.

After that, he was all but guaranteed the captaincy when the Samuel Ryder Trophy returns to Ireland in 2027. But Garcia would rather stick a pin in that particular conversation – and the possibility of going up against Tiger Woods – to instead focus on another slice of playing history.

“Obviously there were some talks about maybe the possibility of me being the captain there,” he explained. “But my focus as of now is on playing and hopefully making a few more Ryder Cups if my game is good enough.

“And when that doesn’t happen, then we can try to focus on other things. But I don’t want to think about that until I know that I’m not good enough to be a part of it.”