Sergio wants back in but do Europe need him? – Irish Golfer Magazine

Luke Donald has confirmed that record points scorer in the Ryder Cup, Sergio Garcia is considering rejoining the DP World Tour to be eligible for next year’s contest in Bethpage Black.

Garcia resigned his membership in May 2023 after it was revealed he was the only one of seventeen players initially sanctioned for playing in LIV Golf events without permission. He did not pay his £100,000 fine.

Last month Donald hailed Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton’s decision to appeal their sanctions which allowed them to compete in the mandatory four DP World Tour events needed to be eligible for the 2025 Ryder Cup as a little win.

Rahm and Hatton’s potential inclusion on next year’s team seems to have been unanimously accepted by Europe’s big name players but it remains to be seen how murky the waters still remain after Garcia’s departure from European golf.

Rahm was a huge advocate of having his fellow Spaniard included for last year’s edition but that didn’t happen.

Speaking at an event in New York alongside US captain Keegan Bradley to mark less than a year to go to the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, Donald said: “He (Garcia) resigned his membership a couple of years ago but we have had some chats.

“He’s considering rejoining; he’d have to follow all the rules and regulations like everyone else and if he does that he will be eligible to partake in the Ryder Cup.”

Garcia hasn’t played in a Ryder Cup since the 2021 hammering at the hands of Steve Stricker’s USA in Whistling Straits.

A year later LIV Golf began with Garcia and fellow European Ryder Cup stalwarts, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson and Paul Casey all joining the Saudi backed tour. It was billed as a changing of the guard that needed to happen to allow younger players to step up and in Nicolai Hojgaard, Sepp Straka, Ludvig Aberg and Robert MacIntyre there was certainly a replenishing of talent last year.

Garcia, now 44, has played just eight Official World Golf Ranking events since 2022 with one top-10 in that time although he was T12 at the US Open this year.

His form on LIV Golf has been excellent this year with three runner-up finishes and a win as he finished third in the season long individual standings.

So there is form there if he was to regain his DP World Tour membership. But would there be room for him on the Ryder Cup team as a player if not as a vice captain?

Would Donald be more likely to look at 22-year-old Spaniard David Puig instead? Puig has been in the mix to win the Spanish Open and Alfred Dunhill Links in recent weeks.

Justin Rose cannot be ruled out from competing again next year.

One of the main criticisms of the European team from 2021 was that it had grown too old to compete with the fresh young guns of the USA but Garcia’s potential return to the DP World Tour might prompt Donald to call on one of the greats.

“Yeah, we chatted on the phone a couple of weeks ago,” Donald recalled.

“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.”