Sergio Garcia, the most winning player in the history of the Ryder Cup and a pillar of the European team for two decades, will not be part of the list of 12 men with Black Bethpage this month.
He was turned upside down by the Snob insofar as he had to abandon the Ireland Open – a tournament to which he was eligible only because the DP World Tour did not prohibit Liv Golfers. And apparently, a tournament that he only wanted to use as Ryder Cup PREP.
“I felt like I was looking forward to being part of this team, and so I felt mentally, you know, mentally it was a bit difficult (to play in Irish open),” Garcia told Golfmagic.
Oh, Sergio, my friend. You may have been the last person on Earth to realize that you did not do this Ryder Cup team.
“I didn’t want to go there and not be fully committed to the tournament and all that,” he said, “so I just decided to take a little time and spend it with the family and do a few things, you know, things outside the golf and restart a little, recharge the batteries.”
Yes, he needed a break in the golf course and accomplished this by playing 18 holes with the tennis star Carlos Alcaraz instead. I bet that he did not drive Alcaraz from Flushing Meadows to Bethpage.
Let me take a moment to save: I was a fan of Sergio Garcia for most of my life. It is this kind of inexplicable fandom that develops during your years of training. You cannot decompose which specific parts of the game of a golfer you like at 6 years old. I knew however that Sergio was a really cool name, and you could say the same thing about Tiger, but where was the pleasure of rooting for a guy who won every week?
So, Garcia was the first favorite golfer I have ever had, and I looked on board while he left major after Major slips out of his reach. I watched when Garcia spat in the 13th hole during a ’07 tournament, and I thought of the effect of “… Well, it’s not great, but we all have our bad days.” Growing up, I quietly appreciated his breakthrough long expected at the Masters 2017, and when he signed up for Liv Golf, I was not surprised.
At the time, Garcia now missed consecutive Ryder Cups. Team Europe did not include any liver in 2023, but the rule was quickly changed when Jon Rahm rebounded for Liv at the beginning of 2024. Garcia was therefore technically eligible for the selection this year, because he paid his fines to return in good standing with the DP World Tour.
The only thing is why Captain Luke Donald would make a massive change compared to the winning team in 2023? When you combine his six captain choices with the six that qualified automatically, the 12 family names are exactly the same. The only difference is Rasmus Hojgaard, who self-qualified and replaced the twin brother Nicolai.
Without a doubt, Garcia has a big story in the game game. When you combine his Ryder Cup record with a green jacket and a championship of players, he should lift him in the fame of fame, even if his personality over the years has left many people. But that does not give him access to each Ryder Cup from now on forever.
HM, why did Donald snub this 45-year-old man who did not achieve the top 30 during a major this year and had not finished the first five on Liv since April?
Garcia is the only one to try to understand it.
