Sergio Garcia hoped to be one of European captain Luke Donald’s six captain’s picks on Monday. He was not, as Donald elected to run back 11 of the 12 members from his 2023 Ryder Cup-winning squad, with just Rasmus Hojgaard, who automatically qualified for the team, replacing his twin brother Nicolai.
With his Ryder Cup fate sealed, Garcia withdrew from this week’s Irish Open at K Club to process his disappointment with missing out on the team event.
“I felt like I was so looking forward to being a part of that team, and so I felt like mentally, you know, mentally it was kind of tough,” Garcia told GolfMagic. “I didn’t want to go there and not be fully engaged in the tournament and stuff, so I just decided to take a little bit of time off and spend it with the family and do a couple of things, you know, some things outside of golf and just kind of reboot a little bit, recharge the batteries.”
The 45-year-old Garcia is Europe’s all-time Ryder Cup points leader, but did not appear to be seriously considered for a spot on Donald’s squad. Garcia won LIV Hong Kong in March but posted just two top-10 finishes in the final 10 events of the breakaway league’s schedule. At the majors, his best finish was a T34 at the Open.
Garcia played in 10 straight Ryder Cups before missing out on the 2023 event following his defection to LIV Golf. In April of 2023, the DP World Tour won its legal battle against LIV Golf, with an arbitration panel agreeing the DP World Tour could sanction members who breached its conflicting tournament release policy. The DP World Tour announced shortly after that 16 of the 17 players who left for LIV had paid their fines and noted that Garcia was the only one who refused to do so. The Spaniard then resigned his membership, making him ineligible for the Ryder Cup.
“The way I’m playing, even if Luke offered me a pick right now, I would tell him no,” Garcia said at Quail Hollow. “Obviously, I need to get better. I need to get more where I was just before the Masters. You know, just show myself and show everyone that my game is solid, and it can help Team Europe. It’s as simple as that.”
But that tune changed at the Open Championship at Royal Portrush. Garcia noted several times over the past year that he and Donald have had “chats” about him making a return to the Ryder Cup. In Northern Ireland, Garcia pointed to his Ryder Cup experience as something the team could use at Bethpage Black. Something he believed would be a feather in his cap come selection time.
“I think I can bring things to the team — to any team that would probably need it,” Garcia said. “At the end of the day, when you’re out there on the course, it’s nice to have one of those experienced guys to put their arm around you and make you feel like don’t worry, I’ve got you, when people are shouting at you and screaming and wishing you all the bad things that you can think of. Yeah, it’s easy to kind of go get in a little shell and kind of get smaller. I was very fortunate to play with Jesper [Parnevik] in ’99 [at Brookline] as a rookie. He made it so easy for me. Obviously, we played great, but he made it so much fun and so easy for me to really enjoy the moment and enjoy the Ryder Cup, even being away as tough as the crowds might be.”
Then, there was also the Jon Rahm of it all.
Rahm was one of Donald’s six captain’s picks on Monday, along with Shane Lowry, Sepp Straka, Viktor Hovland, Ludvig Åberg and Matt Fitzpatrick. Rahm and Garcia paired together during the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. They were the lone bright spot for Europe, going 3-0-0 in a 19-9 defeat.
Garcia hoped the possibility of rekindling that dynamite pairing would work in his favor.
“You would think so,” Garcia said when asked if his partnership with Rahm would be beneficial at Bethpage. “Jon and I are good friends. We played well when we played at Whistling Straits. I was watching a few YouTube videos this week on our matches there. We had a great time. We gel nicely together. Obviously, it’s easy to play with Jon because he’s so good. It’s still a couple months to go.”
Garcia told GolfMagic that his call with Donald was “fine” but “not that call he wanted.”
Donald will bring Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood, Robert MacIntyre, Tyrrell Hatton, Rasmus Hojgaard, Shane Lowry, Sepp Straka, Viktor Hovland, Ludvig Åberg, Jon Rahm and Matt Fitzpatrick to Bethpage Black.
The Ryder Cup begins Sept. 26.
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