Garcia waives appearance fee after embarrassing DQ
Sergio Garcia will return to the scene of his infamous disqualification at the Saudi International in 2020, but this time he’ll have to work for his money
Sergio Garcia will return to play in the European Tour’s Saudi International event in 2020, the scene of his disqualification for “serious misconduct” in 2019.
The Spaniard saw red at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club in February when he became frustrated and damaged several greens with his putter.
There were calls for Garcia to be punished immediately following his DQ and even some of his fellow competitors openly criticised him – Brooks Koepka said he was “acting like a child”.
Sergio Garcia’s meltdown in a Royal Greens bunker a day prior to his disqualification for vandalism work on five greens. Story by @SkySportsGolf fills in details. Translations welcomed! https://t.co/UoGmPtTOz4 pic.twitter.com/dQMDN7y2PC
— Geoff Shackelford (@GeoffShac) February 4, 2019
The 39-year-old apologised for his actions shortly after his dismissal and it seemed that, apart from some damage to his reputation, he had come out of the situation without any real sanctions.
He escaped a suspension from the European Tour and was able to keep the entirety of his appearance fee, which was said to be around £500,000. But it appears that while the tour chose not to suspend him, there were some conditions agreed.
Garcia will not receive any appearance money this time around and it looks as if, even if he didn’t want to tee it up in the second playing of the event, he doesn’t have a choice.
Just days ago Jon Rahm became the first Spaniard since Seve Ballesteros to win the European Tour’s Race to Dubai (Order of Merit), a feat that Garcia has never been able to complete despite a long and successful career.
Speaking about Rahm’s success, The Telegraph reported that he said: “What he has achieved in the past three or four years is absolutely phenomenal.
“I was close to being European No. 1 a few times so I know how tough it is to get over the line. For him to do it so soon after turning professional shows how good he is. His talent is off the scale, an it is only a matter of time before he is world No. 1 as well as European No. 1.”
Joe Hughes
Tour editor covering men's golf, women's golf and anything else that involves the word golf, really. The talk is far better than the game, but the work has begun to change that.
