Sergio Garcia must pay over $1 million in fines before he can rejoin the DP World Tour according to the Telegraph.
The Spaniard, who has won 16 times on the European circuit, raised eyebrows when he said he’d return to the tour in 2024 when speaking on the Rick Shiels Golf Show last November, but in footage that was posted in February.
“I am going to be a member again of the European Tour next year,” he declared. “So I will play my four events or something like that, so if I do well in those, then maybe I can get myself in (the majors) somehow, so there’s a couple of ways.”
Garcia joined LIV Golf in 2022 and after a Sports Resolutions panel granted the tour the right to fine players for playing in conflicting LIV Golf events last April, he resigned his DP World Tour membership in May.
James Corrigan of the Telegraph has now reported the tour’s confusion with Garcia’s recent statement, given his outstanding fines that top $1 million and a nine-week suspension are yet to be addressed.
An insider said to the Telegraph that the 2017 Masters champion’s words were “bizarre” and he is “either in denial or he is completely oblivious to the hurdles he must clear to become a member again.”
A source also speculated to the Telegraph that Garcia is “probably hoping a deal is worked out in the current negotiations with PIF (the Saudi sovereign wealth fund that bankrolls LIV Golf), and there is an amnesty and a clear pathway back.”
Last June, the PGA Tour announced a framework agreement with the PIF in an attempt to end hostility between the entities and find a joint financial enterprise.
It could be that players such as Garcia, who was also suspended by the PGA Tour when joining LIV, share the fairways with players on the main tours again, but when golf’s brave new world arrives or what it will look like is unknown.
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Sergio Garcia: DP World Tour fines still stand
A source also revealed to the Telegraph that the rank-and-file DP World Tour players strongly feel fines must be honoured before players such as Garcia come back.
NCG understands that Garcia didn’t apply to regain his membership for 2024, missing the November 19 deadline. So he cannot be a member of the tour this year.
In September, the DP World Tour received an enquiry from Garcia in the form of a last-ditch attempt to play for Europe at the 2023 Ryder Cup when he offered to pay all of his outstanding fines.
A DP World Tour spokesperson provided this statement to NCG:
“We received an enquiry, but this entire discussion is a moot point. Even if Sergio Garcia was to pay everything he owes to the PGA European Tour, the simple fact is that he does not fulfil one of the essential, long-standing and widely known eligibility criteria for Team Europe: ie: he is not a member of the DP World Tour. He resigned his membership, of his own volition, in May, and is therefore not eligible to rejoin until next season.”
Garcia became the record points scorer in Ryder Cup history when playing for Europe at the 2018 edition of the event. He has made 10 appearances for the blue and gold team in his career.
He missed out on involvement in last year’s dust-up with the USA in Rome which was just the second Ryder Cup he hasn’t played in since 1999.
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