Tag: European Team

Sergio Garcia insists his Ryder Cup verdict will be coming ‘in the near future’

Garcia has been on the winning side six times in 10 Ryder Cup appearances.

AUSTIN, Texas — The Ryder Cup holds a dear place in Sergio Garcia’s heart, and rightfully so. The passionate Spaniard is one of the most decorated players in the history of the competition, starting his career at 19 as the youngest Ryder Cupper ever back in 1999 (a record that still stands) and he’s boasted an outstanding 25-13-7 record in 45 matches.

But Garcia, along with the likes of former European Ryder Cup stalwarts such as Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Graeme McDowell and Martin Kaymer, was deemed ineligible to be selected to Luke Donald’s 2025 Euro squad because of the requirements to be a member of the DP World Tour, which runs the European side for the biennial matches. Garcia originally resigned from that tour in May.

The 44-year-old former Masters champion, who has played for LIV Golf since 2022, is intent on getting back onto the DP World Tour, and paid hefty fines of more than $800,000 to make amends. However, Garcia reportedly missed the deadline to apply for 2024 membership and is now hoping that current negotiations with PIF might allow a pathway back into the international competition.

“I look at it two ways. If I’m not able to play anymore it’ll be a little bit sad,” Garcia said while attending a fundraiser for Lions Municipal Golf Course, a municipal course in Austin where he resides with his wife Angela. “But at the same time, I look at it that I’ve played many, many times. I’ve been successful in it both individually and as a team. So that’s what I take from it.”

Sergio Garcia stands with his wife Angela on the green carpet prior to the Save Muny fundraiser at Austin City Limits Moody Theater. (Photo: Tim Schmitt/Golfweek)

Garcia has been on the winning side six times in 10 Ryder Cup appearances and has the most points (28 ½) of any European player. And Garcia hinted that a resolution to his situation was coming soon.

“Hopefully, things will kind of settle and, you know, we’ll see where everything sits at the end. And hopefully, they just give us the possibility — all of us — to be a part of it again if we’re playing well enough. We’ll see where that settles in the near future.”

Donald will return as the European Captain at Bethpage Black on Long Island, having led Europe to a 16½ – 11½ victory against the United States in the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome, Italy.

He will become Europe’s first repeat captain since Bernard Gallacher performed the role in three consecutive Ryder Cups in 1991, 1993 and 1995.

Donald will aim to become only the second captain to lead Europe to victories both home and away, following Tony Jacklin, who achieved the double at Muirfield Village in Ohio in 1987, retaining the Ryder Cup following his team’s victory two years previously at The Belfry, in England, in 1985.

Garcia would be a popular selection, if he found his way back onto the European side. Before he made the jump to LIV Golf, Jon Rahm openly lobbied for his fellow countryman, perhaps in a vice captain’s role.

“I think it would be really stupid of anybody not to lean on Sergio García’s experience in the Ryder Cup,” said Rahm when asked if he would like to see his friend back in the fold. “I mean, he is the best player Europe has ever had, won the most points and has shown it time and time again. If he were able to be a vice captain, I absolutely would lean on him.”

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Potential future captains for Team Europe at the Ryder Cup after trio of DP World Tour resignations

Here are 10 potential future European Ryder Cup captains, including a few new names and some old blood.

The prospects for future European Ryder Cup teams took a hit on both the player and captain side this week.

For a player or captain to be eligible to represent Europe, they must be a DP World Tour member. Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood resigned their memberships on Wednesday, and while all three may have been fringe players for the 2023 event in Italy, the trio were sure-fire future captains given their respective history at the biennial bash against the Americans.

Garcia leads the European side in total points scored (28.5) and boasts an impressive 25-13-7 record, while Westwood is the most capped player with 11 appearances and is tied for the third-most points scored (24) with Bernhard Langer. Poulter has been a chest-thumping thorn in the Americans’ side with his 15–8–2 record, 6-0-1 in singles.

MORE: McIlroy responds to Ryder Cup stars resigning from DP World Tour

While a player who has resigned membership could hypothetically request to rejoin the tour the following year if they still remain eligible in terms of an exempt category, each individual case would vary and be subject to any further sanctions which may be imposed for subsequent breaches of the Conflicting Tournament Regulation, as alluded to in a DP World Tour statement this week.

With players who made the move to LIV Golf seemingly out of the picture for the near future, here’s a look at some potential future European Ryder Cup captains, including a few new names and some old blood.

Rory McIlroy doesn’t want LIV Golf players on the Ryder Cup team, says European squad needs a rebuild

Tell us how you really feel, Rory.

There’s something inherently special about a national open, but it comes as no surprise that the attention this week at the 2022 Italian Open is more so focused on the future.

Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome plays host both to this week’s DP World Tour stop, as well as the 2023 Ryder Cup, September 29-October 1. A handful of hopefuls for Luke Donald’s European squad are in the field, including 2022 FedEx Cup champion Rory McIlroy, 2022 U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton, and local favorite and 2018 Italian Open winner Francesco Molinari.

Unlike at last week’s BMW PGA Championship, there’s a small presence of LIV Golf players in the field this week as most are competing at the series’ fifth event near Chicago, but that certainly didn’t keep McIlroy from fielding yet another question about the upstart circuit led by Greg Norman and backed by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.

Italian Open: Leaderboard and tee times

“I have said it once I’ve said it a hundred times, I don’t think any of those guys should be on the Ryder Cup team,” McIlroy definitively said during a Wednesday press conference.

Donald is joined in the field by vice captains Thomas Bjorn and Edoardo Molinari, who will undoubtedly be scouting out players for their six selections for the 12-man team that will challenge the United States in a years time. McIlroy even let slip that he, Donald and a few others would meet for dinner Wednesday evening for some team bonding and discussion on how the course could favor the Europeans.

“I think the European Team has a core of six or seven guys that I think we all know are pretty much going to be on that team, and then it’s up to some of the younger guys to maybe step up,” McIlroy said.

“But I think we were in need of a rebuild, anyway. It was sort of, we did well with the same guys for a very long time but again as I just said, everything comes to an end at some point. I think Whistling Straits is a good sort of demarcation, I guess.

“That’s all behind us. We have got a core group of guys but let’s build on that again, and instead of filling those three or four spots with older veterans, let’s blood some rookies and let’s get them in and build towards the future. I think that’s important.”

The United States rolled to victory at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, 19-9, back in 2021, defeating a European side that featured the likes of Bernd Wiesberger, Paul Casey, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter, all of whom have gone to LIV Golf (Garcia and Poulter were captain’s picks).

Ryder Cup Practice Round
Team Europe player Jon Rahm (left) hits his tee shot in front of player Rory McIlroy (right) on the fifth hole during a practice round for the 43rd Ryder Cup golf competition at Whistling Straits. (Photo: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports)

Using the 2021 side to speculate, one can assume the six or seven core players McIlroy referenced are himself, Jon Rahm, Tommy Fleetwood, Hatton, Hovland, Fitzpatrick and Shane Lowry. As for the rookies, the trio of captains will likely have their eyes on the Hojgaard brothers, Nicolai and Rasmus, who are both in this week’s field.

“I think anyone playing well this week will obviously be seen under a different light in a year’s time,” Edoardo Molinari explained. “Obviously still a very long way to go. Everyone will have to play very well to make the team or get a pick.”

“I think it’s very important, at least to have a good first look,” he said of McIlroy and Fitzpatrick playing this week. “I mean, as I said, we are going to make a few little changes but the bulk of the course will be the same, and even just for us to get their opinion on how the course is playing and what they would like to see and what they like to see on a golf course, how they play better in certain conditions or others, I think it’s just a benefit for everyone, and obviously it’s much appreciated that those guys were able to come here and play this event ahead of the Ryder Cup. Hats off to them.”

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Report: Luke Donald will replace Henrik Stenson as 2023 European Ryder Cup captain

The Englishman, a four-time European Ryder Cup player, is reported to take the helm for Rome.

Englishman Luke Donald will replace the sacked Henrik Stenson as captain of the European team in the 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy, according to a report in the Telegraph.

Stenson was canned two weeks ago after announcing he would join LIV Golf, the rival tour backed by Saudi Arabian royalty and clouded in controversy for that country’s poor record of human rights abuses and other atrocities. Stenson begins play on that tour today at Trump Bedminster in New Jersey. The longtime independent contractor has expressed disappointment in losing the honorary Ryder Cup job after breaking his captaincy contract that forbid him from playing on a rival tour by signing a lucrative contract with LIV Golf.

Donald – a four-time Ryder Cup player (2004, ’06, ’10, ’12), five-time PGA Tour winner and six-time DP World Tour winner who played college golf at Northwestern – was long rumored as a potential captain at some future Ryder Cup. The former World No. 1 served as a vice captain in the past two Ryder Cups and is playing this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic on the PGA Tour in Detroit.

According to the report, Thomas Bjorn and Edoardo Molinari will keep their gigs as vice captains in Rome.

While there was much speculation on who might replace the canned Stenson as captain, as of yet it doesn’t appear the top Euro players themselves are in any rush to jump to LIV Golf. Potential team members such as Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland and Matt Fitzpatrick, among others, have not joined LIV, with several having pledged a commitment to the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour. Most of the former European Ryder Cuppers who have jumped to LIV, such as Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, are seen by many as being well past their primes and unlikely candidates to have competed in Rome. Of those who have left to compete for LIV’s Greg Norman, only the aging Sergio Garcia and Paul Casey were considered potential contenders to compete in Rome.

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