Former Masters champion Sergio Garcia has made it clear that he doesn’t regret leaving the PGA Tour to join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series. Now, he says he intends to quit the DP World Tour because he is no longer “feeling loved” in Europe.
“I am quite clear about what I am going to do with the European circuit. Probably leave it,” Garcia told Spanish reporters after the Open Championship on Sunday. “I want to play where I feel loved, and right now in the European Tour I am not feeling loved.”
If he does leave the DP Tour, that will make Garcia ineligible to play in the Ryder Cup, which would bother him but not so much that he might reconsider.
“I am very happy with what I have achieved, and I am going to try to enjoy it,” said Garcia. “I will play less and will spend more time at home. If I cannot play any more major, that’s the way it is, but it is not something that bothers me a lot. I am feeling sad because of the Ryder Cup but right now in the way I am playing I won’t be selected.”
Like so many other LIV Golf competitors, Garcia has been fielding criticism from other golfers, including those they might have considered friends until recently. His former European Ryder Cup captain, Thomas Bjorn, has been an outspoken critic of LIV Golf, and that has had an impact on Garcia.
“When Thomas Bjorn — former Ryder Cup captain — came to the BMW Championship and told us: ‘We don’t love any of you and all players say so.’ … I already have an age and had enough suffering to be enduring nonsense like that,” Garcia said. “That’s not pretty. I have given more than half my life to the European Tour and I wanted to continue playing it, but I am not going to be where they don’t want me.
“It is very sad to receive such treatment for a personal and professional decision. … I feel sorry for the Ryder Cup, my resignation is not official, but I’m going to make it effective. I have what I have and I am very happy with it, and I want to enjoy it to the fullest. I will play less; I will be more at home.”
[ESPN]