Unification? Like soccer, Sergio Garcia says ‘there’s room for everyone’
AUGUSTA, Ga. – The desire for reunification of men’s professional golf has been a hot topic of discussion in recent months.
As for Sergio Garcia, he isn’t too concerned.
“I think the game is in a perfect spot,” Garcia said Tuesday at Augusta National, where a significant number of PGA Tour and LIV Golf members are competing against each other for the first time since last summer’s Open Championship. “The professional game, maybe it’s a little more separated, mostly because of the media, not so much because of the players. But I think the game itself is in a great spot. I think that we have the most amount of people playing the game, which is great, and people have to realize one thing, that the future of the game isn’t us. We’re not the future of the game. Neither me nor Rory, no. We’re not the future. We’re the present of the game.
“But the future of the game is those kids that are watching us play, that want to get into the game, that want to play and then maybe become professionals.”
Where those future pros will play – and what the landscape of the world’s top tours will look like then – is still to be determined. The Tour recently partnered with Strategic Sports Group, which plans to invest up to $3 billion in the Tour, though discussions are still ongoing between the Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which funds LIV.
Even if some sort of future agreement happens, it’s unknown what the pathway back for LIV players to the Tour, or a potential world tour combining the best players from both, will be.
Garcia seems like he’d be fine if a deal wasn’t reached, pointing to professional soccer, which has several successful leagues around the globe and only sees the best footballers in the world compete against other in events such as the Champions League, World Cup and Euros.
“I mean, obviously the more togetherness that you get, the better it is for everyone,” Garcia said. “There’s no doubt about that. But there’s room for everyone. I don’t think that’s a problem at all. The same way that I love watching Real Madrid and La Liga, you like to watch the Premier League and whoever your team is. Everybody can support whoever they have, and there’s plenty of people to support it.”
Garcia then brushed off a question about lingering tension between his fellow LIV players and the players who remained loyal to the Tour.
On Tuesday, Garcia played a practice round with Camilo Villegas, who is set to be the next player director on the Tour’s policy board.
“I mean, you guys love these things,” Garcia said, referring to reporters. “You keep building up these things, and there’s nothing. There’s nothing. You guys love to kind of dig and just kind of try to make it sound like we get in the locker room and we’re fighting each other and stuff like that. It’s not like that.”