Editor’s note: “In Case You Missed It” is a GGP+ feature that highlights a story from Global Golf Post‘s Monday magazine.
Whether you are watching reruns of “Friends” or “The Perfect Couple” on Netflix, the stories are fun, but it’s the characters who make it special.
Characters make us care.
The same goes for the Ryder Cup, which is why the possibility of Sergio García returning to the European team next fall in the thunderdome at Bethpage Black adds a dash of hot sauce to an already spicy recipe.
The Ryder Cup is golf’s “Game of Thrones,” clan against clan every two years, juiced by subplots and characters who provide texture to the competition in which every swing and every hole seems magnified in the same way each at-bat in the baseball playoffs feels critical.
It’s why the Ryder Cup sits apart in the game, separated by the emotion, the camaraderie, the flags, the songs, the match-play dynamic and, ultimately, by the participants.
That’s where García comes in.
Not unlike his fellow Spaniard Seve Ballesteros, García loves the Ryder Cup. When he chose to take LIV Golf’s millions, he banished himself from the event because he also abandoned his membership in the DP World Tour, a requirement for participation.
García has won more points – 28.5 – than any player in Ryder Cup history, and he’s been a part of six victorious European teams. But García wasn’t part of Europe’s victory in Rome last fall, and though captain Luke Donald’s team ultimately didn’t need him, García evidently still needs the Ryder Cup.
Donald revealed last week that García may be back in the Ryder Cup mix for next year if he can make peace with the DP World Tour. It’s still complicated because the issue involves money and a measure of pride on both sides, but the door is open rather than closed at the moment.
García would have to rejoin the DP World Tour, and the complicating factor seems to be whether he would be willing to pay the fines he has incurred (reportedly in the $2 million range) to become a tour member again. Spain’s Jon Rahm and England’s Tyrrell Hatton have appealed similar fines while playing the minimum number of tournaments to be eligible to compete at Bethpage should the financial penalties be resolved.
“We chatted on the phone a couple weeks ago,” Donald said of García. “He’s certainly very interested in doing that. He understands everything that’s involved, and again, the decision has to go to him, whether he’s prepared to do all that.
“But certainly, we’ve had that discussion, yes.”
“But if they don’t make things a tiny bit easier, I’m giving up some things, but they also need to give up a few things, and if we can find that middle group, then you will see me playing a handful of European Tour events. If not, then it will be a little bit tougher, but hopefully that won’t be the case.” – Sergio García
In a recent interview with GolfMagic, García made it sound as though he expects to rejoin the DP World Tour soon.
“To be totally honest, if things improve a little bit with the European [DP] Tour and the things that they ask for and the things that we are asking get close, the decision is 99 percent,” García said.
“But if they don’t make things a tiny bit easier, I’m giving up some things, but they also need to give up a few things, and if we can find that middle group, then you will see me playing a handful of European Tour events. If not, then it will be a little bit tougher, but hopefully that won’t be the case.”
The simple answer is for García to do what the tour rules require. He is not a victim in this because he made his choice understanding the potential consequences, but LIV golfers have been consistent in attempting to frame themselves as victims when they have been excommunicated from their former tours.
García won his first LIV tournament this year and finished third in the points race. Though he will be 45 for the matches in September, his presence could be meaningful to Donald’s team.
García’s emotion, which has worked both for him and against him during his career, burns like a bonfire in the Ryder Cup. Years ago, an American captain watched García work the gallery during a match and remarked to an acquaintance, “There’s not enough mustard in the world for that hot dog.”
The Bethpage Black galleries will be raucous and rowdy, and García could be at the center of the storm. When the U.S. Open was played there in 2002, García was a flash point for the crowd, which mocked his regripping tic that preceded every swing, counting off each time he reset his grip before starting his swing, at times counting in Spanish.
At one point, García flipped off the crowd in a week in which he also publicly complained that the USGA was playing favorites because he had to play in worse weather conditions than eventual winner Woods did during a rainy Friday.
García has played another U.S. Open and a PGA Championship at Bethpage since his fourth-place finish in the 2002 U.S. Open, and his relationship with the New York fans has improved. Being back at Bethpage wearing the European team colors, however, might feel more like ’02 than his more recent visits.
While García’s Ryder Cup status seems to be improving, that’s not the case for Phil Mickelson, who many figured would be the American captain at Bethpage where fans have embraced him through the years.
U.S. captain Keegan Bradley, who had a 4-1 Ryder Cup record playing alongside Mickelson in 2012 and 2014, suggested last week that his former partner – who finished 46th in LIV’s individual standings this year – will have no part in the proceedings at Bethpage Black.
Considering Mickelson’s pariah status given his sharp criticism of the PGA Tour from which he remains suspended, Bradley would create a distraction if Mickelson were part of the team
“Personally, I don’t think he’s really interested in doing it,” Bradley told reporters in New York last week. “I owe a lot to Phil, and I think he’s done so much for the American side of the Ryder Cup, but I’m not sure he’s looking to come in as a vice captain.”
This could have been Mickelson’s moment, and it may yet be García’s moment, characters in a story waiting to be told.