With his eye on a return to Europe’s Ryder Cup team, Sergio García has applied for reinstatement to the DP World Tour, according to a report by Ben Parsons on the British website Bunkered.com.
García, 44, who defected to LIV Golf in 2022 and resigned his DP World Tour membership last year, paid fines totaling more than $1 million and will serve an undisclosed tour suspension before the Spaniard would be eligible to compete on his home tour in 2025. He has won 11 times on the PGA Tour, including the 2017 Masters, and added 15 more titles on his home European-based tour. Before his victory in July at LIV Golf Andalucía in Spain, García had not won in five years and tumbled out of the top 400 in the world ranking.
Since his Ryder Cup debut as a 19-year-old in 1999 at Brookline, García has proved to be the Americans’ biggest nemesis in the biennial matches. He has racked up a record 28½ points and played on six victorious teams in 10 editions in helping tilt the formerly American-dominated exhibition in Europe’s favor.
“He thinks he can play,” captain Luke Donald said a few weeks ago when asked about García. “He wants to play. … He understands everything that’s involved.”
If García were to complete a longshot bid and make Europe’s team, he would return to New York’s Bethpage Black for the September 26-28 matches. He was endlessly heckled at the Long Island muni for a maddening waggle-and-regrip pre-shot routine during an eventual fourth-place finish behind winner Tiger Woods at the 2002 U.S. Open.
Despite wearing a figurative bull’s-eye for New York’s uninhibited fans, García has compiled a solid record at Bethpage Black over the years: T10 at the 2009 U.S. Open and T3 at the 2012 Barclays before missing the cut at the 2019 PGA.
Don’t get your hopes up just yet, New Yorkers. García has a long climb from zero points on Europe’s Ryder Cup standings to make the team, but he has taken the first step. READ MORE
The first 18 competitors have been named for the 2025 Team Cup, a match-play exhibition designed to help Europe’s potential Ryder Cup players prepare for next year’s biennial match against the Americans. The Continental Europe and Great Britain and Ireland teams named nine players each for the January 10-12 matches to be held at Abu Dhabi Golf Resort in the United Arab Emirates. The final member of each team will be selected after the DP World Tour’s Nedbank Golf Challenge ends on December 8. READ MORE
Trump Turnberry is no closer to landing a return engagement with the Open Championship, despite resort owner Donald Trump’s recent election to the U.S. presidency. Martin Slumbers, the outgoing CEO of the R&A, which manages golf’s oldest major championship, told Golf Channel: “We will not be taking any events there until we are comfortable that the whole dialogue will be about golf.” Turnberry, which lies on the Firth of Clyde on Scotland’s west coast and renowned as one of the British Isles’ top courses, last hosted the Open in 2009. It hosted the Women’s Open in 2015, one year after Trump bought the club and one year before he was elected to his first presidential term. READ MORE
Oisin Keniry, R&A via Getty Images
TAP-INS
The PGA Tour Policy Board approved sweeping changes to tour membership that will make golf’s most elite fraternity even more elusive, tightening eligibility and reducing field sizes, beginning in 2026. The anticipated revisions were outlined by Ron Green Jr. in a story earlier in the week in GGP+. Adjustments to the FedEx Cup points system will take effect in January. READ MORE
Adela Cernousek, the reigning NCAA women’s champion from Texas A&M, will forgo the spring season of her senior year and turn professional. Cernousek, of Antibes, France, holds Epson Tour status for 2025 and is entered in the 90-hole LPGA Final Qualifying on December 5-9 at Magnolia Grove in Mobile, Alabama, where she will attempt to be among the top 25 and ties to earn LPGA Tour cards for 2025. Cernousek, at No. 10 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, was joined by two other top-10 players – No. 3 Julia Lopez Ramirez of Mississippi State and No. 8 Zoe Campos of UCLA – in turning pro ahead of LPGA Final Qualifying. READ MORE
What the RSM Classic lacked in star power – No. 5 Ludvig Åberg, the defending champion, and No. 24 Brian Harman were the only players ranked among the world’s top 30 – it made up for in celebrity buzz. Caitlin Clark and Tom Brady, breakout performers in women’s basketball and pro football, respectively, participated in the pro-am tournament before last week’s PGA Tour season-ending event at Sea Island Resort on St. Simons Island, Georgia. Zach Johnson, speaking about his fellow Iowan and pro-am partner Clark who recently was profiled by Jeff Babineau in GGP+, said of her rapport with fans: “She gets it.” READ MORE
TGL, the high-tech made-for-TV league that intends to launch in January, is talking with the LPGA about adding a mixed-team format, according to a report by David Rumsey in Front Office Sports. TGL is backed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy and will feature many of the PGA Tour’s biggest names. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon
