Sergio Garcia has weighed in on the debate surrounding LIV Golf’s recognition by golf’s peak world ranking body, saying the league’s qualified success still “feels” unfair.
The former Masters champion was speaking at The Grange ahead of LIV Adelaide, when he was questioned over the OWGR decision to only hand world-rankings points to the top-10 finishers of each event on the Saudi-backed tour.
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Slammed by LIV Golf as an “unprecedented” move that lacks “equality”, the development was still described as a positive for players by Garcia.
Nonetheless, he remains concerned how the restrictive conditions could hamper stars on LIV Golf who are looking to climb the rankings to gain passage into any of the world’s four majors.
“It’s definitely a step forward,” Garcia said.
“Is it fair? I guess time will tell us. It doesn’t feel like it’s totally fair…
“When one of us is winning, obviously that guy will make a jump and that’s great. But every time you’re 11th or worse, you’re getting a zero and you’re getting an extra event on your divisor. So that … can hurt a lot.”
He added: “It’s positive. I think that at the end of the day, it’s going to help some of these kids performing well to move up the rankings. Hopefully they play really well.
“But unfortunately only 10 guys can finish in the top 10. It would be nice if it was expanded a little bit farther as we probably think it should. But hopefully it’ll come soon.”
Sergio Garcia has weighed in on the debate surrounding LIV Golf’s recognition by golf’s peak world ranking body.Source: Getty Images
Garcia is ranked 369th in the world – having once been as high as No.2 – although as the 2017 Masters champion, he has lifetime exemption at Augusta.
The Spaniard has previously slammed OWGR rankings points as irrelevant to the majority of LIV players, given how far many of them have plummeted.
It’s worth noting his exemptions at the other three majors have expired.
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A key change that saw the OWGR finally recognise LIV Golf after nearly four years was the decision to move events from three rounds to four.
The move has caused a stir within the tour after star recruit Bryson DeChambeau made veiled comments last week about the conditions not being what players “signed up for”.
Asked about the format change, Garcia said it’s “fine”, but added other grumbles.
“When it comes down to prep, obviously it’s an extra day, so it makes the weeks a tiny bit longer,” he said.
“With travelling so much overseas, it becomes a little bit tougher to be able to get there with enough time to do prep as well as you might want to.
“But we’ve done it our whole lives, so we know how it is. But it’s good. It’s fine.”
His Fireballs teammate David Puig, however, was more positive about the shift, saying it better allows the cream of the field to rise to the top.
“Personally, I think for the better players of that week, I think it’s definitely better because you’ve got to perform better for an extra day to actually win the tournament or finish high,” Puig said.
“I think (with) the three-day, that first round was really important. If you started really well, you obviously had a chance to win, but you weren’t guaranteed to finish high. But obviously the chances of you finishing pretty high was easier.
“On the other hand, if you had a pretty poor first round, then you were kind of battling the next two days to crack the top 10 or top 15, whatever. I think it’s more fair and it’s just better.”
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‘I’D TAKE ANOTHER’
Meanwhile, Garcia was asked for his view on renewed commentary about the PGA Tour’s Players Championship being the world’s ‘fifth major’, and how it stacks up to similar claims about Australia being worthy of its own elevated event.
This week, Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee caused a stir by saying the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass might be the greatest tournament in the world.
“In every single way that a metric could be used to measure whether something is a major, the Players, to me, stands alone and above the other four major championships as not just a major. It is, in my estimation, the best major,” he said.
Garcia’s LIV Golf colleague Lee Westwood was stunned by the comment, posting on X: “I’m worried about Brandel. Someone check on him please”.
Asked for his own reaction, Garcia, a champion at Sawgrass in 2008, said he was hesitant to comment on other tours.
Nonetheless, he added with a smile: “I’ll be happy to claim a second major, obviously, if that happens.”
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Pressed on whether Australia deserves more recognition off the back of successful LIV tournaments in Adelaide, and last year’s bumper Australian Open at Royal Melbourne, where Garcia featured, the Spanish great was unequivocal.
“I mean, definitely, without a doubt,” he said.
“There’s so many places in the world that you have a great golf following. Obviously Australia is one of them. They’ve shown us the excitement and how much they love the game of golf.”
He added: “I feel like this event is a great event. You have some amazing young players (with) great potential. You have some stars that have been in the game for a while. You have some that are playing at a great level like Jon (Rahm) and some others.
“I think that the Australians should be super, super happy about what they have at the moment.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think they’ve had a consistent field like this one year in, year out, like (LIV’s) been doing for the past four years. That’s nice to have.”