Like many members of the LIV Golf setup, former Masters champion Sergio Garcia believes the breakaway league has a bright future at the top of the professional game.
Garcia joined the likes of Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson in leaving the PGA Tour to join the LIV setup in 2022. Since then the Spaniard and his fellow defectors have not looked back, with the breakaway league continuing to grow its presence within the sport.
Just over one year ago though, Garcia and co looked set to be given an opportunity to make a shock return to the PGA Tour, after commissioner Jay Monahan announced a framework agreement with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.
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It was expected that the agreement would see the hostilities between the PGA Tour and LIV end, with the two rivals aligning. Over the past 13 months, much has been said about what the deal will mean for the future of the game, with players on both sides having their say as a deal is still yet to be officially signed off.
One of those is Garcia, and the Spaniard has warned the league's doubters that LIV has no plans to slow down their momentum any time soon. "We’re here to stay for a long time,” he told the Evening Standard earlier this year. "People were thinking this was going to be two or three years and then gone. You’re seeing guys sign through to the late 2020s and maybe even the 2030s.”
Speaking at the Masters in April, Garcia was quizzed on whether he felt a divide within the game remained but played down any hostilities between those who play the game on both sides of the dispute.
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"I think the game is in a perfect spot," he said at Augusta National. "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 or Rory [McIlroy], no. We're not the future. We're the present of the game... I mean, obviously the more togetherness that you get, the better it is for everyone. 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 premiership and whoever your team is. Everybody can support whoever they have, and there's plenty of people to support it." Garcia is the current captain of Fireballs GC on the LIV circuit, and since joining two years ago has won a whopping $22.6 million in prize money.
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