Sergio Garcia Disputes Narrative That LIV Golfers 'Don't Want to Play Golf Anymore'
POTOMAC FALLS, Va. — In 1996, Sergio Garcia played in his first major championship, the British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club.
The then-16-year-old missed the cut by six shots on a course where Tom Lehman would win his only major title.
On Monday Garcia, now 43, qualified for his 24th consecutive U.S. Open at a 36-hole affair in his adopted home of Dallas, firing back-to-back rounds of 66 to qualify for his 97th major championship.
“I feel like I've been playing well,” Garcia said. “Obviously working hard, not only on the game, but you know, mental side and everything,”
After finishing second to Talor Gooch in a playoff in Singapore at the end of April, the Spaniard was so intent on playing well in the qualifier that he played practice rounds at the two qualifying courses at the Northwood Club and Bent Tree.
“I had planned from the beginning of the year to play in the U.S. Open qualifier,” Garcia said on Wednesday while preparing for LIV Golf's event this week outside Washington, D.C. “Some of the media, they think that we don't want to play golf anymore. I mean, we love playing golf and we might be doing it on a different tour, but that doesn't change the desire and and the will to play as well as we can.”
Graeme McDowell, the 2010 U.S. Open champion, tried to qualify in Dallas as well but bogeys on the last two holes, including missing a 6-footer on the final hole, pushed him out of a playoff.
It was the second year in a row that the Ulsterman missed qualifying by a shot.
“I think it's awesome to see a guy like Sergio Garcia getting his hat in his hand and showing up at final qualifying for the U.S. Open and getting it done. I think it says a lot about who he is,” McDowell said. “I think it's important that people realize the narrative that they read that we don't care about the game anymore, that we're playing out here on LIV that we're just out here taking a paycheck. And we're not concerned about the sport—we care deeply about the sport.”
Garcia has played Los Angeles Country Club, the site of the U.S. Open, one time about six years ago but believes it will look a little different than his last trip.
His only competitive preparation for it is this week's LIV Golf event at Trump National Washington D.C., which is an hour’s drive from the nation’s capital.
Garcia also plans on trying to qualify for the 151st Open Championship at Hoylake in July.
Four separate qualifiers will be on the Tuesday, July 4, during the week of the LIV Golf London event, the week after LIV Golf Valderrama in Spain.
Garcia has decided to play at West Lancashire, a traditional links course where Open winners Harold Hilton and James Braid had a hand in the design.
McDowell was at first uninterested in trying to qualify for the Open until he learned that Garcia was going to attempt.
“If Sergio is going, maybe I need to get my act together and get there,” McDowell said with a wry smile on his face. “I think respect must be given to Sergio. I mean, guy's one of the greatest players of all time, potentially. And like I say, to get your hat in your hand and go out there and get it done.”