Money can’t buy happiness, Sergio! Garcia admits he had a ‘little hole’ in his life from Rory McIlroy LIV fallout after his wife helped pair patch things up: ‘I don’t want to lose my friends’
Sergio Garcia has spoken out on his relief after repairing his friendship with Rory McIlroy, with the two falling out when he accepted $50m to join LIV Golf.
McIlroy was a groomsman at Garcia’s 2017 wedding and they competed together on Ryder Cup teams but things fell apart when the Spaniard joined the Saudi-backed breakaway tour.
Garcia said in February that McIlroy was ‘lacking maturity’ over the row but they healed their rift at the US Open in June when McIlroy bumped into Garcia’s wife, Angela.
Now, speaking to The Times in England, Garcia said: ‘I love my friends and I don’t want to lose many.
LIV Golf’s Sergio Garcia has spoken out on repairing his friendship with Rory McIlroy
The close friends fell out when the Spaniard ditched the PGA Tour for Saudi’s LIV Golf
The golfers patched things up when McIlroy bumped into Garcia’s wife Angela at the US Open
‘It was very important to me and, I think, for Rory too. It felt like there was this little hole left and we were both a bit sorry for everything that happened.
‘I’m very happy with where we’re headed now and the relationships we are getting back. I just wish it hadn’t taken so long to get here.’
Garcia first spoke of repairing things with McIlroy at a LIV event in Valderrama, saying: ‘Angela and Rory said “Hi” to each other at the US Open. And there was a nice text from Rory to her. That kind of gave me the go-ahead to reach out to him.
‘I had been thinking about it for a while but I wasn’t totally sure about it. And when I saw that reaction from him, he kind of gave me the go-ahead to get closer.
‘We had a great chat. It was two friends that wanted to get back to that spot. That’s the most important thing.’
The waving of the white flag between McIlroy and Garcia coincided with the ceasefire to golf’s civil war after the PGA Tour performed a massive U-turn on its stance with LIV Golf and announced a bombshell merger with the Saudi-backed series and the DP World Tour.
The agreement framework for the merger, that sees Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which backs LIV, come together with Jay Monahan and Co. to unite the world of golf under ‘one umbrella,’ was submitted to the US Senate earlier this week.
‘I wish this would have happened a year and a half ago when we all started and it would have been better for all of us,’ Garcia said at Valderrama. ‘I really think so.’
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