Is Sergio Garcia Now a Ryder Cup Contender

Spain's Sergio Garcia hopes winning the LIV Golf Hong Kong title will help persuade Europe captain Luke Donald to pick him for the 2025 Ryder Cup. The Spaniard shot an impressive seven-under-par 63 to finish 18 under, sealing victory by three strokes from South Africa's Dean Burmester.

Last November, Garcia rejoined the DP World Tour for the 2025 season, and settled fines reportedly worth £1m imposed on him by the tour for his defection to play LIV events, to make himself eligible for Ryder Cup selection.

Garcia, 45, who is the Ryder Cup's record points scorer, wants to match Lee Westwood and Sir Nick Faldo's European record of 11 appearances at the biennial competition in New York later this year. 

After his win in Hong Kong, Garcia said: "We've been in touch, so I know that he [Donald] is keeping an eye [on me]. The only thing I can do is keep playing good golf. I just want to help the European team like I've tried to do every single time I've been a member of that team. Hopefully he will think I'm good enough for it."

Garcia is outside the world's top 400 as LIV events do not carry ranking points, so would have to be one of Donald's six wildcard picks.

Donald said last year he had held talks with Garcia over the Ryder Cup, which will be held at Bethpage Black from 26-28 September.

Garcia's victory at the Hong Kong Golf Club in Sheung Shui came after he started the final day tied at the top of the leaderboard with England's Paul Casey and American Peter Uihlein.

The former Masters champion eagled the par-five third then sunk four straight birdies from the eighth hole to the 11th and could not be caught. It was Garcia's second LIV title following his victory in the LIV Golf Andalucia last year.

Player Profile

Sergio Garcia was born in Castellon, Spain, on January 9, 1980.

He turned professional in 1999 and played on the DP World Tour and PGA Tour prior to joining LIV Golf in 2022.

He has won 38 international tournaments as a professional, most notably the 2008 Players Championship and the 2017 Masters.

He was also the Chairman of Spanish football team CF Borriol.  

Garcia has spent much of his career in the top 10 of the world rankings, including more than 300 weeks in the top 10 between 2000 and 2009, and more than 450 weeks in the top 10 in total. 

He reached his highest career ranking, second, after winning the HSBC Champions in November 2008. 

Garcia has career earnings of more than $50m.

As a player, he is noted for strong iron play and accuracy from the tee. 

In the Ryder Cup he competed in ten of the 11 matches played during his professional career, cumulatively earning a record 28.5 points during those matches.

Garcia began playing golf at the age of three and was taught by his father, Victor, who is a club professional. Garcia won his club championship at age 12. Four years later, he set a record as the youngest player to make the cut at a European Tour event, the 1995 Turespana Open. 

He turned professional in 1999 after shooting the lowest amateur score in the 1999 Masters. 

His first title on the DP World Tour came in his sixth start as a professional, in July 1999 at the Irish Open.

He first achieved worldwide prominence with a duel against Tiger Woods at the 1999 PGA Championship, where he finished second, losing by one stroke. Late in the final round, Garcia, with his ball up against a tree trunk in the right rough on the 16th hole, and the green hidden from view, swung hard with his eyes shut and hit a low curving fade that ran up onto the green. As the shot travelled, he sprinted madly into the fairway and then scissor-kick jumped to see the result. Shortly afterwards he became the youngest player ever to compete in the Ryder Cup.

There were many near-misses in majors before he finally beat Justin Rose to win The Masters in 2017 and he has also been involved in several controversies throughout the course of his career.

He has won 11 times on the PGA Tour and 16 times on the DP World Tour.

Garcia signed with LIV Golf in 2022 and finished in the top 10 in the individual standings in that inaugural season. He was 17th in 2023 and last year finished third behind Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann after winning in Andalucia.

He averages 297.2 yards from the tee, hits 75.40% of fairways and finds 72.48% of greens in regulation. He averages 27.9 putts per round, gets up and down from the sand 71% of time and averages 5.22 birdies per round.