‘Thankful’ Sergio Garcia wins team and individual LIV titles at beloved Valderrama

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On Sunday at Valderrama, Victor Garcia stood in the left rough inside the ropes as his son, Sergio, made his second extra trip down the 18th at his favourite course in the world. Wearing a white bucket hat, Victor, a club pro who taught Sergio the game from age 3, curiously held an iron underneath his arm. It wasn’t a spare club from his son’s staff bag, rather a chunky, game-improvement 7-iron.

When you love the game as much as the Garcia family, you apparently take your own clubs to the course in support, in the same way fans lean towards the fairway or a green when a golfer they’re watching hits it offline. As Sergio two-putted for par to defeat India’s Anirban Lahiri, marking the Spaniard’s first worldwide victory in almost four years, and maiden title on the LIV Golf circuit, his old man did a dance somewhere between proud dad and Flamenco.

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“I love this place and I love the people and so thankful for what I achieved today,” Sergio said of the healthy Valderrama crowds.

Like his father, Garcia can never be accused of not caring about the game. He’s ridden the highs and lows of a brilliant, but rollercoaster, career. He earned hero status in the Ryder Cup with over 10 appearances and a record-points haul for Europe. He shed the unwanted tag of best golfer without a major when he won the 2017 Masters over Justin Rose in a playoff. At times, he’s made controversial comments and has had numerous disagreements with rules officials.

But boy does he love golf. What else could explain Garcia playing extra holes at LIV Golf Andalucia with the intensity of a Sunday back-nine at a major? What else could explain his early arrivals and late departures on the driving range at LIV events? What else could explain picking himself up after losing two sudden-death playoffs on the LIV circuit in 2024?

“It’s been great, but it’s been hard,” Garcia said after his $US4 million LIV win. “Losing a couple playoffs this year and being really close to [advancing through 36-hole final] qualifying for the British Open last week, which I was trying to make my 100th major, it’s been a rollercoaster. But I knew I was playing well.”

Garcia shot a five-under-par 66 on Sunday at the narrow, tree-lined, and difficult Valderrama course to ensure a playoff with Lahiri. Garcia then won with a par on the second extra hole while Lahiri made double-bogey 6 on the par-4 18th. Earlier, in 54-hole regulation, Garcia had bogeyed his last hole to fall to five-under, but then Lahiri missed a two-foot putt to win outright. Garcia’s team, Fireballs GC, also defeated Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC in a playoff – the first combined individual and teams playoff LIV has seen.

Garcia’s last tournament win came when he was still on the PGA Tour at the Sanderson Farms tournament during Covid-19 in 2020. That was his 11th title, while his 16 European Tour wins included three victories at the Andalucía Masters at Valderrama. He also finished runner-up three times at the famed Costa del Sol course, which hosted the 1997 Ryder Cup. It was so momentous that fellow Spaniard and two-time major winner, Jon Rahm, stayed around to congratulate his great friend and mentor.

“This win is very important; it’s huge,” Garcia said. “I keep telling everyone how difficult it is to win out here [on LIV]. At the beginning, everyone thought that we were all retiring [going to the lucrative LIV circuit] and there was no [meaningful] competition. But all these guys practise so much, and I’m practising more than I than I ever did because if I don’t I feel like I’m going to get left behind.”

Garcia doesn’t want to get left behind in the majors, either. When the exemptions ran out from his 2017 Masters victory in 2023, the 44-year-old was forced to tee up in 36-hole qualifying for the US Open and again this year. He was successful in both. Garcia finished an impressive T-12 at Pinehurst. Less than two weeks ago, Garcia came close but was unable to earn a spot in the Open Championship at Troon through the same avenue. It was his second straight year failing to qualify for the links major, where his results include second place finishes in 2007 (playoff) and 2014.

Rolling up his sleeves is what golf fans have respected about Garcia despite leaving the PGA Tour in acrimonious circumstances in 2022, when he had a run-in with a rules official at the Wells Fargo event. After an unfavorable ruling, he was overheard on the broadcast at TPC Potomac saying that he couldn’t “wait to leave this tour.” But Garcia’s hunger to play the game’s four biggest events remains when it would have been easy to walk off into the sunset with the massive signing bonus he was paid to go to LIV. There, he plays 14 54-hole tournaments a year – each offering $US25 million in combined (individual and teams) purses.

Teeing it up with amateurs, journeyman pros and tour players in final qualifying has humbled Garcia.

“I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging but I’ve been very fortunate to play every single major from the British Open in 1999 until 2023 [PGA Championship],” Garcia said. “Even though you realise majors are super important and it’s what we love to play, when you get the chance to play in so many in a row, you start you start forgetting how difficult it is to make it into those majors. This last year and a half, I’ve realised how difficult it is. It’s given me a different perspective on the majors on how much they mean. That’s why [at Pinehurst] I was trying so hard to get into the top 10 and qualify for the next year.”

Naturally, Garcia hopes LIV will eventually be given an avenue into the majors. Until then, he’s going to do exactly what he showed in bucketloads on Sunday at Valderrama. He’s going to care.

“If not, I’ll just keep playing qualifiers until my body says don’t,” Garcia said.