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Sergio Garcia simply won’t give up on his Ryder Cup ambition. The game’s all-time leading scorer told European captain Luke Donald he was considering paying millions of dollars to make himself eligible for next year’s biennial fight and thereby exposing himself to abuse from famous fans new -yorks who first named him “Waggle Boy”. » twenty years ago.
Donald spoke to Garcia recently, with the Spaniard telling his long-time friend that he was considering whether to pay fines which would well exceed $2m (£1.5m).
The 44-year-old is the only rebel who is yet to pay the DP World Tour’s initial £100,000 penalty for joining LIV Golf in 2022 – despite an arbitration hearing ratifying the penalty – and after resigning of his membership last year, he would. will have to make a request to recover their card. But Donald thinks it’s a possibility.
“We’ve had some discussions, including on the phone a few weeks ago,” Donald said at a late-night “Year To Go” event in Manhattan. “He plans to come back; he will have to follow all the rules and regulations like everyone else and if he does, he will be eligible to compete in the Ryder Cup.
“He’s certainly very interested in doing that.” He understands all that it entails and once again, it’s up to him if he’s willing to do all of this. But we certainly had that discussion.
If the 2017 Masters champion were to qualify automatically, it would appear he would need to put in a spectacular performance to earn one of Donald’s wild cards. Not only could his presence be awkward in the team room – it’s fair to say the breakup was not amicable – but the heat he would generate at Bethpage Black could also persuade Donald that choosing a captain is far more trouble than it would be worth.
At the 2002 US Open, fans on the public course mercilessly targeted the young golfer then known as El Nino. In almost every shot, the galleries urged Garcia to “strike, Waggle Boy” as he went through a torturous process of gripping and gripping his club again. At the end of a few hectic days, spectators counted the movements out loud. Garcia eventually turned around, giving the crowd the middle finger. Unsurprisingly, he received a hostile reception there again during the 2009 US Open.
Bradley wants New York audiences to be loud and proud
While US captain Keegan Bradley acknowledged on Tuesday that abuse could be a problem by revealing there would be spotters on the ropes ready to eliminate anyone seen as having “crossed the line”, the prospect of nasty outbreaks of violence is all too real.
“It’s really important to us on the U.S. side that it’s a fair place to play for both teams,” Bradley said. “No one on either team wants it to get uncomfortable or weird. But listen, you walk into Yankee Stadium, you walk into Madison Square Garden, it’s a tough place to play. And Luke and the boys know it.
“I have complete confidence in the New York fans to cheer for their team proudly and loudly. I don’t want them to cross the finish line, to do anything that could affect the flow of the game, but the atmosphere is going to be difficult.
“They’re going to be loud, they’re going to be passionate and the PGA of America is going to do a great job of making sure everything is right.”
Bradley earned the winning point in the recent Presidents Cup and hopes to become a playing captain at Bethpage next year.
“Every vice-captain I pick will know it’s a possibility,” Bradley added.
“My vice-captains will all be more than capable of doing that and I hope one day they will all be captains, but we are so far from that. I’m really focused on being captain right now.
