Sergio Garcia and other ex-LIV golfers can heed Rory McIlroy’s three-word truth

More than three years ago, as the PGA Tour struggled to adapt to the existence of LIV Golf, Rory McIlroy offered a simple principle. As Designated, Elevated and Signature Events emerged, players outside the Tour’s upper echelon worried that there might no longer be a place for them in the biggest tournaments.

“This tour was built on meritocracy. This tour was built on if you shoot the scores, you can move up the levels and play the biggest events. That’s not going to be taken away,” McIlroy said at the 2023 Genesis Invitational.

Today, those words can apply to LIV golfers too: it still comes down to the scores.

We will soon learn how many spots in the PGA Tour’s Championship Series, scheduled to debut in 2028, will be reserved for the top performers on the DP World Tour. It could be three, it could be five, but it almost certainly will not be the standard 10. Against that backdrop, the possible move toward LIV Golf 2.0 and the consequences of several players leaving have made the situation even more intriguing.

Suppose there are only three spots available across the Atlantic. Jon Rahm would presumably take one, and Joaquin Niemann another. Could Sergio Garcia, recently released from his LIV contract, claim the third?

If there are five spots, could Garcia beat fellow Spaniard David Puig and his youthful energy? A group of promising Spaniards will play the DP World Tour next season, many 15 to 20 years younger than Garcia; several were recruited by Garcia to play for his LIV team.

The path gets narrower with every additional LIV golfer entering the race. But the opportunity itself barely changes: you can get in if you shoot the scores. Lately, however, the scores have not been especially kind to Garcia.

This summer he attempted to qualify for The Open, shooting four under par in the morning before a bad lasagna derailed his afternoon. Two months earlier, he missed U.S. Open qualifying by two shots.

There was also the 2025 event in Macau where the top three finishers earned spots in that year’s Open. Garcia missed a three-foot putt on the final hole and was forced to qualify through his LIV results. It worked out in the end, but the episode was a reminder of how little “shoot the scores” exists at LIV events, where even last-place finishers still collect $125,000 checks.

That is not to say Garcia cannot make it happen. It is simply an acknowledgment that his pursuit will be fascinating. Garcia is a different breed: he has delivered repeatedly and has never lacked confidence. This week he declared his hope of making Luke Donald’s 2027 Ryder Cup team. That invitation will likely come only if Garcia’s scores are so strong that they force Donald’s hand.

But Garcia’s immediate future, and the way his legacy will be viewed, extends beyond that. In recent years, his contemporaries have strengthened their places in golf history in different ways. Justin Rose has contended in numerous majors and nearly won the Masters. Adam Scott is playing like one of the top 25 golfers in the world and has recorded five consecutive top-20 finishes.

All three are 46 years old, and they constantly mention one another when discussing their generation. Each has one major and countless worldwide victories. But only one left for LIV Golf, creating significant distance in how that generation is perceived. Now, at least it seems, Sergio will have a chance to prove his decision right on an arena people will actually be watching. He just has to shoot the scores.