24 August 2023 , 15:16
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Sergio Garcia believes fellow LIV Golf star Brooks Koepka is deserving of a Ryder Cup captain's pick by U.S. skipper Zach Johnson ahead of next month's event in Italy.
Koepka looked set to book a place in the team automatically on the back of his PGA Championship victory in May, catapulting him into second in the U.S. standings, but his lack of PGA Tour golf since however has seen him slip down the list. And following last week's final qualification event at the BMW Championship, Koepka's fate was sealed when he was replaced by Xander Schauffele and fell outside the top six and into seventh place.
This means the LIV star will now be relying on captain Johnson to name him as one of his six captain's picks ahead of the American team's trip to the Italian capital. One man who will not be at Marco Simone for the event is European Ryder Cup stalwart Garcia.
The Spaniard gave up his eligibility to compete in the matchplay event earlier this year, after resigning his DP World Tour membership due to his LIV Golf allegiances. This week Garcia has turned his attention to this Asian Tour's International Series, as he tees it up at the St Andrews Bay Championship.
And ahead of the event, the Ryder Cup legend was quizzed on whether he felt Koepka had done enough to make the American team. Whilst Garcia's allegiances is with the Europeans, the LIV star does believe the five-time major champion has earned the right to represent the U.S. in their title defence.
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Sergio Garcia will not represent Europe this year"I think that he's [Koepka] definitely played well enough to be a part of it," he said. But we don't have a say there or anything like that, first of all, he's part of the other team and second of all, Zach Johnson is the one that is making those picks. So, he'll pick whatever he thinks is best for his team."
Johnson's individual judgement may not be enough for Koepka though, with the American skipper casting doubt on his chances of picking LIV Golf players earlier this month due to the lack of opportunities to see them in action. Speaking to GOLF.com's 'Subpar' podcast, he said: "There hasn’t been much communication.
"I’m going to be fully transparent. It’s hard because I’m not able to witness what they’re doing and see their form, with the exception of four events a year. What Brooks has done this year, well no one’s surprised. I’m just glad he’s healthy." Koepka only has a few days to wait, with Johnson set to name his six picks following the end of this week's Tour Championship at East Lake.