Rahm gives stern answer on Garcia and Poulter returning to Ryder Cup

13 September 2023 , 22:49

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Rahm gives stern answer on Garcia and Poulter returning to Ryder Cup

Jon Rahm would like to see the likes of Sergio Garcia and Ian Poulter return to the European Ryder Cup team following their absence from this year's event.

Garcia and Poulter had announced themselves as two of the Ryder Cups greatest players over recent years, but gave up the opportunity to play in the matchplay event earlier this year. The pair became ineligible after opting to resign their DP World Tour memberships.

The decision to resign from the circuit in which they had spent the large majority of their professional careers came in response to being sanctioned by the DP World Tour for opting join the LIV Golf setup last summer.

The pair were not alone, with fellow former Ryder Cup stars Lee Westwood, Henrik Stenson and Paul Casey also opting to hand in their Tour cards. Whether Garcia and co would have been selected by captain Luke Donald this time around, however, remains to be seen.

However the European stalwarts will no doubt have been involved in some capacity in 2023 and beyond, having all been tipped to become vice-captains and captains of Team Europe further down the line. One man in particular who will be missed by Rahm is fellow Spaniard, and former Ryder Cup partner Garcia.

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Not many know the matchplay event better than the record-points scorer, and his countryman believes Garcia's experience would be invaluable to the European setup. "I think it would be really stupid of anybody not to lean on Sergio García's experience in The Ryder Cup," he said at this week's BMW PGA Championship.

Jon Rahm shared quite the bond with Sergio Garcia (Warren Little/Getty Images)

"I mean, he is the best player Europe has ever had, won the most points and has shown it time and time again. If he were able to be a vice captain, I absolutely would lean on him. Same as we are going to lean on Ollie [José María Olazábal] this coming Ryder Cup, right."

Rahm maybe in luck in the not too distant future, with the ongoing dispute between LIV and the DP World Tour and PGA Tour appearing to have come to an end after the latter reached a shock agreement with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) in June. It remains to be seen what the PIF deal will mean for professional golf, but the Masters champion is no doubt hoping it will see a return for Team Europe's exiled LIV players.

"I would like to see it [LIV players returning] but unfortunately we've seen some of those players give up their European Tour status where that's no longer a possibility. So I would like to see it but we don't know what the future holds, right. I think with this agreement or this possible union between the PGA Tour, DP World and PIF might change things a little bit."

Joshua Lees