NORTH PLAINS, Ore. — Players who are competing in the LIV Golf Invitational Series have provided a myriad of answers for their reasons to join the upstart league.
One answer Wednesday during a news conference ahead of the series’ second event at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club stood out from Sergio Garcia, an 11-time PGA Tour and 16-time DP World Tour winner who provided several reasons for his decision.
“I did it because I think this is the future of golf, because I think that this is a great opportunity, not only to do what I love, which is playing golf, but at the same time be able to spend more time with my family and watch them grow,” said Garcia. “I have a four-year-old and a two-year-old so it’s nice to watch them grow as much as possible. I’ve been doing this for 24 years, so traveling a lot and stuff, and make a great living out of it.”
But what is it about the 48-player, 12-team, 54-hole, no cut, shotgun start series that stands out to the 42-year-old so much so to call it the “future of golf?”
Simply put: It’s different.
“It brings something different to the game that we haven’t had for forever,” explained Garcia after his news conference alongside fellow captains Martin Kaymer and Lee Westwood. “Pretty much every tournament you play on tour is the same, so it’s nice to have something that brings different concepts together because you have the individual but at the same time you have the team event and it brings different relationships that you build and things like that and different focuses. For me as a captain and as a LIV Golf player, it’s obviously very exciting.”