It has been an eventful month for Sergio Garcia. After narrowly missing out on qualification for playing in his 100th major championship at next week's Open at Royal Troon, Garcia took LIV Andalucia in a playoff over Anirban Lahiri, who missed the shortest putt imaginable to fall into the playoff situation.
Garcia, who finished a surprising T12 at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst in June, was 5 under on Sunday, which was good enough to get him to 5 under overall for the week. That did not look like it would be enough, but Lahiri did this on his last hole.
My. Oh. My. Absolute chaos ar Valderrama! Both an individual and team playoff coming! pic.twitter.com/ppQlCoIPQF
— LIV'r & Onions! (@LIVRandONIONS) July 14, 2024
The miss also dropped his Crushers team into a playoff with Garcia's Fireballs.
Garcia won the individual title in two playoff holes, while teammates David Puig and Abraham Ancer beat Lahiri's teammates, Bryson DeChambeau and Paul Casey, in the team portion of the playoff.
IT’S A SPANISH DOUBLE 🏆🏆@TheSergioGarcia gets his first LIV Golf individual win on home soil at Valderrama 🇪🇸#LIVGolf @fireballsgc_ pic.twitter.com/5r8h1M8yWI
— LIV Golf (@livgolf_league) July 14, 2024
"Very overwhelmed after making that putt on 18 to win after seeing my teammates win it as the team event," said Garcia.
"I mean, it was amazing. So much hard work, so many hours put in with my wife, with my dad, with Matt, my mental coach, with everyone, with Andrew, obviously with Neil, my new caddie. It's been hard -- it's been great, don't get me wrong, but it's been hard losing a couple of playoffs this year, being really close to qualifying for the British Open and trying to make it my 100th major, just missing close like 10 days ago. It's been a roller coaster for sure.
"But I knew I was playing well. I love this place. I love these people. So thankful to everyone for what we were able to achieve today."
Garcia attempted to qualify for The Open at Royal Troon at West Lancashire on July 2. After his group was put on the clock, he admitted that he was rattled and affected by it. Garcia then finished two shots out of a potential playoff to get into that 100the major championship.
Regardless, he rebounded and called the LIV Andalucia victory one of the highlights of his career. He then took it a step further, referencing Carlos Alcaraz's victory over Novak Djokovic to win Wimbledon and the Spain-England soccer match later tonight at the European Championships.
"I might be wrong, but I think that if the soccer team wins tonight, it could be probably one of the biggest days in the history of Spanish sports," he said. "Alcaraz winning, us winning both individually and as a team, and then the national team winning the Euro Cup. It would be amazing to have all those four things happen in the same day. It would be amazing."