Graeme McDowell would love to see Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia pair up for Team Europe at this year's Ryder Cup in Rome.
McIlroy and Garcia were once very close with McIlroy serving as a groomsman for Garcia's wedding in 2017, but the relationship worsened when Garcia joined the Saudi backed rebel golf series LIV last year.
Tensions have cooled since the deal between the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and the PGA Tour was revealed earlier this month, and Garcia insinuated at a press conference this week that the press conference was back on track.
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Fellow LIV star McDowell also drew the ire of McIlroy after joining the Saudi league a year ago, and while his relationship with McIlroy may not be what it once was, he is happy to see Rory and Sergio back on better terms.
So much so that in a recent interview with Bunkered, McDowell revealed that he would like to see McIlroy and Garcia pair up at this year's Ryder Cup.
"From a playing personnel point of view, definitely a couple of lads are here on LIV, you know, certain Spanish individual who's still pretty good at golf. You know, maybe we will see the Garcia-McIlroy bouncing down the fairways in Italy. That would be cool," said McDowell.
“And I don't think we should ever rule that out. If one of our European players goes to Hoylake in a few weeks time and wins a Claret Jug, I mean, should they play for Europe in the Ryder Cup this year? Of course, the should. Of course, they should.
“At the end of the day, it's Europe versus America - a European-born player versus an American born player, and it was never supposed to be tour against tour."
The relationship between McIlroy and Garcia reached its nadir at the end of 2022 when the four-time major winner revealed that the pair had a heated text message exchange.
"He [Garcia] was basically telling me to shut up about LIV, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,” McIlroy shared in an interview with the Irish Independent at the time. "I was pretty offended and sent him back a couple of daggers and that was it."
But the feud between the duo appears to be at an end with Garcia revealing earlier this week that he had 'got a friend back' in the aftermath of the historic merger of LIV and the PGA Tour.
Asked in a press conference ahead of LIV’s event in Valderrama this week if the deal was good news, Garcia said: “I think so. I think it’s great.
“I think in my personal opinion I wish this would have happened a year and a half ago when we all started, and it would have been better for all of us. I really think so.
“To give you an example – it wasn’t because of the merger, but the US Open was a great event for me.
“I feel like I played well, but more than anything because I gained a friend back, a friend that I kind of felt like I lost in the last year or so. We talked and we had a great conversation, and I feel like I have that friend back and that to me means a lot.”
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