Ian Poulter has revealed that he wouldn’t consider taking Sergio Garcia’s approach to a potential return to the European Ryder Cup team – namely, paying the fines necessary to allow him to rejoin the DP World Tour and become eligible.
The LIV Golf player gave his opinions in an extensive interview conducted by Sports Illustrated’s Matt Vincenzi. He began by offering his thoughts on the fact that, as things stand, he won’t become Team Europe Ryder Cup captain anytime soon.
He said: “As it stands today I’m currently not a member of the European Tour so I am not eligible to be able to become captain or vice captain, so until that position changes you can only really play the hypothetical game of how I really feel up until that point."
It was my pleasure to speak with Ian Poulter of @MajesticksGC Full interview here: pic.twitter.com/sfudVfBhjFNovember 25, 2024
He then moved onto the subject of fellow LIV golfer and Ryder Cup legend Garcia, who has rejoined the DP World Tour for the opportunity to be considered for the 2025 match at Bethpage Black.
Poulter is convinced Garcia has what it takes to build on his record as the Ryder Cup’s leading points scorer, but he’s less sure of his chances of making the 12-man team.
“I haven’t spoken to Luke Donald, to be honest," he explained. "I don’t know if Luke has had any conversations with Sergio at length.
“Obviously, Sergio finished third last year on the Order of Merit in LIV which obviously shows what Sergio’s still capable of but as far as his options within the chances of a) playing his way into contention to be in the top six, to make an automatic pick or how much will he be considered by Luke and what would it take for that to happen.
“I don’t know how many tournaments Sergio is earmarking to play in Europe so I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
Poulter, who has made seven Ryder Cup appearances, then questioned the merit of taking Garcia’s lead considering the huge amount of money due to the DP World Tour in fines to even be considered. He added: “My part on that is it’s going to be expensive for Sergio to be eligible to play in that Ryder Cup.
“He would have had a $1m worth of fines paid already. He’ll play 14 LIV events next year, five of them are fineable of $100,000 a week so he would have spent, or LIV would have spent $2.4m to give him that freedom to have a chance. That’s a lot of money spent to try and make a team.”
Poulter also confirmed that LIV golfers have their fines covered by an indemnity policy, but despite that, he said wouldn’t be prepared to see his fines paid. He said: “I personally wouldn’t pay because I felt it was unjust at the time to be fined $100,000 a week because it makes no sense to me at all.
“My stance has never changed. I’ve played golf all over the world. I was never paying fines by Europe for when I played outside of Europe on other tours around the world so my stance still today is exactly the same stance as I had three years ago.”
On the subject of the Ryder Cup and money, Poulter also addressed a report that members of the US team will receive a $400,000 payment for appearing at the match, and he pointed out that Garcia’s determination to make the European team despite the huge financial burden is in stark contrast to the US position.
He said: “Well, Sergio’s going to pay $2.4m to play, so the Americans want paying and Sergio’s willing to pay $2.4m to try and play. It’s two very big things, right, two opposite ends of the scale so I think Rory [McIlroy] and Shane [Lowry] said it, that it’s been an incredible privilege to be able to have that honor to play and I think they’re right."
