Sergio Garcia Of All Players May Be The Voice Of Reason Amid Golf's Major Divide

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Sometimes, the unexpected happens, and Sergio Garcia presenting himself as a voice of reason amid the largest divide in the history of professional golf would certainly fall into that category.

Garcia has long been one of the more polarizing and fiery figures in golf for the majority of his career. He's been looked at by many as a villain in the sport, and his move to LIV Golf certainly didn't help his cause. The emergence of LIV is the biggest contributing factor to the division in pro golf, and Garcia has played a role in that.  But that hasn't stopped him from sharing both a refreshing and factual perspective on the sport.

For nearly two years now, the outlook on professional golf has been nothing but doom and gloom, but in Garcia's opinion, the game as a whole is thriving.

"I think the game is in a perfect spot," Garcia told the media ahead of the 2024 Masters. "The professional game, maybe it’s a little more separated, mostly because of the media, not so much because of the players. But I think the game itself is in a great spot."

"I think that we have the most amount of people playing the game, which is great, and people have to realize one thing, that the future of the game isn’t us. We’re not the future of the game. Neither me or Rory, no. We’re not the future. We’re the present of the game."

"But the future of the game is those kids that are watching us play, that want to get into the game, that want to play and then maybe become professionals. I think that’s what sometimes people forget."

(Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)

Sergio Garcia Is A Voice Of Reason

Garcia's comment about the media being mostly to blame for the division in pro golf is nothing short of insane, given that the media didn't have anything to do with the creation of LIV nor did it force major stars to leave the PGA Tour for a payday from the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF).

However, the rest of Garcia's statement rings rather true.

While the separation in pro golf has dominated headlines since LIV's inception in June 2022, it's only having a direct effect on the professional golfers actually involved, or in other words, the 0.001% of players.

The divide we're witnessing in professional golf is not sustainable. The decision makers are undoubtedly dragging their feet on bringing things back together in some way, but that coming together feels like an inevitability at this point. We may be waiting another year or two for the next era of whatever pro golf is going to look like, but as Garica alluded to we're currently in the mess, a mess that will hopefully be cleaned up sooner rather than later.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.