Sergio Garcia Rips 'Immature' Rory McIlroy, Makes It Clear That Their Friendship Is No More

Published|Updated

While Sergio Garcia may be 10 years older than Rory McIlroy, the two have become good buddies over the years both on and off the golf course. Not only have they been partners in past Ryder Cups, but McIlroy was even a groomsman in the Spaniard's wedding in 2017.

That friendship came to an abrupt end when Garcia elected to join LIV Golf. Despite him being the one that made the move to the Saudi-backed circuit, Garcia is blaming McIlroy and is lack of maturity for their friendship being no more.

“I think it is very sad,” Garcia told The Telegraph of McIlroy. “I think that we’ve done so many things together and had so many experiences that for him to throw that away just because I decided to go to a different tour, well, it doesn’t seem very mature; lacking maturity, really."

“But Rory’s got his own life and he makes his own choices, the same way that I make mine. I respect his choices, but it seems like he doesn’t respect the ones I make. So a one-way street.”

Sergio Garcia blames Rory McIlroy and his lack of maturity for why their friendship no longer exists. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)

Sergio And Rory Feud Is Real

While you could argue that Garcia complaining to the media about McIlroy's immaturity is immature in its own right, the riff-raff between these two has been building since the moment Garcia made the jump to LIV.

McIlroy, arguably the loudest critic of LIV Golf, recently revealed that he had deleted Garcia's phone number from his cellphone after he claimed that the 43-year-old told him to "shut up about LIV, blah, blah, blah."

READ: LIV GOLF LAWSUIT REVEALS TEXT MESSAGES BETWEEN SERGIO GARCIA, GREG NORMAN: PLAYERS ARE ‘SHI–ING THEIR PANTS’

Earlier this month McIlroy didn't shy away from the confrontation, either. He was asked if he felt a need to reconcile things with Garcia with the Ryder Cup looming and McIlroy gave a one-word answer: "no."

Depending on how things play out in an ongoing arbitration case involving LIV Golf and the DP World Tour, it's conceivable that Garcia could earn a spot on the European Ryder Cup team which could lead to fireworks between the once-close friends.

Follow Mark Harris on Twitter @ItIsMarkHarris

Tags
Written by

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.