Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia are apparently friends again.
Or, they are at least friendly.
After what was a highly contentious feud during the height of the PGA Tour-LIV Golf drama, it looks like the two have at least begun to mend their relationship.
“We’ve spoken, which is a first step,” McIlroy said after winning the Genesis Scottish Open on Sunday.
Garcia has been a strong supporter, for better or worse, of LIV Golf from the start. He officially quit the DP World Tour in May after a long row with the league and refused to pay a £100,000 fine for leaving for the controversial Saudi-backed venture.
Garcia even faced McIlroy directly at one point earlier this year. He said ahead of LIV Golf’s season opener in Mexico that McIlroy lacked “maturity” and blamed him entirely for their falling out.
“I think it’s very sad,” Garcia said in February. “I think we’ve done so much together and had so many experiences that for him to throw this away just because I decided to go on a different tour, well, that doesn’t seem very mature; immature, really.
“But Rory has his own life and he makes his own choices, the same way I make mine. I respect his choices, but it seems he doesn’t respect the ones I make. So a one-way street.
Garcia said at the LIV Golf event in Spain last month that he actually reconnected with McIlroy at the US Open in Los Angeles. Garcia said it started after McIlroy spoke briefly with Garcia’s wife, Angela, and then texted her at the Los Angeles Country Club.
“I thought about it for a while, but I wasn’t totally sure,” Garcia said, via Sports Illustrated. “And when I saw that reaction from him, he kind of gave me the green light to get closer and we had a great conversation.”
Although Garcia’s game in Los Angeles wasn’t perfect — he finished T27 and went 2-over for the week — he called it a “big event” in part because of his conversation with McIlroy.
“I feel like I played well. But more than anything because I found a friend, a friend that I felt like I lost over the last year or so,” said Garcia said, via Sports Illustrated. “We talked and had a great conversation, and I feel like I’ve reunited with this friend, and that means a lot to me. It’s a very positive thing.
McIlroy is on the court this week at Royal Liverpool for the 151st British Open, where he will be looking to win his first major league title in nearly a decade. Garcia isn’t, as he failed to qualify earlier this month.
Although he admitted they still have a bit of a way to go, and that won’t be accomplished this week in Hoylake, McIlroy and Garcia are sure to interact again soon.
“There are things that we both think we probably could have done differently, and there are a lot of things that went into it,” McIlroy said Sunday. “You know, it’s good that we’re at least talking again. It’s a first step. I wouldn’t say we’ve come to the end, but we’re there — it’s a good first step.