Sergio Garcia is trying to balance a DP World Tour, LIV series tightrope

Sergio Garcia spent much of an afternoon last weekend at Lions Municipal Golf Course, helping young players learn the game as part of the Austin Golf Academy. He did so with his wife and Austin native, Angela Akins, who is a board member of the Muny Conservancy.

And while Garcia clearly enjoys his time in Central Texas, he’d also like the ability to be able to spend time back on the DP World Tour (the former European Tour), where he has 16 victories.

When he wrapped up at the Open Championship at St. Andrews, Garcia was just about ready to resign his membership from the DP World Tour, which would make him ineligible for the 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy.

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A couple weeks later, he has changed his mind.

“Thanks to the things that Jon Rahm said, and I had a couple of good conversations with guys on the (DP World) Tour, I’m going to hold off on that," Garcia told ESPN. "I want to at least see what’s happening when the Ryder Cup qualification starts. See what kind of rules and eligibilities they have in there. If I agree with what they (are), I’ll definitely keep playing whatever I can on the tour and try to qualify for that Ryder Cup team. And if not, then we’ll move on. But it is definitely something that is in my mind.

“I told (DP World Tour CEO) Keith Pelley, ‘I want to keep being a member of the DP World Tour. I want to play my minimum, still support the tour, still have my eligibilities to make Ryder Cup teams,'” Garcia explained. “He said, ‘That’s great, but we got to do what’s best for us. We’ll see what that is.'”

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The 42-year-old Spaniard was one of the first players to resign his PGA Tour membership to join the Greg Norman-led LIV Golf Invitational Series, which is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. LIV Golf will hold its third event this week at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.

Saudi Arabia has been accused of wide-ranging human rights abuses, including politically motivated killings, torture, forced disappearances and inhumane treatment of prisoners. And members of the royal family and Saudi government were accused of involvement in the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist.

“Now it’s gotten a little bit sadder with fines and bans,” Garcia said of the rift between LIV, the PGA and DP World tours. “What they did to Henrik. It’s a little bit sad.”

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Henrik Stenson was stripped of his Ryder Cup captaincy last week after he joined the upstart circuit. The 46-year-old Swede will make his LIV debut at Bedminster.

“In light of decisions made by Henrik in relation to his personal circumstances, it has become clear that he will not be able to fulfill certain contractual obligations to Ryder Cup Europe that he had committed to prior to his announcement as Captain on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, and it is therefore not possible for him to continue in the role of Captain,” the DP World Tour said in a statement.

“The opportunity to play in LIV events moving forward is something that I want to experience,” said Stenson in a lengthy Twitter statement.

Garcia has represented Europe in the Ryder Cup 10 times and boasts a 25-13-7 record. He holds the record for points scored for Team Europe (28.5) and is just one appearance behind all-time leaders Lee Westwood and Nick Faldo (11).

Schubert hoping for spot at Muirfield

Sophia Schubert wrapped up the week of her life by taking a dip in Lake Geneva with her caddie followed by a celebration meal of pizza.

The former Texas star — who won the 2017 U.S. Women's Amateur, becoming the first Longhorn to win the prestigious event since Kelli Kuehne in 1996 —  didn’t win the Amundi Evian Championship, coming up one shot short of Brooke Henderson. But it was still a life-changing week for the former U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, who gained scores of fans and vaulted 253 spots in the Rolex Rankings to No. 53. Her second-place check of $586,262 dwarfed her year-to-date earnings of $82,796.

“It’s just like this big weight has been lifted off of me,” Schubert told Golfweek on Monday, “and I could just play free.”

Schubert’s phone blew up Sunday night with congratulatory texts and “see you at the Scottish” notes from fellow players. Only Schubert didn’t get into this week’s Trust Scottish Open field. She’s not yet in the AIG Women’s British Open at Muirfield the next week either.

Instead, Schubert flew back to the United States to do a sponsor outing at the PGA Tour’s Rocket Mortgage event. She then plans to fly back to Scotland to compete in Final Qualifying at North Berwick on Monday, where 12 spots will be available for the final major of the year.

Schubert has yet to compete in the AIG as last week’s Evian was her second major start as a professional.

The two holding spots for top-10 finishes are for one Standard Eligibility Tournament into the next Standard Eligibility Tournament. Because Evian is a major and not standard, Schubert’s second-place showing does not get her into anything except for Evian in 2023.

And because the Scottish Open is co-sanctioned with the LET, it’s not considered a Standard event. The top 65 players on the CME points list as of July 13 qualified. Schubert jumped up to No. 38 on the list after the Evian, but it was past the deadline.

Schubert’s rise up the CME points list should, however, get her into limited-field events in the fall as well as the CME Group Tour Championship.

Texas players lead PGA Tour University

The state of Texas is well-represented in the preseason PGA Tour University Velocity Global Rankings, which were unveiled Wednesday.

While Florida’s Fred Biondi leads the list, Texas Tech’s Ludvig Aberg is second, Texas A&M’s Sam Bennett is third and Texas star Travis Vick is fifth.

At the end of the college golf season, the top five finishers will earn membership on the Korn Ferry Tour and players finishing sixth through 15th will earn membership on PGA Tour Canada or PGA Tour Latinoamérica.

Tim Schmitt is the managing editor for Golfweek, golf coordinator for the USA Today Network and lives in Round Rock. Golfweek’s Adam Woodard and Beth Ann Nichols also contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: New DP World Tour controversy muddies waters for Ryder Cup eligibility