“I got my friend back” - Sergio Garcia officially ends his long feud with Rory McIlroy with a sweet message

Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia used to be the best of friends until LIV Golf’s inception. The duo fell apart after the latter’s move to the controversial Saudi-backed series. The beautiful relationship came to an end and the two old friends started getting involved in verbal fights.

Now, McIlroy and Garcia appear to have made peace with each other. Following the recent PGA Tour-PIF merger announcement, the Spaniard has now come forward to state that he has ended the feud with the Northern Irishman. Garcia, who didn’t explicitly call out McIlroy by name Wednesday at Valderrama, said that he “gained a friend back” after a fallout over the PGA Tour-LIV Golf war.

Speaking to the media in Spain ahead of LIV Golf Valderrama on Wednesday, Sergio Garcia said:

“The U.S. Open, it was a great event for me,” Garcia said Wednesday in Spain. “I feel like I played well. At the end of the day, the most important thing is that I, you know, I got my friend back. And, and that’s, that’s what matters the most."

"I think that at the end of the day, the important thing is that we got together and talked – we were two friends that wanted to get back to that spot. Like I said, no doubt it was the saddest part of all of this, these friendships turning sour.”

The comment from Garcia comes two weeks after Spanish outlet Ten Golf had reported that the Spaniard had sent a text to McIlroy, hoping to talk. The golfer reportedly wanted to settle the differences between them. According to the Irish Golf Desk, McIlroy appeared to make a “call me” gesture to Garcia at the US Open while the latter was finishing up on 18.

The conversation seems to have happened and the two old friends have resolved their issues.

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Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia's 2022 US Open feud diffused at the 2023 US Open

The feud between Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia was fuelled when the former took a heavy stance for the PGA Tour at the US Open 2022. Commenting on the duo’s feud, McIlroy said:

"He [Garcia] was basically telling me to shut up about LIV, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I was pretty offended and sent him back a couple of daggers and that was it.”

The comments reportedly hurt Garcia. The pair, who have been really good friends on and off the golf course for years, dubbed their fallout as being “very sad.”

Garcia said:

"I think it is very sad. 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. I respect his choices, but it seems like he doesn’t respect the ones I make."

It is pertinent to note that Rory McIlroy was so close with Sergio Garcia that he was even a groomsman at his wedding in 2017. It’ll be interesting to see how the golfers get back along now.