Luke Donald closes door on Sergio Garcia's potential Ryder Cup vice-captaincy: "The rules will have to change"

A few weeks ago, Luke Donald hinted that Sergio Garcia could be in line for a vice-captain role at the 2025 Ryder Cup. A rule that Donald was, at the time, unaware of prevents this from happening. Garcia can't be appointed as an assistant or a captain in the future.

Donald acknowledged his change of heart via Telegraph:

“The rules will have to change if Sergio is to be an assistant. So I haven’t thought much about it, because that scenario is not currently allowed.”

Garcia recently paid millions of dollars in fines to the DP World Tour to become a member again. He did so with the sole intention of rejoining the Ryder Cup team in some capacity, but he is now limited to a player role.

Garcia is currently not ranked on the European team standings, so he's not at all in contention to be an automatic qualifier right now.

That would leave his potential involvement with the team up to Donald, who can select six players to join the six qualifiers. Garcia had a really strong year on LIV Golf last year, finishing behind only Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann in the individual standings.

That said, it still remains an uphill battle for the 45-year-old. He'd need to replicate or even improve his form from last year and outdo other Europeans who might be selected, including Thorbjorn Olesen, Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry, Robert MacIntyre, and Thomas Detry.

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Jon Rahm advocates for Sergio Garcia

Jon Rahm is in a similar boat to Sergio Garcia, being far off from an automatic Ryder Cup qualifier but having expressed the desire to play despite his LIV status. Thanks to some DP World Tour outings, Rahm is eligible and ranks 17th among all Europeans right now.

Sergio Garcia faces an uphill battle (Image via Imagn)

Garcia doesn't have the luxury of even being ranked, but Rahm believes he's still as good as anyone. The Spaniard said Garcia can "hit it tee-to-green better than anybody on the planet."

Via The Guardian, he said:

“I understand the change in circumstances. I get it. Being Spanish and a friend and mentor [to me], I’m obviously going to be biased towards him. I would love to see him in that team room but who knows what’s going to happen."

Rahm also knows that the 2023 Ryder Cup team did so well without Sergio Garcia, so the chemistry was there without the veteran golfer. He just hopes there will be a place for his friend despite there being a lot of talent in Europe. Rahm added they can only let the higher-ups talk and make those choices now.