Over the weekend, Sergio Garcia kicked off his 2024 season at LIV Mayakoba, and put in a solid performance. The Spaniard started off the week hot and ended up losing on the 4th playoff hole when it was nearly pitch black out to Chilean Joaquin Niemann. Sergio’s strong performance wasn’t due to his typically impeccable ball striking. Instead, it was the usually inconsistent putter that propelled the 44-year-old up the leaderboard.

Perhaps what spurred the strong performance on the greens was a new putter, which Garcia put in the bag for the first time at El Camaleon. As posted by @sms_on_tour on Instagram, he was using a Golfyr putter.

 

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The Golfyr putter Sergio was using is the model ‘The Maker Premier – CHF 625″.

The company uses “Carbonics Fundamentals” in their putters, which makes the putter quite unique.

More from the 19th Hole

Rory McIlroy, who once was one of the harshest critics of LIV Golf and the Saudi PIF, has recently changed his tune on the situation. While speaking to reporters at the Pebble Beach AT&T Pro-Am McIlroy said he thinks the PIF can “unify” the sport.

• Related: ‘I wasn’t aware that rule was changed’ – Rory McIlroy suffers 2-stroke penalty at AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

“They are still sitting out there with hundreds of billions of dollars, if not trillions, that they’re gonna pour it into sport. And I know what Jordan was saying, I absolutely know what he was saying and what he was trying to say. But if I were PIF and I was hearing that coming from here, the day after doing this SSG deal, it wouldn’t have made me too happy, I guess?”

“Having PIF as your partner as opposed to not having them as your partner, I don’t think is an option for the game of golf.

“I think they’re committed to investing in golf and in the wider world of sport and if you can get them to invest their money the right way to unify the game of golf.”

One of the other superstars of the sport, Jordan Spieth, feels a bit differently about the situation. The former Masters champion also spoke to reporters at the tournament and shared a contrasting opinion to McIlroy’s.

“I don’t think that [an agreement with PIF] needed,” Spieth said.

“At this point, if the PIF were interested in coming in on terms that our members like and/or the economic terms are at or not beyond SSGs… I think that’s where the discussions will start.”

McIlroy said that he and Spieth had a conversation about their difference of opinion.

The Northern Irishman told Sports Illustrated about the discussion.

“I talked to him about his comments, and we had a pretty frank discussion.”

“My thing was if I’m the original (potential) investor that thought that they were going to get this deal done back in July, and I’m hearing a board member say that, you know, we don’t really need them now, how are they going to think about that, what are they gonna feel about that?”

With no agreement between the PGA Tour and the PIF in sight, there is certain to be plenty of discussion in the coming months.

More from the 19th Hole

Joaquin Niemann defeated Sergio Garcia in a tense playoff on Sunday evening to win the 2024 LIV Mayakoba. The Chilean bounced back from a 2-stroke penalty during the event to hold his nerve and earn himself a payday of over $4 million for the entire week.

Here’s a look at the payouts in full:

Individual

• 1. Joaquin Niemann: $4,000,000
• 2. Sergio Garcia: $2,250,000
• T3. Jon Rahm, Dean Burmester: $1,250,000
• T5. Koepka, Charles Howell III, Dustin Johnson: $700,000
• T8. Tyrrell Hatton, Louis Oosthuizen, Cameron Smith: $457,500
• T11. Paul Casey, Richard Bland: 370,000
• T13. Sebastian Munoz, Caleb Surratt, Laurie Canter: $320,000
• 16. Talor Gooch: $285,000
• T17. Sam Horsfield, Patrick Reed, Kevin Na, Cameron Tringale: $255,000
• T21. Anirban Lahiri, Brendan Steele, Lucas Herbert, Bubba Watson: $215,000
• T25. Bryson DeChambeau, Matt Jones, Marc Leishman: $190,000
• T28. Matthew Wolff, Abraham Ancer, Martin Kaymer, Ian Poulter: $172,500
• T32. Kalle Samooja, Eugenio Chacarra, Lee Westwood, Jason Kokrak: $153,250
• T36. Hudson Swafford, Henrik Stenson: $144,000
• T38. David Puig, Scott Vincent, Jinichiro Kozuma, Kieran Vincent, Charl Schwartzel: $135,200
• T43. Thomas Pieters, Graeme McDowell, Adrian Meronk, Carlos Ortiz, Mito Pereira: $125,800
• 48. Danny Lee: $120,000
• 49. Branden Grace: $60,000
• 50. Andy Ogletree: $60,000
• T51. Phil Mickelson, Pat Perez, Peter Uihlein: $53,333.33
• 54. Harold Varner III: $50,000

Team

• 1. Legion XIII (Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Caleb Surratt, Kieran Vincent): $3,000,000
• 2. Crushers GC (Bryson DeChambeau, Paul Casey, Anirban Lahiri, Charles Howell III): $1,500,000
• 3. Torque GC (Joaquin Niemann, Carlos Ortiz, Sebastian Munoz, Mito Pereira): $500,000