24 February 2023 , 11:04
706
0
Sergio Garcia has labelled Rory McIlroy immature and blamed his former Ryder Cup teammate for the public breakdown of their close friendship.
Garcia and McIlroy had formed a tight bond through their adventures in golf and even attended each other's weddings in recent years. But the emergence of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf breakaway has caused their relationship to collapse as the divide in golf's fierce civil war got personal.
Former Masters champion Garcia jumped ship for the Saudi millions last year as he became one of the first defectors to the contentious LIV venture fronted by firebrand Greg Norman.
McIlroy has been vocal in his strong opposition of LIV and the Northern Irishman has claimed that he felt betrayed by his former Ryder Cup teammates who had jeopardised their chances of competing in the biennial showdown with the USA.
The 33-year-old also recently revealed an explosive text-message exchange with Spaniard Garcia, who he said was "basically telling me to shut up abut LIV, blah, blah, blah." He said he was "offended" by Garcia's words and replied with "a couple of daggers." It now seems apparent that the pair's is broken beyond repair, and Garcia has now accused McIlroy of lacking respect and maturity in their feud.
Bubba Watson shares details of horror knee injury ahead of LIV Golf debut
"I think it is very sad," Garcia told The Telegraph. "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.
Garcia and McIlroy's relationship appears broken beyond repair (Getty Images)"But Rory's got his own life and he makes his own choices, the same way that I make mine. I respect his choices, but it seems like he doesn't respect the ones I make. So a one-way street."
Garcia, who is gearing up to captain the 'Fireballs' team at LIV's season-opening event at Mayakoba in Mexico this weekend, will not escape accusations of a certain level of hypocrisy for his comments on McIlroy.
The 43-year-old had long been condemned for his petulant actions during his career, even before his ungraceful exit from golf's status quo. He has intentionally damaged greens during on-course tantrums, bemoaned his own apparent misfortune in majors and churlishly blasted the PGA Tour before his impending move to the LIV series.
McIlroy and Garcia are not likely to cross paths until the highly-anticipated Masters tournament at Augusta in April.