Sergio Garcia Will Return to the Saudi Event Where he Was DQ’ed Last Year

Who can forget Sergio Garcia’s meltdown last year at the Saudi Invitational?

For those of you who need a refresher, that was the one where Garcia was disqualified for damaging five greens intentionally, as well as a few other embarrassing displays like this one:

Sergio Garcia’s meltdown in a Royal Greens bunker a day prior to his disqualification for vandalism work on five greens. Story by @SkySportsGolf fills in details. Translations welcomed! https://t.co/UoGmPtTOz4 pic.twitter.com/dQMDN7y2PC

— Geoff Shackelford (@GeoffShac) February 4, 2019

Well it looks like Garcia hasn’t completely worn out his welcome, because he recently announced that he plans to return to the Saudi event again this year.

There is however, one big difference…

This year Sergio will forgo his massive appearance fee, a sum that was north of $500,000 last year, and which he remarkably still retained even though he was disqualified from the event for “serious misconduct.”

Embed from Getty Images

The Telegraph reported that Garcia will participate in the 2020 Saudi International (January 30th through February 2nd) but will not collect his usual appearance fee in a bid to save face and spare himself a suspension from the European Tour. 

Personally, I’m not entirely sure why he was even invited back. Regardless, the tournament (and its hefty appearance fees) has created plenty of controversy of its own, so perhaps Sergio hopes to fly a little more under the radar this year.

Cover Photo via Instagram