GARCIA, FIREBALLS LOOK TO CARRY THEIR LATE-SEASON FORM INTO MAYAKOBA
PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – If there is one team in LIV Golf 2024 season that is the perfect mix of experience and youth, it is the Sergio Garcia-led Fireballs GC.
Garcia is 44 years old, but is already in his 25th year as a professional golfer. The 2017 Masters champion has 36 international wins under his belt and is the most successful player ever in the history of the Ryder Cup with 28.5 points.
He has 32-year-old Mexican Abraham Ancer by his side, and two of the finest young amateurs-turned-pro in Eugenio Chacarra, 23, and David Puig, 22.
Fireballs go into the season-opening event in Mayakoba as the team championship winner of the last regular-season event in Jeddah, where they beat the RangeGoats by three shots. It was the second team win during the season for the team, having also won in Tucson.
Despite two wins and two second-place finishes (Singapore and Chicago), Fireballs were sixth going into the Team Championship in Miami, and that’s where they finished in Miami.
Ancer’s presence in the team will surely win them local support in Mayakoba. Fireballs would look to maintain their regular season momentum from last year and upstage the defending champions Crushers GC this week.
For all their team efforts, Fireballs have only one individual win in the two seasons of LIV Golf (Chacarra in LIV Golf Bangkok in 2022), and that is something that Garcia and his men would be eager to change as well.
Fireballs 2024 Team:
Sergio Garcia (captain)
Abraham Ancer
Eugenio Chacarra
David Puig
There is one change in Captain Garcia’s team from last year – they signed up the uber-promising Spanish youngster David Puig after Carlos Ortiz decided to end his contract with Fireballs, become a free agent, and signed up with the all-South American Torque GC instead.
It makes perfect sense. Mexican Ortiz wanted to be with his best friends Joaquin Niemann, Sebastián Muñoz and Mito Pereira. The all-Spanish speaking Fireballs then snared up Puig, who won the International Series Singapore and jumped over 750 places in the Official World Golf Rankings playing limited number of events on the Asian Tour.
Fireballs at Mayakoba
Fireballs did not have the best start to their 2023 season at the Greg Norman-designed El Camaleón Golf Course, although they went on to win the second tournament at Tucson.
At Mayakoba last year, they finished 6th with a total score of 11-under par. A 1-under par final round denied them a podium finish by two shots.
Ortiz was best-placed in the team at 5-under (tied seventh), followed by Ancer at 3-under (tied 15th). Captain Garcia was tied 23rd at even-par and Chacarra tied 27th at 1-over. Ortiz also shot the best round for the team – a 4-under par on the opening day.
Fireballs in 2023
With two team wins, Fireballs matched Crushers and 4Aces as the second most successful in terms of titles won, but were undone by a string of middle-of-the-pack finishes. They eventually ended the regular season in sixth place with 136 points, and were also sixth in the Team Championhip.
In the individual standings, Ortiz was 15th with 88 points, followed by Garcia (17th, 83 points), Ancer (26th, 53 points) and Chacarra (32nd, 31 points).
In terms of the lowest rounds of the season, Garcia shot rounds of 7-under twice (Singapore 2nd round and Greenbrier final round). Ancer, who finished the season with a Sunday round of 6-under par in Jeddah, was one better in Adelaide in the second round. Chacarra’s 7-under effort in the final round of Singapore was his best, while Puig’s finest round in 2023, playing for Torque, was also a 7-under on Friday in Greenbrier.
Captain Garcia led the contributing round stats for his team with 31 of his outings adding to the team total.