Sergio Garcia Keeps LIV Golf Team Name Despite Saying It Will Change

The LIV Golf team names were unveiled for the upcoming LIV Golf League and there were two name changes, but surprisingly not for Sergio Garcia's Fireballs GC.

Niblicks GC, captained by Bubba Watson, is changing to Range GOATs GC - which Bubba revealed stands for 'Golfers on a team' - and the all-Aussie team of Punch GC captained by Cameron Smith is changing to Ripper GC.

Fireballs GC, Sergio Garcia's quartet, has kept its name for the 2023 season despite the Spaniard's omission last year that it was to be changed.

"Exciting news, my team is set and we'll soon be changing the logo and the name of the team so very excited to have all these things going on," Garcia said in August ahead of the LIV event in Portland.

The Fireballs GC logo also looks to be very similar for 2023 too, as seen in a LIV promo video on social media, so the Spaniard appears to have had a change of heart.

It remains to be seen how the line-ups look for the coming season and whether there are changes to the players involved in the Saudi-backed series. Reports state that Chile's Mito Pereira and Colombia's Sebastian Munoz have signed on but there have been no official announcements as of yet.

Garcia's team was an all-Spanish-speaking side with Mexico's Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz along with Spain's Eugenio Chacarra. The Fireballs finished 3rd in the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational Series Team Championship.

Garcia, the Ryder Cup's record points scorer, looks set to miss out on Team Europe this year following his move to LIV and fallout with former close friend Rory McIlroy.

At the Dubai Desert Classic last month, McIlroy was asked if there was hope for mending bridges with the Garcia, whom he was a groomsman for at the Spaniard's wedding, and simply replied with "no" and confirmed there was "no way" the pair would rekindle.

Golf Monthly understood that there was a "complete deterioration" in the Ryder Cup partners' friendship last year due to LIV, with McIlroy last month revealing that the pair had a text exchange during the US Open. 

McIlroy said: “He was basically telling me to shut up about LIV, blah blah blah. I was pretty offended and sent him back a couple of daggers, and that was it.”

Garcia made his first start of 2023 at last week's Saudi International, where he finished T28th. He currently ranks 131st in the world.