2025 LIV Golf Season Preview: Fireballs GC

The 2025 LIV Golf League season starts Jan. 6 in Riyadh. Here’s a quick look at Sergio Garcia’s Spanish-speaking Fireballs GC.

OVERVIEW

Lineup

• Sergio Garcia (Captain), Spain
• Abraham Ancer, Mexico
• Luis Masaveu, Spain
• David Puig, Spain

Who’s New? Luis Masaveu, who replaces Eugenio Chacarra in the lineup. The 22-year-old from Madrid will fit right in with fellow Spaniards Garcia and Puig. He just turned pro in October 2024 after an impressive amateur career that included a run to the semifinals at the U.S. Amateur.

The Offseason: All four players competed in the International Series season-ending PIF Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers (Masaveu had not yet been signed). Ancer, the defending tournament champion, had the best result, a tie for 22nd with four rounds of 68 or better … Puig had four top-4 finishes in seven offseason starts … Garcia received an invite to play the 2025 PGA Championship. It will be his 25th start in that major … Puig turned 23 on Dec. 7 and Garcia turned 45 on Jan. 9.

Going to be a good year if … Puig can perform like he does in non-LIV Golf events.

ALL-TIME RESULTS

Trophies Won

TEAM (4)
2022 Bangkok
2023 Tucson
2023 Jeddah
2024 Andalucia

INDIVIDUAL (3)
2022 Bangkok – Chacarra*
2024 Hong Kong – Ancer
2024 Andalucia – Garcia
*No longer with team

ANALYSIS

STRENGTHS

Terrific balance – Veteran ball strikers with the young, aggressive kids.

Sergio’s locked in – The captain is playing his best golf in years, finishing third in the standings in 2024.

Point producers – They finished outside the points just one time.

No weaknesses – The team ranked inside the top 5 in every major stat category last year.

OPPORTUNITIES

Still young – Adding a 22-year-old to a lineup that already has a 23-year-old … well, kids can sometimes be a bit unpredictable.

Stuck in 6th – They’ve finished as the sixth seed the last two years and finished in sixth in the Team Championship.

WORTH NOTING

LUIS’ NEW MENTOR. Luis Masaveu has a signed golf ball in his room. It’s about a decade old, which doesn’t seem all that long ago until you realize that Masaveu is just 22. And the signature on his ball now represents his Fireballs captain after the Madrid youngster joined LIV Golf in the offseason.

“He was the role model in Spain when we grew up,” Masaveu said. “I remember him winning the Masters; it was awesome. The only ball that I have signed from a player is from Sergio. He came to a pro-am at my home course.”

Garcia is very excited to sign Masaveu, who had a stellar amateur career before turning pro last fall. But he also realizes it’s a big ask to expect his newest teammate to make a huge immediate impact.

“It’s his first year as a pro and coming and playing with the big guns, I think it's going to be a good learning experience,” Garcia said. “But all three of us, not only myself but Abraham and David, we we're going to be there to support him, to cheer him on and make sure that he can enjoy his game and play the way he can play. And if he does that, he's going to do a lot of good things, not only for the Fireballs but for Spain and for himself.”

NON-LIV GOLF SUCCESS: In his last 21 starts outside of LIV Golf, David Puig has two wins, nine other top 10s and 16 total top 20s. And while he’s improved each year on LIV Golf, he hasn’t produced that kind of track record.

“Obviously I haven’t been playing the way I wanted to on LIV,” said the 23-year-old. “I’ve had two years of experience I would say to just get going. I didn’t think there was a difference when playing an Asian Tour event or a LIV Golf event, but obviously the results show I was more comfortable at those other events.”

ANCER’S SWING. Abraham Ancer said while examining his game during the offseason, he thinks his swing got a little bit out of sync. That analysis, in itself, is a sort of a breakthrough for Ancer. “I’m not a very technical person,” he said. “I’ve never really had a swing coach or anything like that. But I noticed my ball striking wasn’t as consistent as it should be. So, this offseason has been amazing for me to have some time to get back to where I need to be.”

TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP HUMP. The Fireballs are the only team to have posted a tournament win in each of LIV Golf’s first three years. But in the team championship, they’ve lost their semifinals match the last two years, thus keeping them from competing for the Team Championship on the final day.

“We've been very close of having a good chance of winning the Team Championship and we just felt a tiny bit short both times,” said Captain Sergio Garcia. “So hopefully this year we keep doing more of the same thing, some good solid play throughout the season and then have those little extra little things here and there on the Team Championship that will give us the possibility of making a good run at it.”

CAPTAIN'S LAST WORD