Sergio can’t gain ground on Tiger
SAN DIEGO – Sergio Garcia squeezed his eyes shut and gouged a 6-iron out of the tree, then sprinted down the 16th fairway at Medinah in youthful pursuit of Tiger Woods.
That was the summer of ‘99 at the PGA Championship.
More than six years later, Garcia is still running after the world’s No. 1 player and hasn’t made up much ground. The latest opportunity came Sunday at Torrey Pines, where he played with Woods in the final group for the first time since the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black.
He hooked his opening tee shot and made bogey. He blasted out over the lip of a fairway bunker and over the green at No. 2, making another bogey and sending Garcia to a 40 on the front nine. Garcia hung around long enough to give himself a long eagle putt on the 18th hole to join the playoff at the Buick Invitational.
He wound up with a three-putt par and a 75.
There will be other chances, for no other reason than the 26-year-old Garcia is blessed with immense talent that should be enough to overcome a suspect putting stroke. But beating Woods when it counts – and the “Battle at Bighorn” doesn’t – remains a mental hurdle.
“What can you do?” Garcia said. “I wanted to play well, there’s no doubt about that. It’s been a long week, a long trip from Abu Dhabi. I felt a little bit tired all week long, and unfortunately it caught up with me today. But that’s all you can do, and go on to next week.”
That he failed to beat Woods from the final group is no disgrace.
Perhaps more alarming is that of players in their 20s, Garcia is one of the few making progress toward becoming a veritable star and one day dethroning Woods.
Only six players in their 20s have won at least two times on the PGA Tour, and three of those guys – Ben Crane, Rory Sabbatini and Vaughn Taylor – are a few months away from graduating to their 30s. For those who don’t know much about Taylor, he is a sharp kid who hits it long and twice won the Reno-Tahoe Open opposite a World Golf Championship event.
Garcia has won six times on the PGA Tour, all of them on either strong courses (Westchester, Colonial) or against strong fields (Mercedes Championships, Byron Nelson Championship). His resume includes 10 victories overseas, and three appearances in the Ryder Cup.
The only other young player in the elite category is Adam Scott, who won The Players Championship at 23 and has four trophies from the PGA Tour (although the tour doesn’t recognize his 36-hole, playoff victory at Riviera).
What puts Garcia in a league of his own among young players is the majors. He has 10 top 10s in the majors, and had a shot to win on the back nine in four of them. Scott, a 25-year-old from Australia, has two top 10s and last year made the cut in all four majors for the first time.
Ben Curtis, for those keeping score, is the only player currently in his 20s to have won a major.