Commentary: Garcia needs less whining, more winning

AUGUSTA, Ga. – It’s one thing to navigate the 7,435 yards at Augusta National in the final round of the Masters, a harrowing ride of birdies and bogeys with the pressure of a green jacket riding shotgun.

Even more dangerous might be the 100 yards between the 18th green and the clubhouse.

That’s where Fuzzy Zoeller had stopped toward the end of the 1997 Masters when he jokingly suggested that Tiger Woods not serve fried chicken and collard greens at the Champions Dinner, a quip that ruined his career.

Geoff Ogilvy left the course last year complaining that Augusta National had become too hard.

“That walk … when you’ve had a 74 or whatever, and you walk from the 18th green to the clubhouse, it’s generally a poor time to get an objective answer,” Ogilvy said. “If you had asked me half an hour after I finished, I probably would have been a little more politically correct with the answer.”

Sergio Garcia closed with a 74 on Sunday.

He almost made it the clubhouse. That’s when The Golf Channel stopped him for a comment, and Garcia wasn’t exactly in “politically correct” mode.

“I don’t like it, to tell you the truth,” he said. “I don’t think it’s fair, and it’s just too tricky.”

Garcia certainly is entitled to his opinion. He might not have been alone in his complaint. But when The Golf Channel followed with an appropriate question – What would he like to see changed? – he showed his petulant side.

“I don’t care,” Garcia said. “They can do whatever they want. It’s not my problem. I just come and here and play, and then go home.”

This is not the first tantrum Garcia has thrown at a major. After shooting a 74 in the second round of the 2002 U.S. Open in a steady rain, he blistered the USGA for not stopping play. “If Tiger Woods would have been out there, it would have been called,” he said.

After losing in a playoff in the 2007 British Open at Carnoustie, he said he was playing against more than just the field, suggesting that he also had to face the golfing gods. “I should write a book on how to not miss a shot in the playoff and shoot 1 over,” he said.

The difference this time is that he apologized.

That’s a good step for Garcia.

If his comments weren’t strong enough, The Golf Channel followed that with an interview from his archrival, Padraig Harrington, one of the classiest players in the game. When told of Garcia’s comments, his first reaction was shared by many.

“I’m baffled,” Harrington said. “I think the golf course is fantastic. I like it when it’s difficult. Obviously, it wasn’t difficult this week, it was as easy as it’s ever going to be.”

Garcia is still searching for his first major championship, and his behavior Sunday under the live oak tree raised questions whether that will happen. But the whining has to stop, and the sooner the better.

His next major is the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black. The last time Garcia was there, the New York crowd hassled him for constantly regripping and waggling the club. Garcia responded by pointing to them, using the wrong finger.

Seven years later, not much has changed.