Sergio Garcia: Supergood, Superbad

After a crazy, dazzling, wildly unpredictable 2009 Masters, we could all be forgiven for wanting a little breather before the next major championship in golf, the U.S Open in June.

Not gonna happen!

It's game on now, and the next biggie is the Players Championship, recently rechristened, annoyingly, just the "Players," to make it seem more like...yes, you get it.

The Players always boasts that it has the best field in professional golf, and due to its treacherous island green on the 17th hole, it has generated no shortage of triumph and tragedy over the years. It's a tournament that most of the good players want to win--and have won--at least once. It's sometimes called the "fifth major," but personally I think it's the second major: more watchable than the British, less of a grind than the U.S. Open. Less fluky than the PGA Championship. Plus, like the Masters, it's played on the same course every year, the TPC at Sawgrass.

Mickelson won in 2007, bouncing back from his U.S. Open final hole collapse the previous year. Last year, Sergio Garcia won, repairing some damage from his own failure to with the British Open in '07, and setting himself provisionally back in the path to being a top player, in the mix with Woods and Mickelson. Early this year, it was looking as if he had succeeded: He's currently the world's number 3 ranked player.

Then, the Masters.

Sergio made the cut but finished tied for 38th, and afterwards complained about the fairness of the course. He later issued an apology, but this is the second time he's been petulant at Augusta--and the last time, he had at least shot a terrific final round. Given the condition of his countryman and former great, Spaniard Seve Ballesteros, who is suffering from brain cancer, Garcia didn't represent very well at Augusta. (Ballesteros was the first European to win the Masters, in 1980, and for many defined a certain swashbuckling style of Spanish golf.)

Garcia is at a critical stage in his career. After bursting onto the scene in 1999, when he battled Woods' down the stretch at the PGA Championship (Tiger eventually won, but Sergio's flamboyant play shook him up a bit), Garcia has drifted. His game is extremely solid--he may be the most talented driver of the ball in the world--but his putting is an ordeal. At the U.S. Open in 2002 at Bethpage in New York, he was jeered by spectators for a (since vanished) nervous habit of gripping and re-gripping his clubs. He's got some Jekyll and Hyde in him: ebullient one day, a tortured head case the next.

He's made up for his shortfalls in majors by being a longtime Ryder Cup standout for Europe (team competition seems to release him from his individualistic funks). And for the better part of a decade, fans have been willing to forgive his bitchiness because he's such a youthful, enthusiastic presence in a sport that can sometimes seem like a joyless grind. Plus, he does those double-entendre Michelob commercials with all the sexy ladies. Not exactly Kenny Perry territory, that.

This year, however, his timing stinks. Attacking Augusta National is simply pointless--there's no more beloved course anywhere. He has a good head of steam so far this year and doesn't need any cranky media pressure to throw off his mojo. He's defending at the Players, and playing well. And he's headed back to Bethpage for the U.S. Open--so the last thing he wants is to give the unruly New York fans yet another excuse to taunt him before, during, and after every swing. (In golf, that's bad manners, but at Bethpage, the rules are adjusted slightly, because New York sports fans, on their own treacherous public course, aren't inclined to observe a dignified silence during play.)

Golf fans have always enjoyed the kid in Garcia--or tried to, anyway. He didn't get the nickname El Nino for nothing. But as he nears 30, entering his competitive prime, exiting the era of his precocious youth, it's time for the kid to grow up.

Comments

[Skilletlicker]

In spite of Sergio's childish antics (spitting in the cup; blaming supernatural forces for his failures), he has always been my favorite player. I was put off by his comments after his round Sunday but I think his churlishness has less to do with his real feelings about Augusta National and more to do with his aversion to the media. Sergio has never been comfortable in that format of the post-round press room interview, especially when he's asked to explain why he played badly or has to field questions like how do you feel now that you've blown the Open and do you ever think you'll win a major, etc. Some of the best players slam clubs and drop the F-Bomb, Tiger among them, but Sergio is one of the most fun players to follow during a tournament because he's easy and friendly with the crowd and his competitors and when his playing partner makes a good shot, he's right there with a thumbs up. I saw him at Torrey Pines last year shout out to Cink (I think it was) when Cink hit a great iron shot to the green. Who can forget Sergio's applause and appreciation for Vijay's incredible putt last year during the FedEx play-offs that basically cost Sergio the tournament. He needs to work on his interview skills more than anything.

[Matthew DeBord - Huffpost Blogger]

This is a good point. He does seem to enjoy playing golf, being in the thick of it with his fellow competitors, etc. And although he will berate himself, he doesn't cuss--in English, anyway--as much as Tiger, who is a serious curser. But he gets cranky around the media. Mickelson would lose his temper with the media sometimes as well, before he won his first major. The golf media gets knocked undeservedly, but it can be dense. I remember an exchange between Justin Leonard and a reporter: Leonard had missed a very short putt, and the reporter asked him how a top professional could do such thing. Justin's response: "Have you ever misspelled a word?"

[NMGreenChile]

He'll never be successful in America. He needs to go back to Europe and play the mid-tier European Tour.

He's carrying a huge chip on his shoulder because he knows that the PGA is the Major league and European golf is, well like the minors. Its hard at age 30 to realize that while you're good, you'll never be great.

[Matthew DeBord - Huffpost Blogger]

He's definitely good enough for the PGA Tour, he's just fought the putter for years. He's won 7 times on the US tour and has 20 years to win some more.

I actually think he's very, very good. He nearly won the British Open at Carnoustie, which is an extremely difficult course. Unlike some successful US players, he can play something other than a high-ball, bomb-the-green game. When he's contended, he's done so on hard courses. He's won at Colonial, or a short, tight course, and at Kapalua, in trade winds, and at the Players, which favors a high-ball hitter.

Just wish he'd dial back the grousing.

[MaryKathO]

I find Sergio Garcia to be an immature 'also ran'. His antics on and off the course are tiresome and border on childish. He finds constant 'whiny excuses' for his lack of winning the really big tournaments. After the 'spitting' incident a few years ago and the often churlish comments about Tiger, I have no use for Garcia or his game.

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Next Major is the US Open at Bethpage in June.

The British Open is in July.