Down under - or down and out? Garcia looking for answers in Oz
His public standing plummeting, his game gone to pot, can there be any way back for this huge talent, this star from whom so much was expected just months ago?
Nope, we're not talking Tiger - while Woods heads to the JBWere Masters this week at Australia's Victoria Golf Club with a largely lamentable track record in 2010, the former world No. 1's problems have been exhaustively chronicled elsewhere. Right now, we're more concerned with the decline of another former great who should still be at the peak of his powers. What's eating Sergio Garcia?
Two years ago, the Spaniard won the HSBC Champions and climbed to a career high ranking of No. 2 in the world. After years of near misses, Garcia's time to thrive was surely at hand - but somehow, he misplaced his momentum in 2009, with just two top five finishes all year and routinely poor major performances, one top 10 finish at the US Open aside.
The torpor has continued this season, with the 30-year-old suffering some of his poorest ever performances in 2010, finishing in 88th place at the PGA Championship in August and slumping to 150th place at the BMW International Open after finishing nine-over-par over two days.
Garcia's game hasn't been entirely hopeless in 2010, with a top 15 finish at the Open, and a fourth place at the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship. The problem is the gulf between expectations and reality. When he appeared on the scene in 1999 and immediately helped Europe to win the Ryder Cup, the assumption was that here was a European Tiger Woods, a white hot young talent who could prove a scintillating force at the top level for the next 20 years plus.
After building up that kind of anticipation, Garcia has had several close but no cigar moments in the last decade. He could have won the Open in 2007, eventually losing a play-off to Padraig Harrington, and Harrington bested him again in 2008 at the PGA Championship. But Garcia's most memorable near-miss may still be his runner-up finish back in 1999, when Tiger Woods pipped him by a stroke to achieve victory.
As close as Garcia has come to those key victories, though, the uglier side of the golfer's personality has also frequently been exposed in recent years, the player's graceless complaints an all too familiar post-game sign-off on those occasions when fortune has failed to favour him. Emotions run high in the Spaniard, but Garcia's reputation for whining rather than winning could be salvaged if only he could save his gripes for a private audience.
In recent months, not only has Garcia played like a loser, he's lost like a chump; the sight of the Spaniard thrashing his club into the bunker at this summer's PGA Championship was a laughable display of impotent fury, suggesting a two month break from the game was a necessity for the sake of the man's sanity.
After taking the break, emerging only in golf circles to appear at the Ryder Cup as a non-playing vice captain, Garcia is back now and playing his third tournament. The return to play has been low key; starting at the Castello Masters, the Spaniard finished in 76th place, but he followed that with a 10th place at the Valderrama Masters.
Right now as Garcia sits, or possibly sulks, in 70th place in the world, victory in Australia may still seem a tall order - but if he can put together a few decent rounds this week, Garcia can at least build for a less harrowing 2011. Who knows, maybe he can even finish ahead of the still vulnerable Woods this week.
While golf fans the world over hold their breath waiting to see if the former No.1 can ever return to his dominant best, we'll be sparing a thought for Sergio. Because if Woods has endured the worst year of his career, 2010 has been a write-off for Garcia too.
With two golfing geniuses who could, unthinkably, be on the path towards becoming yesterday's men, we'll be rooting for Garcia this week. If only because we can't bear the sight of a grown man laying into a sand trap.
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