Sergio Garcia is grinning again before the Open Championship
Although the 31-year-old Spaniard has not won an event in the last two years, Sergio Garcia boosts of a sunny disposition right at the beginning of the third major of the year, The Open Championship at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich.
The grinning golfer is upbeat about his current form and has managed to post some strong Top-10 finishes to signal a possible come back of the once brilliant Garcia.
“I'm not going to be laughing if I am not happy,” Garcia said. “I don't laugh if it's not genuine. But you've seen throughout this year there have been a lot of positives and only the odd round that has pushed me back. The last two weeks have meant a bit
more to me. It's great to get in the Open, always been my favourite event.”
The Spaniard has had a disappointing season and has not won a single event since his last victory at the 2008 HSBC Champions event in Shanghai although wining smaller events in South Africa. The player admitted that at one time, he even considered bidding
farewell to the sport and spent some time playing soccer and basketball but returned to his favourite sport in search of form.
Garcia battered a bruised pinky and was still able to post a strong finish in BMW International Open in Germany where he lost in the Playoff hole, giving into his country mate Pablo Larrazabal. Garcia, who once soared to world number two in Official World
Golf Rankings (OWGR), was almost at the verge of slipping out of the Top-100 but stationed himself at 53rd to qualify for the Open.
“I still need to get better but I do enjoy it more than the last couple of years,” he said. “Early last year I wouldn't have even cared about making it here or not. The good thing now is my desire is back.”
Garcia posted a strong joint seventh finish in the US Open last month, in an event where he was barely able to qualify giving is slide in the rankings. Many of his fans and country mates have questioned his loss at the 2007 Open where he fell in for Playoff
giving into the Irishman Padraig Harrington, and are wondering will he be able to overcome such a scenario again provided he is able to contend for the same.
Garcia missed the cut in 1999 and cried over his mother’s shoulder, winning hearts all over his country. He finished for runners up at the PGA Championship the next month, trailing Tiger Woods.
The Open Championship will be attracting one of the biggest crowds for the season, owing mostly to Rory McIlroy’s colossal victory at the US Open at Congressional Country Club last month. Garcia will be battling not just the wind-swept Links-style course
at the Royal St. George’s but will also be pitched against the strongest brigade of young trailblazers of the sport.
The Spaniard has 14 top-ten finishes in the major events in his stellar career but has never won anyone of them. He is probably the rightful owner of this week’s Open summit and considering his recent performances on both sides of the Atlantic, is also the
most deserving too.
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