Saturday afternoon gave us more than we ever hoped for. It was the latest installment in the Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods saga, and there were definitely sparks flying.
This week’s drama started on Saturday on the 2nd hole. Garcia flared his second shot on the par 5 hole way to the right, and it led to a bogey. And to make a long story short, he said it was Tiger’s fault, Tiger disagreed, and they soon traded shots at one another through the media. Tension was high between them, and unfortunately for us, they weren’t paired together in the final round.
The 4th round started off pretty slowly for Sergio; he really didn’t do anything of significance until hole 13. There, he made a birdie. Combine that with the double that Tiger made one hole ahead of him, and Sergio was at -12 tied with Mr. Woods. They both made birdies at 16, and stood at -13. Tiger was one hole ahead of Sergio and parred 17, which allowed SG to know exactly where he stood and what he needed to do: par the 17th.
Unfortunately, that’s where the wheels fell off. Sergio’s tee shot on 17 was about 2 yards too short and ended up in the water on the most cruel hole in golf. His next shot was almost exactly the same, and by that point, he knew he was done. Combine that with another ball in the water on 18, and he was 6 over par on those 2 holes alone.
Post round, Sergio admitted his mistakes on the 17th. He said he got too confident because of the shots he was hitting early (he was putting on a ball striking clinic from holes 12-16 to get back into the tournament), and decided to take a risky line on 17. As we painfully saw, the risk didn’t pay off, and it cost him the tournament.
A lot of us wanted to see a possible Sergio-Tiger playoff. Both hit the ball extremely well for the most part (take away Tiger’s hook on 14 and Sergio’s 17th hole), and both clearly wanted to beat each other badly. But, sadly enough, Sergio’s luck is very hit and miss, and today his luck was worse than Greg Norman’s.
The one thing that Sergio fans can take away from this is the attitude he left the tournament with. He didn’t seem that bitter from what happened, whereas in years past he would have had a press conference to remember. He seemed to handle his presser with class, and even though he didn’t give up on his stance on what happened on Saturday with Tiger, he seemed to be in a good enough mood to be able to continue his season on a good streak. He’s arguably played the 2nd best golf this year; he hasn’t missed a cut or finished outside of the top-25 yet. I feel like he’s due for a tournament win soon. And if he could just keep his attitude a tad more steady, I think he could even win the British Open this year. His putting has been very good, and his ball striking has been as good as ever. He just needs to stay positive and believe. That’s what Adam Scott did. And that’s what Sergio Garcia will need to do.
I’ll definitely be rooting for him.
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