Much hangs on Masters for Garcia
For Sergio Garcia, next week’s Masters becomes even more important after what happened at the Players Championship this weekend.
Brilliantly though Stephen Ames played to take the Sawgrass title by six shots from Retief Goosen, his task became a lot easier when Garcia – joint second with a round to play – dropped five strokes in the first five holes.
The 26-year-old Spaniard went on to finish only 14th with a 78 – the fifth time in five US Tour events this year that he has been over par in the final round.
“I played pretty, pretty bad,” said Garcia afterwards.
“On Sundays, my good shots seem to be bad and my bad shots are bad.
‘I haven’t played the best but I haven’t really got any good breaks, and it’s taken a bit of momentum out of me.
“It’s pretty much been happening every single last round, but what can you do? You’re not going to kill yourself; you’re just going to keep working on it and hope that one of these years I’ll have a good Sunday.
“It’s a shame, because I haven’t been able to put four rounds together. I hope I’ve just got to wait for it to start going the right way.”
Garcia’s last three final rounds at Sawgrass have now been 77, 78 and 78 – his worst three scores since he began his debut in 2000 with an 82.
He has much happier memories of Augusta. Although he missed the halfway cut last year, in 2004 he charged up to fourth place with a closing 66.
The Masters will be Garcia’s 27th major as a professional, and his best remains his second place behind Tiger Woods at the 1999 US PGA just four months after he left the amateur ranks.
He remains Europe’s highest-ranked player at sixth in the world, but the left hand below right putting method he has employed for his last two tournaments clearly still needs work on it.
But that is not all.
Garcia’s hopes yesterday were effectively ended when he went from deep rough into water for a double-bogey six on the fourth.
Television commentator Johnny Miller called the decision to try for the green “just not smart”, and making the right decisions is more important at the Masters than anywhere.
With Garcia falling back, Swede Henrik Stenson finished up as leading European at the Players – earning almost £230,000 (€334,000) for joint third place.
It takes Stenson further ahead of Garcia at the top of the Ryder Cup points race and makes it odds-on he will win a first cap at the K Club near Dublin in September.
“It’s been a struggle all week for me tee-to-green,” said the 29-year-old, despite having one of four holes-in-one at the 13th.
“But the mental side has been world-class. I fought hard and I got my reward. It all comes down to fighting spirit, I would say.
“It’s one thing playing great when everything is running for you, but when you’re struggling on every shot to try to hit it where you want it’s an effort.”
Stenson plays this week’s BellSouth Classic in Atlanta – as do Colin Montgomerie, Luke Donald and Padraig Harrington, all of whom missed the halfway cut at Sawgrass.
