Garcia no favorite for U.S. Open, despite Masters win

Sergio Garcia's victory at the U.S. Masters on Sunday was received with delight throughout the golf world, but it seems unlikely to lead to a subsequent flood of major titles for the Spaniard.

That is not to say 37-year-old Garcia will fail to add to his first major win, but the best players are too evenly matched in the post-Tiger Woods era to realistically expect him to suddenly run up his major tally in his late 30s.

The top 20 or so players are all eminently capable of winning when in top form. Woods may have been capable of winning with his "B" game, but no-one else is, not even current number one Dustin Johnson.

Since Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth combined to win four consecutive majors at the end of 2014 and start of 2015, seven players have shared the spoils in the past seven majors, much as it used to be before Woods.

  
Garcia and Masters runner-up Justin Rose were ranked 11th and 14th respectively in the world last week, but it was hardly a surprise they ended up separating themselves from the field, especially in the absence of Johnson, who pulled out at the last minute with a back injury.

A little luck is often required to win, and if Rose’s seven-foot birdie putt at the 72nd hole had toppled in instead of grazing the cup, the Englishman probably would be celebrating getting halfway to the career grand slam, after winning the 2013 U.S. Open.

Indeed, Garcia’s victory hardly elevated him to the top echelon of favourites in betting for the next major, the U.S. Open at Erin Hills in Wisconsin in June.

Betting website Centrebet on Monday had Dustin Johnson a 7/1 favourite, followed at 8/1 by McIlroy and Jason Day, with Jordan Spieth at 9/1.

Garcia was 33/1, similar to his pre-Masters odds.

But he will not care as he celebrates an occasion that he thought might never come. He was not the only one.

Former European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley struggled to retain his composure during the live television commentary on Sky Sports.

“It was kind of difficult,” McGinley said on Golf Channel on Monday. “To be honest I had a big lump in my throat.

“I was so happy for him I can’t tell you how happy. I’ve been through so much with him. I felt his pain (after previous near-misses). He’s an emotional person. I know how much it hurts him.”

It seemed as though most of the gallery at Augusta felt the same way, as the Garcia who made a rude hand gesture to a spectator who heckled him at the 2002 U.S. Open was transformed into an almost beloved figure who seemed to feed off the crowd’s affection.

"Sergio often feels like he's not supported the way he would like to be here in America," said the vanquished Rose.

"It was encouraging to see the crowd get behind him. I think they realised that he paid his dues, he's been close so many times and they probably were pulling for him to pull through on this occasion."

McGinley, meanwhile, admitted that he was starting to wonder whether Garcia would ever close the deal.

“I think his career deserved a major and we were all worried his career wasn’t going to end with one,” the Irishman said.

“And to see it be done on such a grand stage, in such an impressive way, anyone who knows Sergio would have felt the same.”

(Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina; Editing by Larry Fine)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Golf: Garcia finally proves his majors mettle with Masters triumph

AUGUSTA, Georgia -- Sergio Garcia had long been his harshest critic, once saying he was not good enough to win a major, but on Sunday he buried decades of heartbreak and meltdowns by clinching a stirring win at the U.S. Masters.

The Spaniard stamped himself as one of the game's greats in remarkable fashion by overcoming some final round, back-nine adversity to claim his maiden major title in a playoff with friend and European Ryder Cup team mate Justin Rose.

"It's been such a long time coming," said Garcia, who missed a five-foot putt for the win at the end of regulation before rolling in a 12-foot birdie to claim victory on the first extra hole. "I felt today the calmest I ever felt on a major Sunday.

"Even after making a couple bogeys I was still very positive and I still believed. I am so happy."


Positive, happy and calm were not attributes one would normally have used to describe the 37-year-old Garcia on the golf course prior to this week.

Throughout his career, Garcia struggled to live up to lofty expectations laid upon his 19-year-old shoulders when he turned professional in 1999.

Considered by many to likely become the primary rival of Tiger Woods, Garcia developed a reputation for struggling in the biggest moments.

One of the most heartbreaking disappointments came in 2007 when his eight-foot par putt to win the British Open spun out of the cup and left him bent over in disbelief.

And while Garcia possessed the talent to put himself in the mix at golf's premier events -- as his 22 top-10 finishes coming into this week attests -- his mental toughness was questioned.

After falling out of contention in the third round of the 2012 Masters, Garcia famously delivered a brutal self assessment in which he said did not have what it takes to win a major.

"I don't have the thing I need to have," Garcia said at the time. "I've come to the conclusion that I need to play for second or third place ... in any major."

But the eve of this year's first major, Garcia received an inspirational message from compatriot and boyhood idol Jose Maria Olazabal, a twice Masters winner, saying he believed in him, stay calm and do not get rattled like in the past.

Garcia clearly took those words to heart, most notably in the final round when on several occasions it looked like the wheels were about to fall off and another major title was about to slip through his grasp.

He stood at the sixth tee with a three-shot edge over Rose but three holes later was tied atop the leaderboard after the Englishman made three consecutive birdies.

After bogeys at 10 and 11, Garcia's tee shot at the par-five 13th landed under an azalea bush and was unplayable, forcing him to take a drop and possibly end his title bid.

But Garcia scrambled for a tournament-saving par and then made birdie at 14 and eagle at the par-five 15th after nearly holing out from the fairway to set up an epic finish.

"I knew I needed to make that putt to stay in it," Garcia said of his par-save at 13. "That putt really kind of got me even more confident and then I was able to make two great holes."

When he missed his putt at 18 it was hard not to recall the missed putt in 2007 at Carnoustie, where Garcia ultimately lost in a playoff.

But not this year. Not for a revived Garcia who said he had come to terms with the fact that a major title might never come.

"Because of where my head was at, sometimes I did think about whether I am ever going to win one. I've had so many good chances and either I lost them or someone has done something extraordinary to beat me," said Garcia.

"So it did cross my mind but lately I have been getting some good help and I've been thinking a little different, a little bit more positive and kind of accepting that if for whatever reason it didn't happen, my life is still going to go on.

"But it's happened," Garcia added with a laugh.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Tiger fires back at make-believe magazine Q-and-A

MIAMI -- Former world number one Tiger Woods fired back Tuesday at a Golf Digest parody interview written by long-time golf writer Dan Jenkins, calling it a nasty attack and character assassination.

The fictional story by Jenkins is headlined "My (Fake) Interview with Tiger" with an asterisk and the sub-heading "Or how it plays out in my mind" and included a fake question and answer session between Jenkins and Woods.

Among the barbs written by Jenkins, as if uttered by Woods, is why Woods has not fired agent Mark Steinberg -- "I'll probably get around to it. I like to fire people. It gives me something to do when I'm not shaping my shots" -- and calling Sergio Garcia "Low Crybaby in every tournament."

Woods took to the Players Tribune website and tweeted a link to his Tuesday story with the comment: "Most things in the media you let slide, but sometimes you can't and shouldn't."

Woods' article began: "Did you read Dan Jenkins' interview with me in the latest Golf Digest? I hope not. Because it wasn't me. It was some jerk he created to pretend he was talking to me. That's right, Jenkins faked an interview, which fails as parody and is really more like a grudge-fuelled piece of character assassination.

"Journalistically and ethically, can you sink any lower?"

- Tiger cites 'sheer nastiness' -

The words Jenkins put in Woods' mouth, while clearly marked as fictional, hit close to home in Woods' personal life, poking at the sex scandal that led to his divorce, and his ego.

"I like to think I have a good sense of humor and that I'm more than willing to laugh at myself. In this game, you have to," Woods wrote in his story. "I've given lots of interviews to journalists in all that time, more than I could count, and some have been good and some not so much. All athletes know that we will be under scrutiny from the media. But this concocted article was below the belt.

"Good-natured satire is one thing, but no fair-minded writer would put someone in the position of having to publicly deny that he mistreats his friends, takes pleasure in firing people, and stiffs on tips -- and a lot of other slurs, too.

"Whether it's misreported information or opinions I think are way off base, I let plenty of things slide. But this time I can't do that. The sheer nastiness of this attack, the photos and how it put false words in my mouth just had to be confronted."

Jenkins noted the absence of one-time close pal and two-time major winner Mark O'Meara from Woods' entourage lately, having his fake Woods say: "I'm sorry. I can't place him. Did he play on the tour?"

- Taunts cited late father, ex-wife -

Citing Woods' late father Earl's comment in his son's youth that Tiger would have a greater world impact than Gandhi, Jenkins had the faux Woods reply: "I looked for Gandy in the record book and couldn't find him."

Jenkins made up Woods saying that he fired coach Butch Harmon because "Butchie was making me tip too many people" and added "I just don't understand why you're supposed to tip people for doing a job they're already getting paid to do."

Asked the moral of his infamous sex scandal, which began one week shy of five years ago and led to his divorce from wife Elin after the revelation of multiple mistresses, Jenkins' phony Woods retorted: "That's easy. Don't get caught."

Regarding the breakup of current world number one Rory McIlroy, who won the past two major titles, and tennis star Caroline Wozniacki, Jenkins wrote Woods as saying: "He's better off. He won another two majors, didn't he?"

Woods responded: "The truth is, Jenkins has no idea how I think or feel about any of the things he claims to know about, which is why he had to make things up. Frustration or resentment because I have not been more available to him should not give him a license for an underhanded attack on me as an athlete, as a professional and as a person."

Steinberg sent a letter to Golf Digest, a link to which Woods copied in his article, asking for an apology and saying the Golf Digest editors allowed Jenkins "to realize his vendetta, concocting situations that arise out of his own grudges and frustrations."

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