Garcia hoping to get back on track in Castellon
“I need to miss the game a little bit,” said the 30-year-old Spaniard inAugust before starting a lay-off that comes to an end this week on his home course in the Castello Masters.
“I’m very excited and I’m looking forward to coming back and hopefully doing something very, very good,” he then stated at Celtic Manor as Europe’s celebrations got under way.
Garcia returns ranked 68th in the world. That may not be close to where Lee Westwood slumped to when he lost his way eight years ago — atthe same age interestingly — but it probably feels like it.
And it has serious implications for his career if he cannot stop the slide and begin climbing again.
As things stand Garcia would not qualify for the world championships next season and that makes remaining a member of both the European and America circuits a lot more difficult, especially with Europe upping itsminimum requirement from12 to 13.
All this seemed light years away when he spent 18 successive weeks as number two to Tiger Woods between November 2008 and March last year. He even had the chance to replace him at the top on one occasion during that time.
Since then, however, Garcia has not managed a single top three finish. And since he reached the semi-finals of the Accenture Match Play Championship in Tucson in February, losing to eventual winner Ian Poulter, there has not been one top 10 finish.
Garcia would be thrilled if he could triumph in Castellon even if the field doesn’t contain any of the players he saw beat the Americans earlier this month.
Indeed, after him most attention is set to be paid to Montgomerie’s likely successor Jose Maria Olazabal. Still troubled by rheumatic pains, he makes only his second appearance of the year and his first since the French Open at the start of July.
Of the two there has naturally beena lot more sympathy for Olazabal’sposition. Bad health has dogged him on and off for 15 years now and who knows if, at 44, he can ever hit the heights again.
Garcia just seems to have lost his way and the way he spoke after he and girlfriend Morgan-Leigh Norman — daughter of Greg — split last year that seemed to be the case personally as well as professionally.
“When that happens obviously your head is not in the right place and that obviously affects your game because your mentality is not where it should be,” he commented. “It doesn’t matter how much you practice because you are not thinking about what you are doing. It’s just one of those things that you’ve got to be a little patient.”
Close friend Adam Scott, who has come through his own mini-crisis and got his act back together, clearly empathised and supported Garcia’s move.
“Good for Sergio — we have a 30-year career out here and two months is not much time at all.”
