Sulky Sergio Europe’s best chance
The Spaniard is the top ranking European in the world (7) and accordingly should have the best chance of becoming the first golfer from this continent to win a major championship since Paul Lawrie at Carnoustie in 1999.
But if his manner and tone at his press conference is a reliable yardstick, then he is unlikely to break the South African-American stranglehold on the game’s greatest prize. He was grumpy, irritable, threw his eyes up to heaven in unconcealed frustration at the mention of Tiger Woods’s name. And isn’t it just a little ironic that Garcia was first embraced as a world star by the golfing media and fans during the 1999 US PGA Championship at Medinah.
He was only 19 when he took on Woods down the stretch and though he missed out by one in a gripping contest, he still produced the shot from behind the tree followed by the pirouette down the fairway that captured the imagination of millions of television viewers. But that was six years ago and Garcia is still majorless.
He has won six US Tour tournaments since then and for some time believed that the PGA at Baltusrol offered the best chance for that long awaited breakthrough.
For it to happen, however, Garcia will need to be in full control of his emotions. He did say that the “PGA Championship has always been a fun tournament for me. I’ve had the pleasure of playing fairly well in it.”
But when it was put to Sergio that Tiger was back to where he was in 2000, he belittled his questioner by scoffing: “2000? The tournament was at Valhalla. We’re in New Jersey. So no, he’s not back at where he was in 2000, that’s for sure.”
Reminded that he hadn’t been close to winning a major since 1999, he again took offence, saying: “Well, closer to second is only first, so it’s tough to come closer than second without winning in the first place.” The reason for the failures, he insists, has been his putting: “You’ve got to realise that a lot of these majors I’m contending in I’m doing so without putting well and that’s tough to do.”
If he controls his emotions, he is perfectly capable of leading a seriously strong European challenge for a title they haven’t won since Tommy Armour back in 1930.
Colin Montgomerie is back again but unlikely to be a threat if only because of the hand injury sustained in Gleneagles last week making it almost impossible to play recovery shots from the thick rough.
After Garcia, the man most will look to is Padraig Harrington, who, however, claims he is uncompetitive after a fairly lengthy lay-off and has “no sense of expectation.”
“I’ve played two and a half practice rounds this week and spent a lot of time on my short game,” he said yesterday. “The golf course is set there in front of you. It’s not likely to change significantly from day to day with the fairways and greens being reasonably soft. Emotionally I feel fine although physically I haven’t recovered from the highs and lows of the year. But I feel like I’m now starting a new season and I’m as ready as I can be.”
If Harrington’s campaign has been interrupted by his father’s illness that eventually led to his death four weeks ago, Darren Clarke has hardly known from one day to the next where he stood as his wife continued her battle with cancer. Thankfully, she’s doing well at present and certainly I haven’t seen Darren as upbeat for a long time. He has worked hard on the range and played the course every day since Sunday and happily reports that “it’s very fair and in great shape. It’s a little bit different to play a course with so many par fours around the 500-yard mark but in fact I haven’t been hitting anything more than a five-iron into any of the par four greens.”
Clarke could certainly be a dark horse but the same could hardly be said about the other two Irish contenders, Graeme McDowell and Paul McGinley. Indeed, there’s only a 50-50 chance that McDowell will tee it up at all as he continues to suffer spinal whiplash following a recent car accident. McGinley’s strident comments about the length of the course earlier in the week can only equate with the reality that he’ll struggle to make a serious impression.
The field abounds in top-class European names, Garcia (7th), Harrington (8th), Clarke (14th) and Luke Donald (15th) are all ranked in the top fifteen in the world, Miguel-Angel Jimenez, Montgomerie, David Howell, Thomas Bjorn, Lee Westwood, McDowell, Jose-Maria Olazabal, McGinley and Ian Poulter in the leading fifty. It’s time for one or more to stand up and be counted - starting this very week here in New Jersey.
And that man could well be Garcia, provided he keeps a sound head on his volatile shoulders.
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