Sergio looks to end Euro drought

SERGIO GARCIA has emerged as the most likely candidate to end the 35-year drought since a European last won the US Open.

Garcia surged to a magnificent victory in the Booz Allen tournament at Congressional, Washington, the 1997 venue for the championship, at the weekend and has arrived here with his confidence sky high.

Because he also won last year in the week before the Open, the Spaniard is being understandably cautious about his prospects, stressing that the way Congressional was set up differed greatly from the way it would be presented for a major championship.

He also insists that: “Pinehurst is a great golf course and really difficult. I had the pleasure of playing here for the first time today and I found the fairways tough to hit, the rough quite thick and the greens are pretty firm at the moment and with all the run-offs, they’re kind of difficult.”

On top of that, Garcia wasn’t afraid to fire a few shots at the USGA and the course superintendent, insisting that he feared the bunkers more than anything else. He criticised the amount of sand, suggesting: “You’re going to get many plugged lies, and coming into those greens from a plugged lie will be almost impossible. It’s unfortunate the bunkers are in that shape because they don’t need to be that soft.”

Garcia is oozing with talent and having been pipped by Tiger Woods for the US PGA Championship in 1999, is still awaiting his first “major” six years later. The closest he has come in the US Open was 4th at Bethpage Park in 2002 when Woods again outstayed all his rivals.

“This is my third chance to win a major the week after winning on Tour, so hopefully we can make it third time lucky,” he mused. “I’ve been close. It’s one of those things that sometimes happens but I don’t give it more credit than it deserves. I don’t know whether this course suits a European or an American or players from anywhere else. I think Pinehurst will favour the players hitting it straight and fairly long because you don’t want to be coming into some of those greens with three or four irons. It’s tough to hit them with a nine or an eight iron so you can only imagine how tough it is with a long iron.”

All too true, but Garcia needs to break through to a major, sooner rather than later, if he is to be recognised as he surely deserves to be as one of the finest exponents of the modern game. He may never have a better chance than this and it was interesting to hear him reflect on the often expressed view that he (and possibly Padraig Harrington and Adam Scott) is now the best player in the world never to have captured a major.

“I take that kind of talk as a compliment”, he claimed. “I take the good part of it. I mean, if you tell me I’m the best player not to have won a major, that must mean I’m a good player. It’s always nice to be recognised. But I’ve just got to give it time. Sometimes the harder you try to force it and make it happen, the harder it is. I’ve just got to let it happen. I know that I can play well enough, I know that I can do it.

“I’m not going to lie to you, as soon as I turned pro in ‘99, my goal was to keep my card in Europe and if I could do so in America, it would be great. I managed to do that and won a couple of tournaments. After that, I was hoping to keep it going. If you had come to me then and promised you’re going to achieve what you’ve achieved, I would have been happy. I would have been thrilled to be the 6th player in the world and winning tournaments all over the world. It’s exciting.”

All fine so far but then he stretched credibility when going a step too far: “Of course I would like to have won a major by now but, honestly, it’s not something that bothers me.”