Garcia slides down rankings after making swing changes

THEY still remember him in Chicago. In truth, I suspect they’ll never forget him.

There he was, risking life and limb in slashing his golf ball out from under the trunk of a huge tree and then galloping and high stepping after it down the fairway until it finally and miraculously ended on the green.

It was the 1999 US PGA Championship at Medinah, just a few miles from Olympia Fields, the venue for this week’s US Open, and if anything, an ever greater source of pride to the people of Chicago.

Garcia was only 19 at the time and to lose to a rival as formidable as Tiger Woods by a single shot could mean only one thing...a new star had arrived and Tiger had better watch out.

Woods’ emotional release after that amazing confrontation clearly indicated that he thought so, too.

What’s more it was a rivalry that golf craved. In the past, there had been Bobby Jones and Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, Seve Ballesteros and Bernhard Langer. The public loved it and now they had the mouth watering prospect of Woods and Garcia going head to head for a long time to come.

Sadly, it hasn’t worked out that way. Whereas Woods stands miles ahead of everybody in the world rankings, Garcia has been slipping down the order with increasing speed. There have been few signs to suggest that the bleeding is about to stop.

Indeed, the dreaded word “slump” has been attributed to him of late, hardly surprisingly given that he has missed five of the last six cuts on the US Tour and has broken 70 only twice in that span.

However, it may be a little premature to write off Garcia just yet. He is following in the footsteps of people like Nick Faldo by having a major overhaul of his swing. It’s always a difficult process and has been particularly so for the now 23-year-old Spaniard.

Garcia was ranked fourth in the world and had challenged in the last two US Opens when he decided to change his swing. In fact, he was the only player to finish in the top 10 of last year’s four majors. But the warning signs were there, like how he slipped to a 74 in the last round of the 2002 Open at Bethpage and to 77 the previous year on the Sunday at Southern Hills.

Working with his father Victor, he had got into some bad habits. Some said that he was snapping up the club like a bullwhip, a motion producing great power but the timing the impact with the ball was extremely difficult.

“I had to try to get the swing more on a plane to gain more accuracy, it just had to be done,” Garcia insists. “I’m getting stronger and older and I don’t need as much latitude to hit the ball so far. I think it’s getting better. I’m not hitting as many of those loose shots as before, mainly because I don’t have to think about it so much.”

Sports Illustrated recently invited six top coaches to say whether they believed he was on the right road. Four said yes, two were a lot less positive.

“Garcia will have a hard time making the changes because he is unknowingly taking the naturalness out of his swing,” said one. Said another: “These changes could make him a major champion for years.”

Don’t bet too heavily on Garcia starting down that road this week. But surely he is too talented to be a has-been at just 23?