Sergio Garcia forever cements his rep as Choke Garcia with summer of gags, including one final one in Tour Championship
Add commentsThis should have been the summer when Sergio Garcia established himself as a dominant star who deserved to be talked about as the next best player in the Tiger Woods’ era. Instead, it turned into the time when Garcia’s rep was forever cemented as being one of the worst gag artists in all of sports.
First, Garcia blew a PGA Championship he should have won by somehow finding the water on the 70th hole at Oakland Hills. Then, he coughed up the first FedEx Cup tournament by going into near spastic premature celebration in New Jersey, giving himself no chance in the playoff when Vijay Singh shocked him by hitting a putt bomb back. And it fittingly ended in the Tour Championship today with Garcia once again coming up small in a final round, shooting a 1-over 71 and allowing Camilo Villegas to win it with a par on a very birdieable first playoff hole.
You can also bet that Nick Faldo will not soon forget how easily Anthony Kim rolled over Garcia in the Ryder Cup either.
The truth is no one played better golf than Sergio Garcia this summer. No one struck the ball truer more consistently. And he has absolutely nothing but some more meaningless runner-up checks to show for it (unless you’re his accountant, than they’re plenty meaningful).
Coughing it up once in a big spot is to be expected in golf. You can even understand twice. But four times in one summer alone? There’s no denying that truth. And it’s fair to wonder if Garcia will ever recover and reach his true potential now.
It’s sad. Because in many ways, Sergio Garcia also showed why he is the most compelling figure in all of golf - including that dad on crutches - this summer too. There’s no more fascinating figure out there - and now he just looks like a pathetic foil.
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Jason Scott Deegan:
The Accidental Golfer:
Katharine Dyson:
Kiel Christianson:
So Sergio did win something. Something Mickelson has never won, and will never get another chance to win in all likelihood because of Tiger and the new kid on the block (Villegas).
So who is the player of the year? Woods or Harrington?
You're claiming that losing to Anthony Kim in the Ryder Cup is a choke? Kim made, what was it, 8 birdies? Dude, really...
Though granted, very birdieable might have been overstating it a little.
If you saw Baldwin's game, you would concede that to him, every hole is "birdie-able".
Sigh. I'm snake-bit, I guess. Pass the paella & sangria.
earth that would go for the pin there. He'll be lucky if he ever wins a major and i hope he does some major soul searching.
(Hint: Nicklaus, 19 (I think)).
So, this raises the question: Nicklaus = choker?
Now, some of those, he got beat. But some he let go.
Then there's Palmer, several times, most notably Cherry Hills...
Palmer=choker?
Debate...
And Justin, as I said, it's the doing it four times this summer that cements Garcia as choker. Once, twice, that's just golf. Four times in big events in one summer, that's speaks to something else.
I never said Garcia was a choke artist, that's all C-Bald. Besides, I was playing in a match last week that was all square on 18 and I doubled it from the middle of the fairway (luckily my partner bailed me out), so I'm not calling anyone a "choker" until I get better at closing out myself!!!
Besides...Garcia will win a major before he's 30.
I, for one, am 100% sure Sergio will win at least one major. Time will tell.
Now, how many "big ones" does Sergio need to win to erase that deficit? One? An equal ratio of wins to close losses? Again, I'm not disagreeing with you; it's just that it seems to me people argue about stuff all the time (golf and otherwise) based simply on their own varying definitions of the words their using, rather than on the substantive underlying issues.
BV