Ever since a teenage Sergio Garcia burst onto the world golf stage in the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah with his now famous challenge of Tiger Woods, greatness has been predicted for him. He has become a steady presence in the bottom half of the top 10 golfers in the World Ranking but has stalled out there. Not that there is anything wrong with that. All golfers alive - except for the 5 or 6 ahead of him - would be thrilled with that accomplishment.

In Sergio’s case it seems like the dreaded story of wasted potential. Many would say that he is just unlucky to be playing during the reign of Tiger Woods but it looks like more than that. There is now some severe mental scarring that will likely never be overcome.

The first sign of it was that incredible re-gripping that was hard to even watch. How he ever pulled the trigger after about 30 seconds of that is beyond me. And he has been suffering from putting woes for quite some time - and this at a young age. Seldom does that ever get better as a pro golfer gets older. Perhaps he can take hope from Vijay Singh who in recent years had a prolonged spell of good putting (for him).

On top of that he has blown several tournaments when leading at the start of the final round. And not just getting beat but doing the moonwalk down the leaderboard. That pressure of playing in the final group now appears to be more than he can bear - especially when Tiger is in the field.

Sergio would be over-achieving to match the record of his countryman Jose Maria Olazabal (with 2 majors), but don’t expect him to even come close to the record of his idol, Seve Ballesteros. That is never going to happen.

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