Can Garcia scratch his way into the British or U.S. Open?
In order to be eligible for the BRITISH (not U.S.) OPEN, Sergio Garcia must go through the qualification process because his world ranking is currently not high enough for automatic entry. That qualification round was to take place today.
Garcia withdrew from his qualifier this morning due to an infected fingernail.
“Unfortunately had to wd from qualifier this morning because of an infected fingernail in my left hand. Couldn’t hold the club comfortably even after 5 holes. Hopefully I’ll be fine for Thursday at the (Byron) Nelson! Sorry guys.” ~Sergio Garcia via Twitter
A fingernail can derail a world class player’s chances to play in the Open. Speechless.
Anyone who has read my blog with any regularity knows I’ve been, shall we say, “critical” of Sergio Garcia. The spit incident tarnished my respect for him long ago. Recently Sergio’s play hasn’t been great and the old me was there to ride that horse, predicting a poor performance in the Masters and making fun of the promotion awarding free TaylorMade drivers to players who bought them before the Masters if Garcia won…
Now we know why Sergio’s play has been so rocky, he’s done with Greg Norman’s daughter Morgan Leigh
Back during the Masters I commented that Sergio had a look in his eye which didn’t look right. It didn’t look good at all. I wasn’t sure if he was ill, being audited by the IRS or what. He looked beaten down. He looked like he was in a daze.
As it turns out his relationship with Greg Norman’s daughter Morgan Leigh is over. Some articles are saying he was “dumped” which is not terribly nice.
I feel your pain Sergio. Can I buy you a beer?
Well guess what? My game has SUCKED this season so far. My handicap has TRIPLED and it is still getting worse. I’ve thought about hanging it up a few times. I’m so fragile emotionally on the course I want to cry with joy when I make a birdie and throw a temper tantrum like a big baby when I make a bogey. I’m an emotional wreck now and my concentration level is horrid.
I’m in a similar boat to my now friend in misery Mr. Garcia. I too broke off a relationship months ago. It has been very tough. Food hasn’t been terribly appealing and I have moments where I just stare off into space. Several times a week I just want to go to sleep in the middle of the day, though I got plenty of sleep the night before. In my morning shower I have these moments where I just fade off into some other universe. I’m not exactly sure how long I stare at the wall of the shower some mornings. I’ve lost 22 pounds in two months. It has been tough to gag food down and sometimes I’ll realize I haven’t eaten a meal in 24 hours or more, just a couple of olives.
Getting better slowly
I’m slowly adjusting to having that big hole in my personal life without a special lady who I thought was the perverbial “one.” If Sergio felt the same way as I did, you can be sure his game won’t be back any time soon. I’m about four months in and just barely coming out of my shell. I still have moments where I zap back to the past and get sad, but I’m trying to move on and move forward. I’ve now got the feelers out to friends and some dating sites, and maybe I’ll find me a nice lady who golfs.
So Sergio…
So Sergio I humbly apologize for all the crap I’ve given you here on my little golf blog. I feel your pain man. It will get better, but not as quick as you may hope. That pain will never really go away. You’ll just figure out how to process it. Call it a character builder like those four foot putts.
You’ll always have those painful memories tucked away in the back of your golf bag, but you’ll find happiness in the future. At least thats my plan.
Lately I’ve had a bit of a middle age crush on Dottie Pepper. Well that just spiked because Dottie called out Sergio for his childish behavior/comments at the Masters. You go girl.
No athlete is beyond making knucklehead moves with the media — I have my own long list of regrets — but you can turn such a misstep into a positive by dealing with it honestly. When you do apologize, as Sergio did two days later, don’t issue a statement that sounds as if another person wrote it. (I can’t recall hearing Sergio use the word iconic before.) Fans forgive those who ‘fess up and take responsibility. Such contrition goes hand in hand with taking responsibility for your own game, a key to succeeding, as Kenny Perry did after just plain ol’ losing the Masters. Sergio will have plenty of opportunity to make amends at the Players. If he doesn’t, I can’t begin to imagine how brutal the U.S. Open fans are going to be at Bethpage.
Love ’em or not, I’d rather have announcers like Dottie Pepper and Johnny Miller who have enough golf balls to call a spade a spade and aren’t afraid to have an opinion. I’d much rather hear that than hear them spewing out a bunch of generic panderous rubbish.
Wow the folks at Golfsmith are big risk takers. Read a portion of their press release below, but it basically says that that if you buy one of three TaylorMade drivers from Golfsmith between now and April 11th, you’ll be refunded your money if Sergio Garcia wins the Masters.
It is no secret that I’m critical of Sergio. I lost respect for the guy when he spit in the hole on national TV and then denied it in a post round interview.
I’m also quite confident that Sergio will NOT win the Masters as his putting on the slick Augusta greens will be his downfall. In fact, I’m so confident that Sergio will not win the Masters that I’ll make the following statement.
IF SERGIO GARCIA WINS THE MASTERS, I’LL PLAY THE PAR-5 1ST HOLE OF MY HOME COURSE NAKED.
I have lost a few pounds recently. In fact, I weigh 10 pounds less than I did in high school. So there won’t be any beached whale sightings on the course should Sergio win. That being said, I’m no spring chicken and I don’t exactly have a six pack or abs of steel. 🙂
I’m not alone in my skepticism:
Deadspin piece (read the great comments, except for the Payne Stewart one)
(more…)
Lefties hitting right-handed, righties hitting left-handed…
Did anyone see Phil Mickelson’s right-handed shot out of the bushes with his club turned upside down? I rolled that back a few times on my DVR. While I don’t agree that the shot choice he made was a wise decision, it was impressive. The result wasn’t great and could have been a catastrophe if his shot kicked right instead of down. All that said, Phil’s right-handed technique looked picture perfect. It looked better than mine. Of course, all he’d have to do is look better than an 84 year old lady golfing to look better than my swing, but I digress.
That Phil shot reminded me of a similar shot Tiger Woods hit back in the 2004 Masters when he did the same thing from the trees. I’m thinking it was the trees right of #13 but it was a while ago so I may have the hole wrong. As I recall I also rolled that one back a few times on the DVR and marveled at how perfect Tiger’s left-handed technique was.
Do these guys practice hitting these shots or are they just that damn good?
Can we put the Sergio #1 talk to bed now?
So now that Phil won at Doral, he overtook Sergio Garcia for the world’s #2 ranking, and silenced the ridiculous “Sergio #1 in the world” discussion for now.
Phil becomes #1 and Tiger’s caddy Steve Williams makes the switch to Phil…
I’d like to see Phil overtake Tiger, if not for just a few weeks. Then perhaps Steve Williams (Tiger’s caddy), would want to switch over to working for Phil. And maybe hell would freeze over too.
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