For Sergio Garcia, this Ryder Cup cycle has been a tale of two completely different years. In 2013, Sergio was more known for a variety controversies than he was for his play on the course. Due in large part to his racially insensitive remarks directed toward Tiger Woods, many (of the group that hadn’t already) turned on Sergio and his play on the course seemed to suffer amid the controversy.
Sergio Garcia peaking again for Ryder Cup, set for likely Rory McIlroy partnership
The precocious Spaniard is No. 3 in the world and playing some of the best golf of his life, which probably means more Ryder Cup agitation for the American side.
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Things really started to get weird for Sergio at the 2013 Players. During the third round, Garcia was paired with Woods. As Sergio played a shot, Woods reached for a club, indicating that he was going to try and play a miraculous shot from the trees. The crowd around Tiger cheered loudly as he went for the club and it apparently caused Garcia to play an extremely poor shot. After the round, Sergio was quite vocal with his displeasure for Woods.
As you may remember, Tiger went on to win and Sergio imploded.
Things got worse a few days later when Garcia suggested that he would serve Woods “fried chicken” if he had him over for dinner. It’s tough to say for certain whether the controversy affected Garcia, but a look at the rest of his season would indicate that it did.
For the rest of the summer, Garcia seemed off. Maybe fueled by his choke job at the Players or the Woods drama, Garcia didn’t crack the top 20 in any PGA Tour tournament until the Deutsche Bank Championship in September.
Unfortunately, this is what many people expected Sergio to do. He famously said he might never win a major and many questioned the desire he had for the game.
But as I noted, this is a story of two completely different seasons.
In 2014, the narrative has changed for Garcia. Many have forgotten about his controversial comments. By all accounts, he has made up as much as he could with Woods. But his play on the course may be the biggest change.
This year, Sergio entered 14 PGA Tour events and finished in the top 10 nine times. He also won on the European Tour at the Qatar Masters. It’s a refreshing resurgence in Garcia’s career, even if he still remains major-less. He has always had the passion, sometimes good, sometimes bad, but the consistency has been lacking. That’s not the case this year.
At the Ryder Cup, Garcia is one of several leaders on a very strong European side. He will almost certainly play with Rory McIlroy at some point, if not all of the first two days. The two have been seen practicing with each other’s golf balls, which would indicate they are a lock to be paired together during the alternate shot format matches.
Despite some of his failures and Sunday shortcomings at the major championships, Sergio remains one of the best Ryder Cup players ever. Based on how he’s played this year, he should only be adding to that at Gleneagles.
Age: 34
World ranking: 3
Ryder Cup record (Win-Loss-Halve): 16-8-4
Past Ryder Cup appearance: 1999, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2012
How he qualified: Automatic spot - Third on World Points List
