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This marks a change of message from Garcia. A year ago, he blamed bad luck for his major woe. Now, he's trying to convince us, and perhaps himself, that he doesn't want it as badly as Woods. He seems to lack the desire to do what it takes to challenge for World No. 1. And to say there's more to golf than majors — Mickelson sang that song for years. But after his 2004 Masters win, he admitted it was spin — a defense mechanism, just in case he never broke through.
Garcia's unwillingness to change who he is at his core can be traced at least as far back as 2003, when, frustrated with the tinkering he'd done to his swing, he almost walked away from golf for good. "I thought about quitting because I felt I was losing control," he says. "When you start losing your feel, and you can't control the ball as much as you want, you lose that drive. That's a little bit of what happened to David Duval. Thankfully for me, I got it back. But if..." He pauses. "I don't even want to think about doing something else. At the moment, there is nothing else I want to do." He smiles. "It's too late now to play for Real Madrid."
Sergio Garcia is torn between two lovers. It's the eve of the Dubai Desert Classic, and he's hitting — and mostly missing — five-footers on the practice green, alternating between his short putter and belly putter. His caddie Billy Foster grabs the long putter to demonstrate a technique and holes several in a row. Garcia is visibly frustrated. Above, on the second-story clubhouse patio, a lounge singer strums his guitar and serenades drinkers with an Eagles song, providing a fitting soundtrack: "Take it easy, take it easy. Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy..."
In May, Garcia won the Players Championship, his biggest Tour win yet and his first victory since 2005, a rough patch due in large part to poor putting. Before his erratic putter heated up at Sawgrass (he had 28 putts in the final round), his well-documented woes on the greens had continued in 2008. Despite turning to short-game guru Stan Utley, Sergio had experimented with four grips (conventional, left-hand-low, claw, and split-hand) and ranked 168th in putting average through the Players. He even placed a short and long putter in his bag at the same time, "a safety net in case I didn't feel 100 percent with the short putter," he explains.
Of course, safety nets are often reserved for performers who expect to fall.
When writers ask Sergio about putting, they prepare for a prickly response. He's tired of the questions. He's also tired of what he considers a double standard. The media loves straight talk (see: Woody Austin) and wishes Tiger Woods would say something — anything — beyond boilerplate. Garcia is frank, direct, genuine — and, yes, sometimes surly. And he's slammed for it.
"It is so difficult to find the right line," Garcia says. "If you say nothing, you are worthless. But if you say what you feel, you are worthless still because you get killed. You can only take so many hits. I get on OK with the media. I don't have any guys I hate. But it is not the best relationship because when I say what I feel, some people kill me for it."
Clarke Jones, Garcia's manager since 1999, admits that he's sometimes disappointed by his client's behavior. "But whatever heads Sergio has bitten off, there was no malice intended," Jones says. "The media puts so much pressure on people. Colin Montgomerie still has to talk about why he has not won a major. Sergio should not have to answer that anymore. Everyone knows he wants to win one. He's emotional. He's human. He cares. His attractiveness as an athlete is due to the fact that he's an emotional, fiery competitor. But Sergio is Sergio. People either love the guy or get turned off by him. Yeah, there are times where he gets a little long-winded. But it's because he cares so much. He's not perfect. Nobody is."
Garcia is almost perfect in the Ryder Cup, with a career record of 14-3-3. Every two years, the promise that is El Nino is realized. He loosens up at its very mention. His shoulders relax. He laughs. "I need to get those good vibes from the Ryder Cup into my stroke-play game," he says.
So why hasn't he? Because, he suggests, he needs the emotional connection of his teammates. In majors, playing alone, there's a fragility; he's not swaddled in the blue-and-yellow security blanket of Team Europe. It's a golf cliche: focus, focus, focus. But for Garcia, too much inward focus is a bad thing. He needs the lifeline of teammates and fans.
"When I play with someone who's a friend or whose company I enjoy, I play well," he says. "When I play with somebody I am not that fond of, I tend to struggle. Those good vibes and bad vibes affect my game. If I get too focused, that's not how I feel most comfortable. I don't loosen up. That's the difference with the Ryder Cup and the majors. When I have a friend next to me who I can talk to and keep loose with, I relax more. That's one of the reasons I have been successful in Ryder Cups." And in majors? "I feel lonely, like there is something missing."
Another Ryder Cup hero says Garcia would be seeking his second straight Open this year if he'd changed one thing at Carnoustie — and not his putting. "It was a strategic problem," says Colin Montgomerie. "He was ahead of the chasing pack. It was the first time he had been in that situation in a major. Sergio was caught between 'Attack, or protect your lead?' I have done that. He protected too much on 18 when he hit [a 2-iron] off the tee. The proof? In the playoff he hit driver and almost made 3. It would have been easier if he had [started Sunday] tied for the lead instead of three ahead. Someone was going to come up, and it was Padraig Harrington and Andres Romero. Now what do you do? You panic."
Garcia agrees that he presses in majors. "Maybe I beat myself up too much and try too hard. The Ryder Cup is different. I get involved with the crowds. Being brought up in Spain, where football [soccer] is so huge, you are used to that atmosphere where everybody is cheering and screaming. It drives me a little more. If I knew the answer..."
He trails off, half smiles and shrugs. He's still searching.
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