TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online
Garcia Finally Finding Putting Stroke
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Published: May 9, 2008
PONTE VEDRA BEACH - The secret of Sergio Garcia's unfulfilled talent never has been well guarded. Over years of mounting misery, the putter has become to Garcia what fuel prices are to cross-country truckers.
Long considered one of the purest ball strikers and shot makers in golf, the 28-year-old Spaniard has not won on the PGA Tour in three years. He could have claimed last year's British Open with an 8-footer for par on the 72nd hole, but rolled it over the edge and eventually lost a playoff. Putting so infuriated Garcia at Doral that, after missing a 2-footer last year, he dropped a glob of spit into the hole, saying all that needed to be said about his stroke.
Along the way, Garcia, considered a force on the greens when he joined the tour, repeatedly changed putters and putting strokes, each attempt serving as little more than a Band-Aid while his stroke turned steadily into an electric shock.
Asked how such a breakdown could happen, Garcia was short.
"If I know that, then I wouldn't have done it," he said.
What he does know is something has to change if he ever expects to live up to once-high hopes.
Thursday's opening day of The Players Championship suggests it just might.
With a 6-under-par 66, fueled by eight one-putts, Garcia jumped to a two-shot first-round lead over Kenny Perry and Paul Goydos.
Three shots back at 69 is a group of five: Heath Slocum, Steve Elkington, Ian Poulter, Niclas Fasth and Todd Hamilton.
Garcia's solid play on the hard and fast greens at TPC Sawgrass suggests positive returns from recent work with short-game teacher Stan Utley, who also has worked with Stewart Cink, Darren Clarke, Tom Lehman and Jay Haas.
"We work mainly on the short game, chipping and putting," Garcia said. "I guess when we started there were a lot of things to work on. Now there's a little less because I keep getting better every day."
Garcia's goal has been to return to a less-mechanical putting stroke, one dominated by feel and appeared so natural when he first demanded international attention as a 19-year-old battling Tiger Woods in the 1999 PGA. He has won six times on the PGA Tour since, but remains without a major championship and has been less and less a weekly threat.
"From the beginning, our main idea when I talked to Stan was to get back to the way I used to putt, like 10, 12 years ago when I was a good putter," Garcia said. "I'm just trying to get on that comfort level, in that comfort zone, and it seems to be getting better every week. At least now, I have some rounds where I come out and say I actually shot what I should have shot, not that I should have been four or five shots better."
Two shots back, Goydos had no problem with what he got out of his round of 68. The 16-year tour veteran had not broken par in 11 previous rounds at Sawgrass. Last year he shot 80-77 to miss the cut. In 28 rounds on the course, his best score was 70 - once.
What happened?
"I don't know," Goydos said. "Skipping 18 was a good idea, though."
Selective elimination of certain pesky holes would have been welcomed by many.
Ernie Els was 2 under before finding water off the tee at 17 and making triple. He did birdie 18 to finish even-par.
"Everything you work so hard for all day and then it's gone," Els said. "So no, I don't like that hole."
Several others suffered even more painful and prolonged crashes.
J.B. Holmes was 5 under and one shot out of the lead with six holes to play, but bogeyed 13, double-bogeyed 14, bogeyed 17 and 18 to finish even-par. Adam Scott was 2 under at the turn, only to play Nos. 11-14 bogey, bogey, double, bogey to shoot 75.
"You have to hit every fairway out there," Perry said. "You cannot put any spin on the golf ball to control it. You can't hardly find a mark on the greens; that's how firm they are."
Reporter Mick Elliott can be reached at (813) 281-2534 or melliott@tampatrib.com.
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