subject: Sergio Garcia Is Affected By Broken Heart [print this page] Sergio Garcia Is Affected By Broken Heart
In the highest level of pro tournament golf, a player's ability to control his emotions is so important. But for Sergio Garcia, over most of the past two years, it's mainly been affected by a broken heart.
At the 2009 World Golf Championship event at Doral in 2009, Garcia and his steady girlfriend, Morgan-Leigh Norman, broke up after what had appeared to be a serious long-term relationship. "It was her decision, not mine," Garcia said. "It hurt. It was probably the first time I have been really in love. It took me a while to heal it."
In his first appearance this season in a PGA Tour event, Garcia pushed himself to within a shot of the 36-hole with discount golf equipment lead at the Transitions tournament at Innisbrook in Palm Harbor, Fla with rounds of 68 and 66. He then struggled over the weekend, but still managed a tie for 15th that left him mostly pleased with what appears to be the improving state of his game. That hasn't been the case for a very long time.
At No. 2 in the world rankings early in the 2009 season, Garcia has now fallen down to No. 82 as he prepares to play this week in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in Orlando. He has seven PGA Tour titles, 15 top-10 finishes in major championships and a 14-6-1 record over five Ryder Cup appearances, but Garcia hasn't won on the PGA Tour since the 2008 Players Championship.
As a highly gifted player, 19-year-old Garcia burst onto the world scene at the 1999 PGA Championship, when he challenged Woods down at Medinah in Chicago. It seemed only a matter of time before he would break through and win the first of what surely would be multiple majors. But it still hasn't happened for a temperamental player who also has had a well-deserved reputation as something of a whiner and a sore loser when things did not go his way.And over the past two years, they've gone in a terribly wrong way. he named him a vice captain, hoping his presence in the team room would provide an emotional lift for the rest of his players. It was a lovely gesture on Montgomerie's part and a role Garcia took quite seriously, even if he couldn't participate as a competitor.
Garcia has always been considered one of the game's finest ball strikers, a man who hit scads of fairways and greens in regulation, bombed the ball a long way off the tee and had a nice touch with his short game, putting not exactly included. He has always struggled somewhat on greens, but it's never been as bad as his past two seasons. In 2009, he ranked 116th in putting on the PGA Tour; last year, it got even worse, when he ranked 159th.
"I'm not worried about winning," he said after his second round on Friday in Orlando even Ex-basketball Player Gets The First Victory Of PGA Tour. "I just want to keep building confidence into my head, and these rounds obviously help. If we go out there and I shoot another round, beautiful. If not, I've just got to make sure that I keep building up."
