Sergio Garcia Is Facing A Rare Opportunity

Over the coming months, Sergio Garcia could face an opportunity that no other professional golfer has even come close to in more than four years.

A win this week and a top-five finish next week could move Garcia past Woods in the World Golf Rankings.

If Garcia were to pass Woods in the World Golf Rankings, he would be the first player to do so since Vijay Singh briefly knocked Woods off his thrown for several months back in 2004.

Woods has already committed to play in next weeks World Golf CA-Championship, so if Garcia were to win this week, he would also need a top-5 finish next week combined with a poor performance from Woods.

Prior to last week’s Accenture Match Play Championship, the last time we saw Tiger Woods was at the 2008 US Open when he defeated 155 of the best players on the planet while playing on a broken leg.

So, although one would surely expect to see some rust on the game of a player who has not played competitively in more than eight months, this is not just any ‘player’, this is Tiger Woods we are talking about.  This is the same man whose game was so superior that he was able to defeat 155 of the best players in the world players while literally playing on one leg.

So, although illogical, many were actually surprised when Woods did not come back and win the Accenture Match Play Championship last week.

Next week we will get our first true glimpse at the extent of any rust that may be clinging onto Woods game after the long layoff.

If Woods does indeed display a good bit of rust on his game next week, it could be several months before he gets back to his top form, thus giving Sergio Garcia a very legitimate opportunity to achieve something that we have not seen much of over the past thirteen years.

Even if Garcia does not overtake Woods in the coming weeks, if Woods plays just average golf for the next couple of months and Garcia plays well, possibly even mixing in a win, Garcia could actually head to the year’s second major as the number one ranked player in the world.

Being an 11-year veteran on tour, sometimes we forget that Garcia is only 29 years old.

If Garcia does happen to take over Woods’ number one spot in the world golf ranking, it will be quite an achievement for this still very young player.

However, it might also awaken a sleeping giant.