Sergio Garcia Limps into the Players Championship

Just over a year ago, Sergio Garcia had won the Players Championship and finally appeared both physically and mentally ready to take that next step towards golfing greatness.

Last August, Garcia came within a hair of winning the PGA Championship, lost in a sudden death playoff to Camilo Villegas at the Tour Championship and then went on to win two European Tour events in October and November.

Garcia’s win at the Players Championship combined with his strong finish to the 2008 season catapulted him all the way up to number two in the World Golf Rankings.

Throughout his career, Garcia has never been lacking in the talent department.  For some time now, he has been widely regarded as the best ball striker on tour.

Garcia’s inability to get over that hump and win a major championship has had less to do with his pure talent and more to do with his putting and mental game, both of which go very much hand-in-hand.

The main reason why so many predicted that 2009 could finally be the year that Garcia captured his first major championship was not because of his win at the Players Championship, his strong finishes at the PGA and Tour Championships or his two wins on the European Tour late in the season.

After 10 years on the PGA Tour, Garcia appeared to have finally matured both on and off the course, which, along with a vastly improved putter, was all that Garcia had been missing over the past decade.

The way in which Garcia handled defeat at the PGA Championship and Tour Championship showed a transformation from a volatile, hot-tempered young player to a mature man and golfer.

Following gut-wrenching defeats at the PGA and Tour Championships, Garcia didn’t blame the course, the weather or the golfing Gods.

For the first time in his career, Garcia was mature enough to stand up and take full responsibility for his losses while gracefully complimenting those who had defeated him.

A mature Sergio Garcia with a steady hand on the greens would surely be a force to be reckoned with in 2009, right? 

It’s amazing how much things can change in just five short months.

Garcia has yet to finish within the top-10 at a PGA Tour event this year and the defending champion comes limping into the 2009 Players Championship having just missed the cut at last week’s Quail Hollow Championship.

“I obviously am not feeling 100 percent with my game at the moment and it shows. I'm just not having a great time on the course” said Garcia during his press conference at TPC Sawgrass.

Garcia currently ranks 173rd on tour in putting and has once again switched from a standard putter back to a belly putter in the hope of finding some way to get the ball in the hole in less than the 30.17 putts per round he is averaging right now.

Following a tie for 38th at the Masters last month, frustration began to set in and Garcia’s immature personality reemerged.

Over 100 players were in the field at the Masters last month, yet Garcia was the only one to criticize Augusta National, which has been regarded as one of the best golf courses on the face of the planet for 75 years.

Immediately following his final round 74 at the Masters, Garcia told the Golf Channel “"I don't like it, to tell you the truth. I don't think it's fair, and it's just too tricky. Even when it's dry, you still get mud balls in the middle of the fairway. It's just too much of a guessing game." 

When asked how he would change Augusta National, Garcia replied: "I don't care. They can do whatever. It is not my problem. I just come here, play golf and go home."

When Garcia was asked today about his post-round comments at Augusta last month, he said “So I just—it just caught me at the wrong time and I just said the wrong things, I guess.

"But you learn from all those things” and went on to later say “There's a lot of things that you do in your life that you wish you would have done differently, but not only myself, but I think everybody.

"And I am the way I am. And for good and for worse, what you see is what you get. So the same way that my personality helps me a lot, sometimes it hurts me. It's just a matter of learning how to control it a little bit and just try to do the right thing”.

In just a matter of months, Garcia has seems to have regressed from a mature player who was draining putts, winning tournaments and on the verge of capturing his first major championship back to that childlike player who is quick to point the finger at anyone and anything else other than himself.

As has always been the case with Garcia, the talent is certainly there, it always has been, but in the game of golf where mental strength is just as important as the physical, it’s the space between his hears that he needs to get a handle on.

Very often when a player returns to a course where he has experienced success, such as TPC Sawgrass for Garcia, he will regain the mindset and confidence needed to once again play well.

The Players Championship served as a springboard for Garcia last year, and who knows, it might just happen again this week.