He's got it in the bag. That's was my feeling for Sergio Garcia going in to the final round of the British Open Championship. He had a three shot lead, his putting woes had not surfaced, but most of all, I felt his time had come.I was wrong.
I didn't take in to account the phenomenal final round performance by Open winner Padraig Harrington. Harrington went in to the day six shots off the lead, with nobody giving him a chance to be the eventual winner. What a difference a 5-under par 67 can make.
Harrington actually went on to the 18th hole at Carnoustie with a one stroke lead, only to hit two balls in to the infamous Barry Burn. That left Sergio back in the driver's seat.
Garcia, who led for almost the entire week, needed a par on the finishing hole to win his first major championship. After a few tricky shots, Garcia had a ten foot putt to win it all. As has been the pattern in his young career, his putter let him down.
In the playoff Harrington made amends for his double-bogey on the 72-hole, erasing any mention of his name with Jean Van de Velde who could not recover from his disaster eight years earlier.
Golf rarely gives anyone second chances. As a golfer myself, I can certainly attest to that fact. Harrington got his, and he made good on it. As much as my heart was cheering for Sergio, I still felt pride for Harrington's feat.
Sergio will learn from this experience. I feel he's the kind of player who will win a major tournament one day, and then he won't stop there. I figure once he gets the first win under his belt, he'll get a few more. It's just a matter of getting that first one out of the way. At 27-years of age, he's got a lot more chances ahead to do it.
1 comment:
I saw the playoff holes and it looked to me like Garcia ran out of gas in the end.
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