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Garcia's best days still in front of him despite recent struggles, says Garrod

By Mark Garrod
Published on
Garcia's best days still in front of him despite recent struggles, says Garrod

With the first anniversary of Seve Ballesteros's death coming up, Sergio Garcia really needs to be spoken to.

Jose Maria Olazabal, the other great Spanish golfer of the modern era, is probably the man to do it -- not simply because he speaks the same language, but because he is now Ryder Cup captain.

Ballesteros was not only the most charismatic player Europe has ever produced, he was also a fighter. On the course and most definitely in his battle with a brain tumor off it as well.

Garcia is only 31. In the sport he has chosen, his prime years could well still be ahead of him, yet he sounded totally defeated as he finished 12th -- not 32nd like Luke Donald and not 40th like Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy -- at the Masters.

"I'm not good enough. In 13 years I've come to the conclusion that I need to play for second or third place," he told Spanish reporters after his third round of 75, two better than playing partner McIlroy.

And when pressed a day later on whether he really meant it, he said: "Do you think I lie when I talk?

"Everything I say, I say because I feel it. If I didn't mean it I couldn't stand here and lie -- like a lot of guys do," he added. "If I felt like I could win, I would do it. Unfortunately at the moment unless I get really lucky I can't really play much better than I played this week."

The "like a lot of guys do" line inevitably attracted a lot of attention, but it is the underlying attitude that is the big worry and it is not the first time the former world No. 2 has expressed such feelings.

Garcia is currently in the ninth of 10 automatic qualifying positions for September's Ryder Cup in Chicago -- on the very Medinah course where he was runner-up to Tiger Woods in the 1999 PGA Championship and third when the same event returned there six years ago.

Olazabal, meticulous man that he is, will know that record and also needs no telling how inspired and inspiring Garcia can be against the Americans. They were partners at the K Club and won both their fourball matches.

Even at 19 years old in 1999 -- he remains the only teenager to appear in the Ryder Cup -- Garcia was one of the stars of the show and the same was true in 2002, 2004 and 2006.

Under Nick Faldo's captaincy in Louisville two years later, however, it was a different story. He did not win a game, was left out of a session for the first time, was thrashed by Anthony Kim in the top singles and, of course, Europe lost.

Two years ago he was out of love with golf -- indeed with life it seemed after Greg Norman's daughter Morgan-Leigh broke off their relationship -- and asked not to be considered for a place on Colin Montgomerie's side.

Given his form he had no chance of one in any case, with Luke Donald, Padraig Harrington, Edoardo Molinari, Paul Casey and Justin Rose all needing a pick and Montgomerie having only three wild cards to hand out.

What Montgomerie did do is ask Garcia to be one of his assistants, and that involvement -- plus a new girlfriend -- appeared to have perked Garcia up again. He won two weeks in a row late last season.

Now doom and gloom has decended on him again. Yes, he has played 54 majors already without success -- only two fewer than Westwood, soon to be eight years his senior -- but he has time for at least 60 more.

Time to be not just a major winner, but a multiple major winner. Phil Mickelson was older than him when he finally grabbed the first of his four and so was Harrington when he beat Garcia at Carnoustie in 2007.

Harrington, of course, then did it again at the following year's PGA Championship. Without him, Garcia would be off and running, but there is no need to give up hope now or a long while yet.