SERGIO OF SUPPORT
Fans go wild for Masters champ on final day of action at Royal Pines
FOR a few hours yesterday, it was still all about the golfer.
Three days after he was stunned to find up to 300 people waiting at 6.10am to witness his first shot of the Australian PGA Championship, US Masters champion Sergio Garcia continued to play the Pied Piper of Royal Pines.
They were there when he teed off at 7.40am. They were there as he played his worst round of the tournament to finish equal 24th. They were there as he tapped his final putt into the 18th hole a little before 12.25pm.
Then, as some of Australia’s best golfers continued to wage war on the course, a couple of hundred golf fans decided they’d prefer to watch their favourite Spaniard sign his scorecard.
“I’m happy to be over here with Sergio,” Caroline Froude said outside the officials room as only 100m away newly crowned Greg Norman Medal winner Marc Leishman stood over a final-hole putt.
“I’ve only followed Sergio around all day … this is an once-in-a-lifetime chance. You’re not going to get to see him every year.”
Earning every penny of his appearance fee, Garcia ensured Caroline and countless other fans went home with a smile on their faces by signing as many signatures as anyone can in a 15m walk from scorecard desk to waiting golf buggy.
Hats, balls, cushions, flags and shirts were all thrust his way before his minders decided enough was enough and ushered him into said buggy so they could ferry him off the course for the final time.
And it was then that the 2017 Australian PGA Championship finally became all about the golf.
The headliner was gone. Hometown hero Adam Scott hadn’t been seen since missing the cut. There would be no more talk of green jackets.
Instead, the stage now belonged to the final playing group approaching the 18th green and specifically two young Aussies about to have starring roles in a final-day classic.
Cameron Smith, a Queenslander who shares a name with a Maroons legend but is increasingly making his own mark on the sporting world, and Jordan Zunic, a New South Welshmen who a day earlier had blitzed the field with a stunning 64-shot round.
Smith was the first to blink, missing a two-metre putt that would have clinched the title but instead brought groans of despair not only from his supporters but those fans seeking a reprieve from the scorching sun.
Locked at 18-under, the pair headed back to the 18th tee to decide the issue once and for all – only to have to do the same a few minutes later when they both parred the extra hole.
They came again, followed up the 18th fairway by a line of blue-shirted volunteers and hundreds of spectators who had long forgotten Garcia, let alone Scott.
The only names that mattered now were Smith and Zunic, and like his namesake in rugby league’s World Cup final the night before, it was the former who held his nerve when it mattered most.
Having watched Zunic’s final putt lip out, Smith tapped in from a metre away to claim a nerve-racking victory best summed up by one of his emotional support crew.
“Geez, he made us (expletive) sweat, didn’t he?” the man said.