National Post (National Edition)
EL NIÑO NOW BLOWING COLD
TOUGH DAY FOR GARCIA BACK AT CANADIAN OPEN FOR FIRST TIME SINCE 2001
There was something blowing at Glen Abbey golf course on Friday morning and it wasn’t just the wind.
Sergio Garcia, the man they call El Niño, was having a tough go of it during the second round of the RBC Canadian Open and he clearly wasn’t happy.
Never one to hide his emotions, Garcia punted a divot, called out a spectator and slammed a club against his golf bag.
And all that happened in just a two-hole span on his back nine.
Not good for a guy looking to turn around his season.
He was so frustrated, in fact, that he refused an interview request after his round.
El Niño blew into our national championship this week for the first time since 2001 hoping to kickstart what has been a rather upand-down season. While he has three top-10s, he has also missed six of the past seven cuts, including all three majors.
It has been 17 years since he last played in a Canadian Open, but perhaps Garcia was hoping to build on some good memories here (he finished T5 in Montreal in 2001 and in third place at Glen Abbey in 2000, the year Tiger Woods won it). Instead, the 2017 Masters champion fired a 2-over 74 on Friday for a 3-under-total of 141 to sit just below the cut line and do little to help his chances of making the FedExCup Playoffs or his way onto the European Ryder Cup squad, two things he has said are his goals.
Only the top 125 players make it into the FedExCup Playoffs and the Spaniard currently sits at 132 in the standings. An integral part of the European team in past Ryder Cups, Garcia’s spot may be in jeopardy there, too. He currently sits in 22nd place on the points list with only a handful of tournaments remaining until the cutoff date. Thomas Bjorn and his co-captains, Lee Westwood, Graeme McDowell, Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald, are going to have some tough choices to make if Garcia’s play doesn’t improve.
If he doesn’t do well here, a missed cut at the PGA Championship in August likely would end any hope Garcia has of making the team.
Garcia’s day at Glen Abbey began on the par-5 16th hole, where he was wrapping up his opening round after play was suspended due to lack of daylight after a two hour, 15-minute weather delay on Thursday. The world No. 20 parred the 16th, birdied the 17th, and parred the 18th to finish up at a respectable 5-under 67, just four strokes back of the clubhouse leader Robert Garrigus.
Things continued to go well for the volatile Spaniard as he started his second round in breezy conditions by dropping a four-foot birdie putt on the par-4, 10th. He then dropped a stroke at the par-5, 13th and you could see his frustration building.
Though he was driving the ball well, he hit 11 of 14 fairways on the day, he was hitting a lot of loose approach shots and only hit 10 of 18 greens in regulation. While other players such as American Kegan Bradley and Canadian Ben Silverman of Thornhill, Ont., were going low (both shot 9-under 63s), Garcia was struggling to keep his head above water.
He made the turn at 5-under and that’s when things really started to unravel.
Garcia hit a drive long and straight on No. 1, his 10th hole of the day, but when his approach landed short and right of the pin, he was not happy and punted a divot that had been tossed to his caddie straight out of the air about 20 feet.
Then on the par-5 second hole he called out a spectator for taking a picture while he was hitting his tee shot.
“Why are you taking my picture while I’m hitting?” a frustrated Garcia asked while pointing in the direction of the spectator.
The drive ended up just fine, but Garcia’s second shot careened off the back of the green setting up a tough third shot that rolled through the putting surface and into the rough. Garcia then flubbed his pitch, and that’s when he took his club and rammed it against his bag. It all added up to a bogey. A frazzled Garcia then went on to bogey the next two holes to drop to 2-under before finally getting a stroke back with a 13-foot birdie putt on the par-4, 6th hole.
Garcia never looked completely comfortable out there on Friday. Maybe his mind isn’t on his game but on his new daughter, Azalea, who was born in February. Whatever it is, the Spaniard is going to have to turn things around quickly or his season will soon be over.