Garcia looks for another major at U.S. Open
Sergio Garcia was decked out in green as he set out for his first U.S. Open practice round at Erin Hills.
Yes, Garcia wears the title of Masters champion quite well. A weight was lifted when he finally captured the major title that eluded him for all those years.
What he’s done in the past does not guarantee success, adulation or even happiness in the future, though. Nobody has learned that lesson in a more public fashion than Garcia himself.
Of his dozens of close calls, failures and embarrassments, a few have come at the U.S. Open – the “torture chamber” of a major, as 1993 PGA champion Paul Azinger called it.
“It’s tough to win, and majors are even tougher,” Garcia said. “And the U.S. Open, we all know how difficult they are.”
Unlike his effervescent introduction to the majors – when he hit the shot from the base of the tree, then ran up the fairway during the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah – Garcia’s first week in genuine contention at a U.S. Open was a sordid, awkward affair.
Time changes things. Winning does, too.
“I felt, and I’ve always said that I felt, like everywhere in the world, and here in the U.S., the fans have always treated me amazingly well,” Garcia said.
He was, indeed, the fan favourite as he walked around Augusta National two months ago, dueling with Justin Rose over the final day and eventually coming out on top in a playoff.
Once portrayed as the boy who would not become a man, either in golf or in life, Garcia is, at 37, all grown up – handling the pressure better, on the verge of getting married and, yes, now a major champion.