Garcia still has wind in his sails

MASTERS champion Sergio Garcia continued his remarkable turnaround in fortunes to climb into contention for a second Players Championship title and third win of the season.

Making his first start since claiming a maiden Major title at Augusta National, the Spaniard struggled in the early stages at Sawgrass, but with blustery winds making scoring difficult yesterday, the 2008 champion surged up the leaderboard with a third round of 67 to lie just a shot off the clubhouse lead held by Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo.

The world No 6 bounced back from a bogey on the first with birdies on the fourth, sixth and ninth, while a bogey on the 10th was followed by a hat-trick of birdies from the 11th and an eagle on the par-five 16th, before a three-putt bogey on the 18th took some of the gloss off a superb round. Garcia said: “It was very windy, and not a consistent wind either. It was gusting quite a bit, so it was difficult to pick the clubs, but I managed to play very nicely, hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of greens for the conditions and made some really good putts.”

Further down the leaderboard, Rory McIlroy was still struggling to rediscover his top form in his first event since the Masters, after which he got married and signed a multi-million pound equipment deal with TaylorMade.

McIlroy, who will have an MRI scan tomorrow after suffering a recurrence of the back problem which ruled him out for seven weeks earlier this season, made the ideal start to his third round with a birdie on the first.

But the four-time Major winner then bogeyed the fifth, and although he birdied the ninth for the third day running, birdies on the 16th and 17th were cancelled out by bogeys on the 14th and 18th. The resulting 71 left McIlroy on one under par overall.