Sergio putts himself in hunt
NORTON — Among the four players a shot behind Dustin Johnson at the Dell Technologies Championship is Masters champion Sergio Garcia.
He had five of his six birdies yesterday on the more-difficult back nine, heading to the front side in 30 before playing even the rest of the way.
Garcia had the putter going early, making an 18-footer at the uphill par-3 11th, one of just four there, and another at the par-4 13th from 26 feet.
After dropping a shot at No. 14, he got it back a hole later with a wedge from 110 yards to 3 feet at No. 15 and dropped a 31-footer at the par-3 16th and an 18-footer at No. 18.
“I was very happy to see that I hit a lot of good shots, a lot of good putts,” Garcia said. “Made some nice putts here and there early on and the ones that I didn’t make, they looked like they were going to go in.”
All on a day where players had trouble scoring because of gusty winds that made club selection difficult. TPC Boston played nearly a full stroke over par at 71.916 among the 95 players to complete their round.
Just as important as getting off to the fast start was the way Garcia closed his round, making a par at the ninth after snapping a driver into the trees on the left and getting a fortunate bounce back into play.
“I probably had 300 yards to the hole with a big dogleg (left) from the rough,” he said. “I hit a 52-degree from there to lay up just right of the bunker (at the dogleg).”
He then followed that with a wedge to about 12 feet, making that putt as well.
“That’s a nice par to finish with,” he said.
This is just Garcia’s 15th start on the PGA Tour and finds himself 30th in the FedEx Cup standings, the cutoff for a spot in the Tour Championship. A solid finish here would go a long way toward his goal of reaching East Lake.
“If we can secure that as quickly as possible, it would be great, hopefully this week,” he said. “It’s already been a great year, for sure. But it would be nice to get to Atlanta again and play there and hopefully make it a better one.”
Earlier this week, Garcia announced he would donate $2,000 for every birdie and $5,000 for every eagle toward the Harvey relief efforts in Houston. His wife, Angela Akins, is a Texan and played golf at the University of Texas.
“I would love to make nine or 10 (birdies), but six was pretty good, I think on the conditions we played with in the afternoon,” Garcia said. “Hopefully we can keep adding throughout the days and the weeks and help as much as we can.”