Sweet win for Stenson
Garcia frustrated again on last day
NORTON — For the second time this season, Sergio Garcia led a tournament heading into the final day.
Unfortunately for the Spaniard, the second time wasn’t a charm, because yesterday at the Deutsche Bank Championship he once again couldn’t hang onto the lead.
Garcia shot a 3-over 39 on the front nine and was never able to recover at TPC Boston. He settled for a 2-over 73 and a 17-under score for 72 holes, which tied for fourth place.
Henrik Stenson, who was part of Garcia’s finalday playing threesome, won the title with a 5-under 66 to finish 22-under for the weekend. Garcia led Stenson by 2 strokes through three rounds.
“I just didn’t play well, obviously. You know, I just unfortunately didn’t feel it today,” said Garcia, who was playing his fifth event in five weeks. “I just wasn’t comfortable. I wasn’t able to trust myself as well as I did the first three days. It was hard, but I still tried as hard as I could. It’s a shame that the last four holes, I felt like I played them quite well. It would’ve been nice to finish with one more birdie or maybe the chip on 18 goes in. But overall, I think it’s been a good week. Very, very positive things from the first three rounds. And then just a bad day today.”
Garcia converted two birdies over his final four holes and just missed a pitch for eagle from 41 yards. His birdie on 18 was his first of the day at a par 5, as he bogeyed the previous two. Entering the final round, he’d shot birdie or better on all but one of the par-5’s in the tournament.
Despite his struggles at Nos. 2 and 7 on the front, Garcia thought he could make up the strokes down the road.
“No, that wasn’t my worry,” the 33-year-old said about the bogeys. “My worry was how I was feeling playing, hitting the ball and everything. That was what I was more worried about than bogeying (Nos.) 2 and 7. Because I know even if I bogey that, if I’m swinging it well I can birdie almost any hole. But unfortunately I wasn’t and I tried to go with what I have, which wasn’t a lot. And that’s where it got me.”
Garcia previously held a final-round lead at The Players Championship in May. In that fourth round he shot a 76 and wound up tied for eighth. Considering he only played the Deutsche Bank this year, after skipping it last season, because he had to better his position in the FedEx Cup standings in pursuit of a spot in the Tour Championship, Garcia made some positive strides.
He hadn’t cracked the top 20 in his six events after May’s TPC before arriving in the Bay State and now he can skip the BMW Championship.
“I’m actually happy I was able to at least play the last four holes well and make a couple (of) birdies and kind of salvage something out of the run,” he said.