Up Sergio Garcia's duration
Garcia is playing in his 71st consecutive major championship since the 1999 British Open. He's posted top 10 completes in nearly one third of his 73 career starts, consist of four runner ups.
"I feel so fortunate that I've been able to be healthy, That as a former able to play so many majors in a row, Garcia asserted. "I have no idea how many there are, But so many
beautiful spanish women majors when and giving myself a lot of chances to win them. That for me has already been a win, along with, you have heard of, We can place the cherry on top, that could be even better,
That cherry on top has proven elusive in the 18 years since the boyish Garcia skipped after Tiger Woods in a duel at the 1999 PGA world-class. Had Garcia noticed him, They might have stood all square with one major apiece. Woods would need to win 14, While Garcia is still researching No. 1.
He's all over again in prime shape in a four way tie for the lead at the halfway point of the Masters.
"Being element of a major, It's incredible already, Garcia expressed. "Having a chance is a, And sensational it, i believe it's amazing,
Garcia has been golfing since he was 3 years old. basically 12, He was club champion at Spain's Mediterraneo Club where his father was the top pro. caused by 13, He was a mark golfer. to 14, He made the cut in the European Tour's mediterranean Open. by using 15, He was the youngest European Amateur champion. from 16, He played in the British Open.
He was 18 when he won the British Amateur in 1998 to end up with his first Masters. He already wore the mantle of great anticipation.
"He has more game than I had at equal age, Jose helen Olazabal said.
"If topics go right, He gets to be a great champion, Seve Ballesteros replied.
The 18 year old Garcia came over to start prepping his game against execs on American courses.
The teenage Garcia exuded poise that week, But he was already wise enough to know that visions offered no guarantees.
"This sport is so harder. you will see. we're going see, he explained in 1998. "To be a good golfer you will have to want to be the best and want to win. If you want to make the cut and see what happens, I do not think you can be your best,
The all of the intervening 19 years have sometimes tested Garcia's faith in himself. He's won nearly 30 times across the country, Including a Players title among nine PGA Tour wins. Yet he's endured great heartbreak on the major stages.
When his putt to win slid from the lip at Carnoustie in 2007, He decried his experience "Playing against more than area of,
After a unsatisfying third round at Augusta in 2012, He vented his worries to several Spanish reporters.
"I'm bad enough I don't have the thing I need to have, Garcia said in speaking spanish. "In 13 years I've come to the final outcome that I need to play for second or third place,
Garcia has exploded and grown to believe in the five years since.
"I probably didn't accept things as well as I will have, he said Friday. "And I've shown myself more often than not after that, That I can contend and I truly desire I can win not only one, But one or more,
Garcia should feel that way. His ball striking invariably is the envy of peers. He's second soon in driving accuracy (86 percentage point) And sixth in greens in legislation (69 %). He ranks seventh in rushing, Saving par from all four bunkers he's found which includes a near hole out from a plugged lie on the 12th Friday that he called "definitely the best bunker shot I've ever hit, He played 21 holes prior to making his first bogey in the 2017 Masters.
even more importantly, Garcia has made peace along with the vagaries of Augusta National. He's engaged to be married, Providing a happy context in his life that is reflected in his function and his outlook.
"Once it becomes clear that sometimes funny things are going to happen with good shots, understanding accept that, then you could do better, he was quoted saying, Admitting that the gray in his beard has tempered the inner storm that was known as El Nio. "I think that I'm slightly calmer now. I think that I'm working on trying to accept things, Like I said younger, Which sometimes happen here and can happen anywhere. It's area of golf. this is not. It's a lot easier to say than to do it. But that's task we always have, you will realize, newborn you accept the bad moments or the bad breaks with the good ones, And kind of move on,
Acceptance has brought out better breaks, Like the one on the 10th hole when he was motivated to hit a provisional tee shot fearing his ball might be lost left. He didn't realize it bounced out of the trees into the fairway, Allowing him to make bogey is really a popular scoreboards presumed he made triple.
"a very important thing is
beautiful lady in spanish I knew where I stood, Garcia identified. "I knew I weren't 1 under; I knew having been 3,
Garcia is once again poised to fulfill his presumed destiny in where Ballesteros and Olazabal established such a great Spanish precedence. He's embracing what's ahead instead of the things that's come before.
"I'm excited about the contests that this weekend is going to bring, And hopefully I'll step up to them and I'll capability be up there on Sunday with a solid chance at winning, At winning this beautiful tournament, he said.
That it could come on what would have been Seve's 60th birthday Sunday is nothing Garcia can afford think of with 36 holes to go.
"i hope, We'll be standing here and we'll be bringing up that, That ambiance again, he said. "That would be the best thing that could happen to me, And you may already know, I'm going to do my best to be sure that I'm here to tell you how it feels.