Sergio Garcia

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Sergio García (born January 9, 1980), nicknamed El Niño, is a Spanish golfer who plays on both the United States PGA Tour and the European Tour. He is one of the leading young stars in the game, and has spent much of his career in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings.

[edit] Career outline

García began golfing at age 3, taught by his father. He was a star player as a junior, winning his club championship at age 12, and setting a record at age 14 being the youngest player to make the cut at a European Tour event, the 1995 Turespana Open Mediterranea. That same year he also became the youngest player to win the European Amateur Championship.

García turned professional in 1999 after shooting the lowest amateur score in the 1999 Masters. He achieved early prominence with a duel against Tiger Woods in the 1999 PGA Championship, eventually finishing second. Late in the final round García hit his most famed shot: with his ball up against a tree trunk and the green hidden from view, he swung hard with his eyes shut (lest the ball rebound and hit him) and hit a low curving punch shot that ran up onto the green, during which he sprinted madly into the fairway and then jumped to see the result.

He won his first PGA TOUR tournament at the 2001 MasterCard Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas and won again at the Buick Classic the same year. In 2002, he won the Mercedes Championships and in 2004, García won the EDS Byron Nelson Championship and the Buick Classic for the second time. His sixth PGA Tour victory came at the 2005 Booz Allen Classic. He also plays a limited schedule on the European Tour, where he has also won six times.

García was also a member of the European Ryder Cup team in 1999, and again in 2002 and 2004, with a very impressive career record at the Ryder Cup of 10-3-2. He has risen as high as the top five of the Official World Golf Rankings, but is struggling in 2006 (he is 46th in year to date world ranking points for the calendar year as of 9 June.)

García is a charismatic player with a large fan base, especially among young women. When he first turned professional he had an unorthodox swing with a loop and large lag in it, but during 2003 he worked on making his swing more conventional. For a time he also had a practice of repeatedly gripping, releasing, and regripping his hands on the club handle before finally taking a shot; this "waggle" habit got out of control, such as at the 2002 U.S. Open when some galleries audibly counted the number of regrips into the twenties. Since then he has eliminated the habit.

For a while in the early 2000s García dated tennis star Martina Hingis.

A few have recently called Garcia "the best golfer never to win a major," a title with previously belonged to Phil Mickelson.

[edit] Sergio's Bag (Equipment)

García is currently sponsored by TaylorMade Golf [1], and uses almost all TaylorMade clubs. The most recent look into his bag came from an interview done by Golf Central, for which there is only unofficial documentation [2]. His club lineup is as follows:

• Driver: TaylorMade r7 quad TP 8.5° With Neutral Bias, Custom Mitsubishi Rayon Diamana Shaft
• Woods: TaylorMade V Steel 13° (3 Wood), Custom Mitsubishi Rayon Diamana Shaft
• Irons: TaylorMade rac MB Forged (2-PW), True Temper Dynamic Gold With SensiCore X300 Shafts
• Wedges: TaylorMade rac Satin 52° (Marked 50°) (Approach/Sand Wedge), Titleist Vokey Design 60° (Sand/Lob Wedge)
• Putter: TaylorMade Rossa Monza Corza AGSI

This interview, however, looks to be 1-2 years old, and García's club lineup may have changed since. He is more than likely playing a mix of this set of clubs along with some of the clubs from TaylorMade's newer TP series, which may include the r7 425 TP Driver, r7 TP Fairway Woods, rac Forged TP Irons, and rac Black TP Wedges.

He was also reportedly (from the same interview) playing the Titleist Pro V1x ball, but this has since changed due to TaylorMade's entry into the golf ball market with their new TP series of golf balls that are expected for a May 2006 product release.[3] The ball represents years of trial and error on TaylorMade's part, with TaylorMade working closesly with tour pros to develop the ball. García reports being a big participant in the development process of this ball.[4] There is also unofficial video documentation of a press conference where Senior Director of R&D of TaylorMade Dean Snell speaks on the new TP balls while García demonstrates some shots.[5]

[edit] PGA Tour wins

• 2001 (2) MasterCard Colonial, Buick Classic
• 2002 (1) Mercedes Championships
• 2004 (2) EDS Byron Nelson Championship, Buick Classic
• 2005 (1) Booz Allen Classic

[edit] European Tour wins

• 1999 Murphy's Irish Open, Linde German Masters
• 2001 Trophée Lancôme
• 2002 Canarias Open de Espana
• 2004 Mallorca Classic
• 2005 Omega European Masters

[edit] Other professional wins

• 1997 Catalonian Open Championship (Spain - not a European Tour event)
• 2001 Nedbank Golf Challenge (South Africa - unofficial event)
• 2002 Kolon Cup Korean Open (Asian Tour)
• 2003 Nedbank Golf Challenge (South Africa - unofficial event)

[edit] Results in major championships

LA = Low Amateur
DNP = did not play
CUT = missed the half way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place.
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

[edit] Team appearances

Amateur

• Eisenhower Trophy: 1996, 1998
• St Andrews Trophy: 1996, 1998
• Junior Ryder Cup: 1995, 1997
• Jacques Leglise Trophy: 1994, 1995, 1996 (winners), 1997, 1998

Professional

• Ryder Cup (representing Europe): 1999, 2002 (winners), 2004 (winners)
• WGC-World Cup (representing Spain): 2001, 2004, 2005
• The Seve Trophy (representing Continental Europe): 2000 (winners), 2003
• Alfred Dunhill Cup (representing Spain): 1999 (winners)

[edit] Trivia

• In 2002 Garcia hit an Albatross or double eagle on a par 5 in practice at the US Open in Georgia, one of the few players to have ever done so. During match play however he wasn't even able to score an eagle. On the 575-yard second hole at Augusta Garcia sank a 253-yard two-iron following a 325 yard drive.

“It was a fun thing,” he said. “It’s always special if you make your first double-eagle (the American term for an albatross) ever and make it at Augusta.

“It was an amazing thing. I hit a great shot, but thought it was like a yard and half right of the hole, but all of a sudden the crowd went crazy.

“It’s a shame it wasn’t in the tournament – but still nice.”

[edit] External links

• Profile on the European Tour's website
• Profile on the PGA Tour's website
• Sergio Garcia at Golf Stars Online Links to feature articles, interviews and other online resources concerning Sergio Garcia
• Results for the last two years from the Official World Golf Rankings site
• SG: Great site about Sergio

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