COMMENTARY
Golf is tired of Garcia’s whining
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Kenny Perry never brought it up until he was asked, probably because volunteering the information would have sounded like an excuse, and Perry isn’t one to make excuses.
That horrid approach shot he hit on the second playoff hole of the Masters. There was a glob of mud on the side of the ball. He knew it would take the shot left, he just didn’t know how far left. And when he miscalculated by about 20 yards the green jacket belonged to Angel Cabrera. Not once did Perry bemoan the harsh timing of his misfortune.
Contrast Perry’s class, his acceptance of the vagaries of golf, with yet another bottle of whine uncorked by Sergio Garcia, who closed 75-74 on the weekend after moving within four shots of the lead with a second-round 67.
“I don’t like it, to tell you the truth,” Garcia said of Augusta National in an interview with Golf Channel. “I don’t think it’s fair. Even when it’s dry you still get mud balls in the middle of the fairway. It’s too much of a guessing game.”
Garcia applied salve to the wound through his management team Tuesday, issuing an apology that had corporate damage control written all over it. “Out of frustration I blamed the golf course instead of putting the blame where it belongs, on myself. . . . Augusta National is one of the most iconic golf courses in the game and playing the Masters each year is an honor. I apologize to Augusta National and the fans who rightfully treasure this golf course.”
The green jackets at Augusta might let him slide, but Garcia won’t be so fortunate in two months, when the U. S. Open unfolds at Bethpage Black. Garcia incurred the wrath of the gallery when the Open was played there in 2002, in part for his maddening tendency to re-grip the club time and again, in part for comments that suggested a conspiracy was at work.
When second-round play continued through a steady afternoon rain, Garcia submitted that the USGA would have seen fit to halt the competition if Tiger Woods had been on the course. Other golfers agreed with Garcia’s criticism of the conditions, but scoffed at the notion that the USGA would have granted Woods preferential treatment.
Garcia’s act has grown old. Major success was forecast when, at 19, he chased Woods to the wire in the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah, winning fans with his exuberance and his aggressive, swashbuckling style. Now he’s 29 and 0 for 39 in the majors. His last five times out in the Masters he’s missed three cuts and played no better than a tie for 41st. And trash any argument that his game somehow doesn’t translate to Augusta. He was eighth in 2002, tied for fourth in 2004. He wasn’t complaining about mud caking his ball back then.
Funny thing is, while Garcia was letting loose with his criticism the electricity was surging through Augusta National at levels reminiscent of the past. The ground trembled when Phil Mickelson made his fifth birdie of the front nine on No. 7, and the seismic activity magnified when Woods cashed in for eagle at No. 8. The main criticism of Augusta the last few years is that the course had become overly difficult, eliminating the opportunity for a Sunday charge.
There were 16 rounds in the 60s Sunday. Mickelson could have toyed with 63 if he hadn’t pulled his tee shot at 12 off the bank and into Rae’s Creek (a inexplicable error, considering that in his book on his 2004 Masters win Lefty says that on 12 he always guards against the pull that could bring the creek into play).
The major season resumes in two months, at the monster that is Bethpage Black. Doubtless that gallery will throw its support behind Woods and Mickelson, as it did seven years ago. For Garcia, however, the catcalls will rain. His grousing has made him the new Colin Montgomerie, who never won a major either.
bdicesare@buffnews.com
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