The 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass was as tranquil as a yoga studio yesterday morning when Sergio Garcia’s group reached the tee box. The wind was negligible and relatively few fans were on hand to pan or praise shots. The only stress on the players was self-induced.
For Garcia, whose most recent memories of the hole were negative, the 127-yard shot to the island green was not as easy as it should have been in the windless, heckler-free conditions.
In the final round of the 2013 tournament, Garcia was tied for the lead at the Players Championship when he hit two wedge shots into the water. He ended up tied for eighth, six strokes behind Tiger Woods.
On the tee, Garcia flashed back to last year. Those water balls “did cross my mind, I’m not going to lie to you,” he said. “I was trying to be positive. It’s a new year. Let’s improve on it.”
The pin was in the front left portion of the green and Garcia pulled his shot. But it stayed dry, which was all that mattered to Garcia, who nearly holed the 24-foot birdie putt.
His routine par at the 17th was one of many examples of how this year’s tournament feels like a reset for the Spaniard, the 2008 champion whose 5-under-par 67 left him four strokes behind the first-round leader, Martin Kaymer.
“It was nice to be able to play like I did,” said Garcia, who posted six birdies and a bogey. “I’m just looking forward to hopefully doing a lot more of the same throughout the weekend.”
During the weekend of last year’s tournament, the long-simmering animosity between Woods and Garcia boiled over when they were paired together in the third round.
On the second hole, Garcia was standing over his second shot when Woods, from the other side of the fairway, pulled a club that elicited a roar from his fans in the gallery. Garcia blamed the commotion for his poor swing, and later acknowledged that Woods “is not my favorite guy to play with.”
Woods is not defending his title because he is recovering from back surgery. And Garc?a, who compounded his misery when he joked that he would extend an olive branch to Woods during last year’s U.S. Open by inviting him over for dinner and serving him fried chicken, said he has moved on.
“I didn’t think I was a villain, but I think that we’ve all moved beyond that,” Garcia said. “I certainly have.” Garcia, 34, is a superb ball-striker with an imaginative game and volatile emotions.
When he is feeling fine he can play very, very well, but when he is bugged his game can come undone. Two years ago, after a third-round 75 took him out of contention at the Masters, he told the Spanish-language media that he was not good enough to win a major, saying, “I don’t have the thing I need to have.”
His countryman Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, 33, who has been competing against Garcia since he was 10, said, “If he doesn’t have it, 80 percent of the field, we should just go home and do something else, because he’s got everything, he’s got every shot in the bag.”
Fernandez-Casta?o, who carded a 67 yesterday, said he had a talk with Garcia at a European Tour event in Munich last year. “He was a bit grumpy on the course and he never seemed to enjoy what he was doing,”
Fernandez-Castano said. He added: “And I said, ‘Sergio, you do not have to do this if you don’t enjoy it. You know what I mean? You have a fantastic family, they’re all healthy, they love you, and you don’t have to play golf if you don’t have fun.’”
Garcia came into this week refreshed. He put away the clubs for a week after missing the cut at the Masters. He spent time in Switzerland with his German-born girlfriend, Katharina Boehm, a former golfer for the College of Charleston, and their two Labradors.
When he resumed practicing, he played money games against Boehm, who gleefully noted she won $100 from him. Garcia said she also beat him at badminton.
Boehm’s sunny disposition has done wonders for Garc?a’s frame of mind, Fernandez-Castano said. “I think he’s happy overall,” he said. “He’s a big family man. I haven’t really spoken with him about this, but I have the feeling he desperately wants to get married and have children. He loves children and I think he’s going to be a great dad.”
It is funny that Fernandez-Castano should mention that, Boehm said. “The other day we were talking about children,” she said. She was standing off to the side as Garcia did television and radio interviews.
When he was done, Boehm was the first person he looked for. They embraced and he gave her a kiss, and the rest of the world fell away.
New York Times service.
DETAILS (US unless stated)
63 Martin Kaymer (Ger)
65 Russell Henley
66 Sang-moon Bae (Kor)
67 Brian Stuard , Justin Rose (Eng), Scott Stallings, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Gary Woodland , Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa), Jordan Spieth , Lee Westwood (Eng)
68 Dustin Johnson , Justin Leonard , Pat Perez, Scott Brown , Bill Haas , Joost Luiten (Ned), Ernie Els (Rsa)
69 Brendon De Jonge , Graeme McDowell (Nirl), Zach Johnson, Jason Dufner , Bubba Watson , Geoff Ogilvy (Aus), Graham Delaet (Can), Kevin Streelman , Brendan Steele, John Huh
70 Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Jason Kokrak , Jeff Overton, Martin Flores , Brian Gay , David Hearn (Can), Matthew Jones (Aus), Rory McIlroy (Nirl), Marc Leishman (Aus), Briny Baird, John Senden (Aus), Stewart Cink , Angel Cabrera (Arg), Kevin Na, Freddie Jacobson (Swe), Jim Furyk , Stephen Gallacher (Sco), James Hahn , Camilo Villegas (Col), Ryan Moore
71 Nick Watney , Chris Kirk , Ryan Palmer, Charles Howell III , Scott Langley , Bo Van Pelt, Rickie Fowler , Henrik Stenson (Swe), Stuart Appleby (Aus), Steve Stricker , Rory Sabbatini (Rsa), Matt Kuchar, David Lingmerth (Swe), Jonas Blixt (Swe), George McNeill, Michael Thompson , Morgan Hoffmann , Richard H. Lee, Tim Clark (Rsa), Josh Teater
72 Francesco Molinari (Ita), Steven Bowditch (Aus), Ken Duke, Roberto Castro , Billy Horschel , Brian Davis (Eng), Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Retief Goosen (Rsa), John Merrick, Erik Compton , William McGirt , Kevin Chappell, Keegan Bradley , Jeff Maggert , Kevin Stadler, Russell Knox (Sco), Jonathan Byrd
73 Luke Guthrie , Kyle Stanley , Justin Hicks, Chesson Hadley , John null Peterson , Charlie Beljan, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Harris English , Hunter Mahan, Aaron Baddeley (Aus), Will MacKenzie , John Rollins, Ted Potter, Jr. , Thomas Bjorn (Den), Luke Donald (Eng), Johnson Wagner
74 Greg Chalmers (Aus), Brian Harman , J J Henry , K J Choi (Kor), Ian Poulter (Eng), Jamie Donaldson (Wal), Carl Pettersson (Swe), Daniel Summerhays , Patrick Reed , Jason Bohn
75 Shawn Stefani , Robert Garrigus , Lucas Glover, Michael Putnam , James Driscoll , Webb Simpson, D.A. Points , Phil Mickelson , Jimmy Walker, Boo Weekley , Brandt Snedeker , Y.E. Yang (Kor)
76 Seung-yul Noh (Kor), Chris Stroud , Darren Clarke (Nirl), Derek Ernst , Charlie Wi (Kor), J.B. Holmes , Ben Crane, Matthew Every , Andres Romero (Arg), Martin Laird (Sco)
77 Kenny Perry , Charley Hoffman , Adam Scott (Aus), Nicholas Thompson , Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa), Bryce Molder, Cameron Tringale
78 Jerry Kelly , Woody Austin , D.h Lee (Kor)
79 Mark Wilson
