Sergio Garcia Tests Positive for TPC (Sawgrass)
Golf May 12th. 2008, 2:30pm
Sergio Garcia won The Players Championship yesterday, defeating Paul Goydos in the first hole of a sudden-death playoff. It was Garcia’s first tour victory since the 2005 Booz Allen Classic. (Which is a real tournament. I looked it up.)
Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come – a harbinger of continued successes, if you will. I’ve always had a spot in my heart for the one they call “El Nino.” I suppose it stems from his 1999 PGA Championship duel with Tiger that included this memorable shot and reaction. In his first bit of exposure to the masses he seemed like an exciting young golfer who had the chance to battle Tiger throughout their respective and parallel primes.
Since then it’s been a bumpy ride for Garcia. He’s won a couple tournaments on the PGA tour and a couple on the European tour, but none of those victories have come in the last 3 years. And I’m not even going to mention his Major-less-ness.
Hopefully, this is the first sign that he’s ready to be the golfer that everyone always wanted, hoped and thought he could be – a guy that could compete with Tiger on a weekly basis.
[Telegraph]
38 Responses to “Sergio Garcia Tests Positive for TPC (Sawgrass)”
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May 12th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Hopefully, I won’t say “hopefully” again.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
if sergio can become a consistent putter…id take him over any golfer other than Tiger, Anthony Kim and Hunter Mahan.
i know this is the golf nerd coming out…but sergio uses a 105G Rombax driver shaft. if you know anything about golf clubs, a 105g shaft is damn near impossible to get to lag, yet you look at sergio’s swing vision and it looks like he’s using a 50g regular shaft.
to put in perspective, Tiger, one of the strongest players on tour, uses an 83g shaft (Mitsubishi Diamana Whiteboard).
Sergio has talent out the ass, it was great seeing him pull thru, even if it was at the expense of Goydos.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
+ 1 for dating Greg Normans daughter though. Not sure if they are still together.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Sergio is a whiny little bitch.
/Papa John’s
May 12th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Spence, take it easy on the shafts knowledge. Maybe sit the next few plays out.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Lorena Ochoa is better than this guy
May 12th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
I know you were joking around with that comment, but if you think about it, that kind of sums up how people think about Garcia.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Me thinks Spence reads Golf Digest’s “What’s in my bag?” a little too closely.
/He said shaft.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
@St. Bear – I hopefully agree.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
nomo…it goes way beyond that, unfortunately.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Uh oh! Free Pizza for Spain.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
in all honesty tho…that course is truly the greatest test in golf. it challenges everything: length, finesse, sand, water, wind, nerves.
best course in golf. the way those assholes fucked up Augusta, I wouldnt mind replacing the Masters with the Players (gasp!).
May 12th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
I wouldn’t mind replacing golf with Frolf.
/Costanza
May 12th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
I’ve always said sand and water were two of my strongest attributes.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
so im an idiot…whatever.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
That was no where near as impressive as this lightweights win at the 2001 Colorado Booz classic.
May 12th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
@spencer – Last time I played golf, I took the skin off the palm of my hand because I swing so poorly. What is the difference between all those shafts you were talking about? Is the “g” short for grams and is weight?
May 12th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
It’s one thing to win a Tiger-less tournament but quite something else to do it against the greatest of all time in a major. Get back to me, Sergio, when you win a major and, oh by the way, stop hocking lugies into the cup like a little bitch.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
@xv43 Did you switch to “the stranger” while your palm healed?
May 12th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
g = grams.
the difference between your regular graphite driver shaft (50-55g) and the Rombax 105g graphite that sergio uses is extreme. when you swing a golf club, the object is to create enough lag, or bend, in the shaft so that the your hands come through and the head of the club slingshots through the ball creating more clubhead speed, and greater distance.
sergio has a clubhead speed of around 120mph and a ball speed over 180mph…the typical amateur in his mid-20s has about a 85mph clubhead speed and 140mph ball speed. a stiffer shaft means you need to create a whole shitload more torque with your forearms and swing mechanics in order to create the lag to get said distance, because a guy with sergio’s swing speed using a regular shaft would create so much spin, it’d be impossible to control.
you gotta find the perfect balance in your shaft if you really wanna drive the ball well. think of the shaft as the club’s engine, it’s largely responsible for creating the clubhead speed.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
@xv43 – be honest, you hit 1200 balls the night before like Andy on The Office.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Graphite is for pussies. I had my clubs reshafted with rebar.
/TBL
May 12th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
one quick additional note…sergio is a puny fuck. for him to generate this kind of torque, he has the swing of a legend. i’d take his single plane, soft armed swing over Tiger’s poseur bullshit swing any day.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
May 12th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Nice use of the quote tag asshole
May 12th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
That was hilarious. Hoffman is an idiot.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
He’ll never do what Barkley did.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
@Roeth – I was going to say that all those times they show Sergio’s swing, there was something odd about it that I couldn’t place my finger on, but that sounds right. Kind of a down and through motion.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Yeah, it’s like Sergio was standing at the tee of golf greatness for a long time, preparing for his shot, only to repeatedly step back and realign as the masses of golf fans grew restless.
/Parallels
May 12th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Did hotdog just out-golfnerd spencer? I think so!!!
May 12th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Roethlishotdog…no, it’s not one plane, but different teachers have different opinions. i supscribe to the theory that since the club is at the same angle, it’s only dropped. if he came through at a different angle, i’d call it more of a 2-plane swing.
plus, he’s claimed that he’s trying to get as single-plane as possible, but i could see why youd consider it a 2-plane swing.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Did someone mention Barkley and golf?
May 12th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
should read = it could be considered not one plane, but…
May 12th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Found the BizHub swing analysis for Sergio
Watch his hands drop slightly at the top of the swing to account the “lag” noted in the comments above.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Roethlishotdog…i cant watch, but im sure ive seen it (hes wearing white pants with a bright blue shirt on right?). that is a fantastic video, his shoulder turn is outrageous (not quite the 120 degrees Peter Kostis says it is, but it’s well past 90).
May 12th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Is that a Red Delicious? I prefer granny smith.
May 12th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
I supscribe to the theory that supscribe is actually spelled subscribe.
May 12th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Spencer, I just had to register and question your comparison of Sergio to Hunter Mahan. I can understand saying, other than his putting, he is comparable to Tiger and Anthony Kim. But where do you get Mahan from? One win and ranked #37?
Also, great finish yesterday especially with no Tiger in the field. Anyone think Sergio was only half joking when he thanked Tiger for not being there?