For Sergio, absence makes resolve grow stronger
It took about five minutes in full public view before the raging withdrawal symptoms were first manifested.
Sergio Garcia tried to go cold turkey, but after a while he could not resist the temptation. The hook is set too deep.
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| For Sergio Garcia, this week's tournament is just like playing in his backyard. (Getty Images) |
By the time the official Ryder practice sessions began three days before the matches, Garcia could hardly contain himself. Tagging along in an electric cart and trailing a group that included Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer, Garcia already looked like a champagne cork, ready to pop.
First, Garcia jumped out of his cart and carried Lee Westwood's bag, letting the latter's caddie, Billy Foster, pilot his buggy. When the group got to the green, Garcia noticed Foster had a stray nose hair and appointed himself head groundskeeper.
With about 1,500 fans watching, Garcia tried to pluck the hair from Foster's nose, failing repeatedly as Westwood and the fans enjoyed the hilarious sideshow. Foster gamely suffered through Garcia's misses, cringing and recoiling with every failed yank.
"Look," Westwood laughed at one point, "he's got tears in his eyes." Undeterred, Garcia finally groomed the caddie to his satisfaction on the next hole, much to Foster's relief and the continued laughter of the gallery.
"I think it came from the top of my head and through my left eye," Foster cracked, rubbing his nose.
After a wild-hair exit from tour life that lasted more than two months, Garcia not only missed the camaraderie, he missed the game itself. After benching himself following his missed cut at the PGA Championship on Aug. 13, he returned from his exile Thursday at the European Tour event staged at his home course in Spain, the Castellon Masters.
"I needed to miss the game a little bit," he said. "Obviously, I missed it, that's why I am back."
Garcia's passion practically defines him -- occasionally to his detriment -- and when his motivation is wanting, something is wrong. Garcia spent the two months back home, playing soccer with his minor league-level team, hanging out with friends and trying to conjure up the fire that burned so brightly for a decade as a professional.
Meanwhile, he skidded from a personal-best No. 2 in the world ranking in early 2009 to 68th this week, a fall so precipitous, it's easy to wonder if he can again scale the mountain and give Tiger Woods and the game's elite a run for their greenbacks, pounds and Euros.
His last victory was 23 months ago, part of a scintillating late-fall run in which he nearly won the 2008 PGA Championship and had a legit chance to unseat Woods as world No. 1 the following spring. To borrow a term used by his soccer team, he instead took a huge header almost immediately thereafter.
After a well-chronicled breakup with his girlfriend, the daughter of Greg Norman, Garcia was listless, uninterested and seemingly going through the motions for months. Though he has been a polarizing figure for much of his career because of his occasional antics, he had morphed into a pitiable figure.
He was downright forlorn, and it changed him. Maybe it was age and maturity, maybe it was the humility the game beat into him, but Garcia became a far more palatable person to be around while he was struggling to keep his feet under him.
"I made the decision to stop, as I had lost my motivation and felt drained," Garcia told reporters in Spain. "Now I feel full of energy and actually enjoy practicing. I have set myself new goals and look forward to performing again at the top level.
"I am playing this week to win the Castello again."
He picked the perfect spot for a comeback, personally and professionally. He won in 2008 and finished fourth last year at an event staged on the course where he grew up. Photos of him adorn clubhouse walls, and his parents run the place. The Club de Campo del Mediterraneo course is in his genes.
So is the incredibly capricious game, as he eventually learned.
"I have been doing different things these last two months, other sports and relaxing with my friends and family," he said. "I now have clear goals. I needed the break as I had lost the desire to play and practicing had become an obligation.
"I needed to miss the game, but I found I've missed it a lot, and that's why I am back."
Garcia began considering stepping away to recharge his batteries well before he was sent packing after two rounds at the PGA. For a guy so animated, he wasn't having any fun, and it was obvious.
"I made the decision to stop between the Players [Championship] and the U.S. Open, because I had lost my motivation and felt drained," he said. "Now, on the contrary, I feel full of energy. I have set myself new goals and look forward to performing again at the top level."
Toward that end, he's taken new steps toward fixing a perceived weakness. Garcia has forever been coached by his father, Victor, who tags along in the gallery toting a golf club that he uses as a walking stick. Some might call this a crutch of sorts, but Garcia, who has battled some major demons in his putting, admitted that he has recently sought assistance between the ears.
He consulted a "sophrologist," a European self-help expert, "to help me put things in the right place," he said. "I know more about myself and feel able to answer my own questions."
There have been plenty of those over the years, but it sounds like the right buttons were pushed.
"I want to return gradually to where I should be, and perform to my full potential -- i.e., be world No. 1," he said.
Hanging out at the Ryder with guys like Westwood, who will take over the top spot in the rankings later this month, or Kaymer, the best player in the world at the moment, surely whetted his appetite. Garcia seemed to be everywhere in Wales, shuttling around players' wives and parents in his cart, chatting up players and providing encouragement during tense matches. He was warmly received by the fans and engaged them freely. In fact, he likely signed more autographs than anybody in Wales.
Garcia has a sterling record of 14-6-4 in five Ryder appearances, one of the best points production percentages of the past two decades. So when he walked into the first team meeting, the game of golf had him at hello.
"I am not going to lie to you, the first two or three days were very hard," Garcia said. "As the week went on it got a little easier for me. Early on it was tough to walk on to the practice range to see so many friends and so many of my partners I have played with in the Ryder Cup."
Next time around in Chicago, it's darned likely he'll be hitting shots against the Yanks, not just cheerleading.
After all, as Foster can attest, Sergio has rediscovered his pluck.
