The talent remains, but Garcia's passion is missing
By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent
He took two months off last fall to get his head straight.
To figure out what he really wanted.
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To find the passion that was his signature. On every shot. On every leap. In every unfiltered post-round moment of his career.
It was clear Sunday afternoon that Sergio Garcia is still searching.
Brilliant. Talented. Mercurial. A marvelous talent. A charismatic star. A Ryder Cup must-have.
For years he put on a show. He dazzled. He fizzled. He always came back out swinging.
But that passion that disappeared not long after his 2008 win at THE PLAYERS is still missing. At least on the course. Even a closing 65 couldn't put his a smile on his face or an uptick in what has felt like flat-line answers for almost two years.
He called this one a nice round. It was, in fact, his best of the year. It shot him up the leaderboard and into a tie for 12th, his third top 15 of the season.
It should have elicited at least a faint smile. It didn't.
Other than a bogey at the eighth and a par at the ninth, he said, "yeah, it was a nice, positive way to finish a tournament.''
If you want to see the passion, the fierce pride, the smiles, you have to head to the soccer fields. That's where you'll find the Sergio we know. The one who pulls off a brilliant hook -- with his left foot -- and gets nothing but net. Where he plays and practices when he's home with the third-division team he owns, C.F. Borriol; where he finds a joy on the road, mixing it up with caddies and players who grew up loving that game too.
And, just maybe the soccer and the balance he's fighting to have in his life are beginning to help the golf. He started fast at the Transitions Championship and cooled off to share 15th and followed that with an eighth place at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Now the 65.
"I'm definitely hitting the ball better,'' he said. "that aspect of my game has been improving. I think my chipping is obviously better, my putting is a little more consistent. But mainly just doing what I want to do at home, enjoying my things at home, and that's making when I come to a tournament, it makes me enjoy it even more.
"Things like we did on Monday where we played the football game and everything, those kind of things, I need them. I can't really live without them and be happy. So, obviously, you're taking a risk, but it's something that I'm willing to do.''
And, yes, that brought out a smile.
"I've always thought about (balance),'' he said. "But, I guess, you always worry too much about things and stuff. It's like I said. Obviously this risk and those are things that I'm willing to take. If I hurt myself four months out, so be it if I'm meant to be injured.
"At the end of the day, I think as you get older you get to know yourself a little bit better and you know what you enjoy doing and what you don't enjoy doing and the things that help you in your life. Those kind of things obviously do help for me.''
Maybe that's what was missing at the 2002 U.S. Open when he lashed out at everything and everyone when he came up short. Same for the 2007 British Open when he lost to Padraig Harrington in a playoff. We could go on, but ...
We like that little line -- "as you get older, you get to know yourself a little bit better." Don't we all?
He leapt onto the scene as a teenager at that 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah and he's been around so long that maybe we thought he'd figure this balance out faster. We forget that things like that breakup with Morgan Leigh Norman take more out of you that you'd like. That despite being one of the world's most famous faces -- and bachelors -- he's really, deep down, only a 31-year-old working on life.
Stepping away was the best thing he did. Two months out of the spotlight. Playing soccer, hanging with the boys. Finding out what he really wants.
"It was a little bit of everything,'' he said. "I think that you can call it burnout, but it was mainly just becoming a little fed up. Not feeling like playing. Even though I was trying my hardest out there, I couldn't get into it too much. My head wasn't in the right spot. Obviously, when your head isn't in the right spot, your body doesn't react the way it should be. That's always a losing combination, I guess.''
And this combination he's working on now? So far, so good. Or nice, as he'd term it.
He heads to Colonial Country Club this week where he won his first PGA TOUR event in 2001. The Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial is a laid-back event played on a classic course that just happens to be one of the best courses in the Lone Star State. There's an easy feel there and, we'd assume, great memories of 2001 when his dad was headed for the airport and made a U-turn when he realized his son was about to win the event.
Maybe this is the stretch. He's not yet qualified for the U.S. Open and you know he wants to play at Congressional. He needs to be in the top 50 in the world by Sunday or June 13, or in the top 50 on the PGA TOUR money list come Sunday. Right now, he's 73rd in the world and 78th on the money list. But he's taking it in stride.
Worrying won't help. He did that and missed making the 2010 Ryder Cup team -- he was a vice captain though -- and ...
"That would be the best thing ... not to worry about it," Garcia said.
And if he doesn't make it? He likely won't try to play his way in through qualifiers. "If I don't qualify (through world or money rankings), then I don't deserve to play."
If he does? Well, maybe he'll find something at Colonial or at next week's HP Byron Nelson Championship, where he won in 2004. Maybe it will be better than nice. Maybe it will something that elicits a smile.
Maybe it will be the balance that brings that those brilliant shots, that passion, that should-win-a-major game back. To the golf course.
At the very least, it will be another step in the process.
Melanie Hauser is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM and can be reached at melaniehauser@gmail.com. Her views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR. Follow her on Twitter @melaniehauser.
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