Like many, I was delighted that, at his 74th attempt, Sergio Garcia at last won a major golf title, the Masters, on Sunday. Like many, I didn't think he would win one, including Garcia himself. At least the Garcia of 2012 who told reporters* after his collapse at that year's Masters that he would never win a major: "I'm not good enough. I've come to the conclusion that I need to play for 2nd or 3rd place..... I had my chances and wasted them".
Which might have seemed overly negative, or even reverse psychology on himself. After all, Garcia had been a runner up 4 times, 3 of them near misses. In recent times Garcia, while a lion in the Ryder Cup, always seemed to lack belief in himself and, crucially, in his putting stroke. I must admit I feared for him on the Augusta back nine on Sunday, as Justin Rose cranked up the pressure with a nerveless performance. But Garcia showed bottle to hang in there as he fell 2 shots behind, in particular salvaging a par on the 13th with a good putt after hitting his ball into the trees and taking a penalty drop. Rose flinched for the first time, missing his birdie putt and what could have been a 4 shot lead stayed at two. When Garcia birdied the 14th and then eagled the 15th to draw level it was clear we had a game on. My heart sank when, after both men hit good tee shots on the par 3 16th, Rose holed out and Garcia missed his birdie putt. This would have crushed the Garcia of a few years ago. But Garcia showed a mental toughness I didn't think he had, at least when not playing in the team version of golf. It was Rose's turn to flinch as he missed a gettable putt on 17 and they were level again. Rose didn't capitalise as his approach shot took a fortunate bounce on 18 leaving Garcia with a putt to win. Again I feared for him when he missed and they headed into the play off. But again it was Rose who flinched, hitting a poor tee shot and opening the way for Sergio. As we always knew he could, given two putts from 15 feet or so to win, Sergio only needed one.
No-one thought it would take this long when Garcia burst on the scene in 1999, a couple of years after Tiger Woods. There's a memorable clip of a youthful Garcia hitting a blind shot out of trouble in one of that year's big events in a manner reminiscent of Seve Ballesteros and running out to see where the ball had gone. It seemed a given that Garcia and Woods would compete head to head on fairly level terms over many years. Instead they competed on tetchy terms as Woods piled up one of history's greatest tally of wins, 2nd only to Nicklaus in Majors and Sam Snead on the PGA tour. Garcia won often enough in tour events but it didn't look like happening in the majors. Meanwhile, Woods took exception to Garcia's glare in 1999 and over-exhuberant celebration at an event in 2000. He upped the ante in 2006 when they were paired in the final group at the Open at Royal Liverpool. While Woods was in his standard last day red shirt, Garcia was somewhat eccentrically dressed in yellow. After Woods had won, Garcia recording a weak final round, he reportedly said to friends "I just bludgeoned Tweety Bird". It made me smirk at the time, but it was another unfortunate example of Tiger Woods's almost total lack of anything akin to sportsmanship. They sniped at each other through May 2013, until Garcia, asked how he would react to Woods during the US Open, said: "We will have him around every night. We will serve fried chicken." This inevitably came across as racist and Garcia had to apologise, though for me this was in no worse taste than Woods's tweety bird comment. The full history of their spat is recorded in many places. **
It is perhaps no surprise that Garcia's redemption - and popular it was too with the Augusta patrons - came about once Woods was off the scene. But it also seems likely that Garcia's relationship with his fiancée has been crucial. She seems to have brought him inner peace, which might not be needed for success in many sports, but certainly seems to help in golf.
For me the moral of this story was stop wanting it so much and, if you are good enough, it will probably just happen. In the final round at Augusta Garcia seemed to have the inner calm of a man who wanted to win but who could bear to lose, who could treat triumph and failure as imposters and live with himself either way.
And, with the truly sportsmanlike reaction of Justin Rose, who badly wanted to win and was visibly crestfallen in defeat but warmly congratulated Garcia, this gladiatorial battle was a superb advert for golf as well as riveting television.
But I haven't read whether Woods has sent congratulations to Tweety Bird.
*https://www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-mail/20120409/283124245866800
**http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/golf/10075332/Tiger-Woods-v-Sergio-Garcia-how-one-glare-sparked-a-14-year-feud.html
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