You'll never be the top banana until you learn to putt, Sergio

by ALAN FRASER, Daily Mail

Last updated at 10:32 24 July 2006

Sergio Garcia set off wearing washed-out yellow and finished pretty much washed up. A harsh judgment for one so young, perhaps, but once you've got'em, you've got'em. Putting problems, that is. And Garcia is decidedly cursed in that department.

He is not too sharp on the fashion front, either, if yesterday's choice of outfit was anything to go by. Dressed in a two-tone combination of faded yellow he looked like a banana skin. And it did not take him long to slip up.

As early as the second hole, what seems increasingly like a chronic frailty on the greens materialised. A three-feet second putt never looked like dropping. But his shoulders did. Already the body language, as well as the colour, was that of a man in retreat.

The putt he missed at the third was even shorter. Just a stroke behind Tiger Woods at the start, now the Spaniard was three in arrears and his challenge still-born.

Not for the first time in a tournament; not for the first time in a major; and not for the first time in the company of the world No 1.

With the pressure off, Garcia covered the inward half in a three-under-par 34 to finish leading European in tied fifth.

In truth and in boxing terminology, he never laid a hand on Woods. He rarely does these days, almost as if being regularly punished for the precocity of his youth.

He had dared challenge Woods as a 19-year-old in the U.S. P.G.A. Championship at Medinah, the last major of the millennium. Although forced to settle for second, he stole much of Woods thunder with a youthful exuberance exemplified by that famous six-iron from the base of a tree.

Pictures of his subsequent run and jump in eagerness to follow the flight of the ball towards the green flashed around the world. That — not anything Woods did during the week — became the image of the championship.

Here was someone who could have fun while competing at the highest level. Here was a breath of fresh air, talented, fearless and flamboyant.

Woods realised the threat while Garcia failed to fulfil the promise. Later in 1999 Woods began a sequence of six PGA victories in a row. Six of the next 10 major championships were gobbled up by Woods. Garcia has yet to win one. He is 26 and, strange though it sounds, time is running out.

This has less to do with a monkey on his back as a wriggling snake in his hand. The longer he remains becalmed in his career by woeful putting, the less the chance of converting his power, touch and attacking flair into the tangible measurements of excellence — major titles.

Fred Couples, a playing partner on Thursday and Friday, spoke for many in professional golf when he said: "Sergio may even hit it better than Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk or Retief Goosen. But he is currently on the outside of that group because he does not putt like these guys."

He does not putt as well as most of his profession. The statistics do not lie in this instance. He was 196th in putting last year on the US PGA tour.

Top of the significant greens in regulation category and pretty much bottom in putting. He has risen to 166th this year. Not much of an upward graph.

Not surprisingly and by no means uniquely, Garcia remains in denial about his putting. "I thought I hit good putts but they didn't go in," he said.

"Nothing seemed to go my way. I am a bit sad but not too disappointed. I felt comfortable today. I felt good with the putter. Probably the best I've felt in a major with the putter, strokewise."

Left hand below right, an early sign of a sufferer, he looked a whole lot more uncomfortable than Chris DiMarco with his 'claw' technique. Positively grotesque compared to the silky smooth stroke of Woods.

Garcia has acquired another unenviable reputation, probably directly related to his putting. Last round disasters have become too frequent to be put down to coincidence.

When in contention on the final day he fades away, averaging 74 for the final 18 holes this year. He carded 73 yesterday. "He must fight that demon," said Nick Faldo before the leaders teed off. The demon won again.

Tiger Woods also happens to have assumed a demonic presence in the life of Garcia. Yesterday represented the first occasion the pair played together on the final afternoon of a major since the US Open in 2002.

A missed short putt at the third that day quickly ended any Spanish momentum. At Torrey Pines this February, Garcia began the last round as leader and ended as also-ran.

The galleries yesterday willed a different outcome, perhaps because of the European dimension in a Ryder Cup year, perhaps because a certain alienation arose from Woods' determination to play conservatively. He should have been called Tiger Irons for the week.

"I was getting bigger cheers (than Woods) on some of the holes and that was a great thing for me to experience," said Garcia as if being a crowd favourite results in titles.

It takes a leap of imagination to think of Tiger Woods as Edward G Robinson in The Cincinatti Kid. Marginally less so to think of Garcia as the eponymous poker player.

But one piece of dialogue comes to mind. "You're good kid, but as long as I'm around you're second best."

Tiger Woods is 'the man' for now and for a long time to come. Sergio Garcia will not even be second best unless he can learn to putt again. He used to be a good putter. He used to run and jump.