Sergio makes rare water-less double bogey on No. 17
By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- You didn't really think he was going to slide into the clubhouse with the lead once again -- and without a Sergi-uh-o moment -- did you?
He spent most of the day either chirping at his shots, attempting to steer them with a slow head fake in the opposite direction of where they were headed or leaning -- almost bending -- his body to give the ball a little extra English.
But when he got to 17 . . . well, it is 17. Which in this week's gusting winds means trouble. As in a double-bogey 5 -- one accomplished without going in the water or three-putting.
In case you missed it, his tee shot went long and left, caught the Astroturf cartpath and eventually rolled down the side of it. He got a good drop, but a bad bounce on firm, fast downhill green and, well, he was lucky that shot didn't find the water.
Then, with one heel on the railroad ties, his chip grabbed quickly and didn't roll. Two putts later, he was sitting one shot back of second-round leader Kenny Perry.
"My putt it was a tricky putt,'' he said of the first one. "It felt like it was probably left edge, but it almost looked like it wanted to go straight. It just went a little right.''
Like we said, it is, after all, 17.
Just ask Ernie Els, who took a 6 there Thursday. Or the 15 players who doubled it Friday. It's quite the way to ruin or stall a good round.
"It's the way the game is,'' Garcia said. "It's the way the game is, and you can't change that. 17 is what it is, and everybody plays it.''
Still Garcia, who missed a seven-foot birdie at the 18th that could have tied him with Perry, enters the weekend one shot back and with a good chance to turn an 0-fer year into PLAYERS crystal. Not a bad position at all.
"Definitely,'' Garcia said. "Mainly because I think the way I played, I probably deserved a bit more than I got. It was really difficult out there. It was so windy and the greens were getting quite firm towards the back nine.
"You know, unfortunately these things can happen when you have 16, 17 and 18 coming in under these conditions. You know, I'm not disappointed. I think that I played well. I was quite calm. I felt like I was in control of what I was doing, and unfortunately it just would have been nice to make that putt on 18. It just didn't want to go in. What can you do about that?''
Not much. He took an aggressive line down the left side at 18 -- "What do you want me to do, hit it 100 yards right?" he said -- and it paid off. He had 155 to the pin and he hit it to seven feet. It just broke bigger time than he thought.
Garcia found himself in a similar position a few weeks ago in Dallas. Back then, he had the ever-disappearing beard -- one CBS' David Feherty said he grew so his putter wouldn't recognize him. He played well, throwing out a third-round 65 and going into the final round four shots behind eventual winner Adam Scott. He closed with a wind-blown 75.
His short game has come around with the help of short-game guru Stan Utley and his new-old Scotty Cameron putter he dug out of an old bag before the EDS Byron Nelson.
Now, if he can only avoid too many more Sergi-uh-o moments . . . if he can keep battling the wind -- or steering his shots with head fakes and body language . . . .
"You know, when you get the problem is it's not the strength of the wind, it's the gusts,'' he said. "Once the wind starts getting gusty, it can be dead calm like what happened to me on 17 for a second, and then it can be blowing really, really hard in the next second.
"You can't control that. Unfortunately that's what happened to me on 17, and I paid the price. At the end of the day, the good thing is I'm still there with a good chance coming into the weekend. I feel like my game is in good shape. I feel like my short game is in good shape, too, so hopefully I can pull through it."
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