Time for Sergio to start thinking about life after golf?

[Moecat]

http://espn.go.com/golf/masters12/story/_/id/7788887/2012-masters-sergio-garcia-says-not-good-enough-win-major

 

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Sergio Garcia, once heralded as a rising star destined to win multiple major championships, said Saturday that he now doesn't think he has the game to win even one.

 

Garcia was in contention at the Masters on Saturday but shot 75. Although he joked around with fellow competitor Rory McIlroy -- who shot 77 -- and was generally fine with English-speaking media, the Spaniard told a different story to Spanish-speaking media.

 

"I'm not good enough ... I don't have the thing I need to have," Garcia said in Spanish. His comments were translated for the Augusta Chronicle. "In 13 years I've come to the conclusion that I need to play for second or third place."

 

Garcia was asked if he meant in the Masters, and replied: "In any major."

 

After shooting 71 on Sunday to finish in a tie for 12th place, Garcia was asked about the Saturday comments.

 

"Do you think I lie when I talk?" he said.

 

A reporter asked if it was more emotion talking.

 

"Everything I say, I say it because I feel it," Garcia said. "If I didn't mean it, I couldn't stand here and lie like a lot of the guys. If I felt like I could win, I would do it. Unfortunately at the moment, unless I get really lucky in one of the weeks, I can't really play much better than I played this week and I'm going to finish 13th or 15th."

 

He was just 19 when he finished second to Tiger Woods at the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah, where Garcia announced his presence to the world. He would go on to star on several European Ryder Cup teams.

 

After losing the 2007 British Open in a playoff to Padraig Harrington at Carnoustie, Garcia famously lamented that something beyond golf was in play.

 

"I'm playing against a lot of guys out there, more than the field," he said.

 

Garcia's 36-hole total here matched his best in 14 Masters appearances and it set up for an interesting day being paired with McIlroy. But Garcia bogeyed three of his first four holes and didn't make a birdie until the par-3 12th. That is where he mockingly hugged McIlroy, as he also made a birdie.

 

"I'm not good enough," he said. "I had my chances and opportunities and I wasted them. I have no more options. I wasted my options."

 

At one point, Garcia said to reporters: "Tell me something I can do?"

 

Garcia is just 32 and has 10 victories on the European Tour, including two late last year. The last of his seven PGA Tour victories came at the 2008 Players Championship. He is ranked 21st in the world.

 

When asked Sunday what he thought he was missing, he said: "Everything.''

[JMiller]

Well Rory had an equally bad week and you didn't hear him making dumb comments like that, Sergio's worst enemy is himself mentally.

 

Lets use Ben Hogan as an example because I talked about this somewhere earlier today. He would make a 2 on a hole and the next day on the same hole make an 11. His demeanor never changed, he didn't curse, throw clubs, kick clubs, say he wasn't good enough. He just went to play his next shot and forgot about the 11 on a par 3, it was just like a 2 to him nothing different.

 

Sergio's low points get silly low, the highs are also lows it seems like at times. The guy needs a good mental coach to turn him from a pessimist into an optimist. Why not look at it like 'you know i learned a lot of places not to be today and didn't score well as a result next time I know where to miss the ball to give me the best opportunity to get up and down' instead of 'i suck, I'm not good enough for majors'.

 

When it comes to golf the more negative energy you can keep out of your mind the better good positive images would turn Sergio into the golfer that is a major champion one day. He needs to just stop being so judgmental of himself and negative with things in his scores.

[GolfSpy WD]

Sergio still has a lot of talent, but it's really hard to root for someone who doesn't believe he can win. He almost sounds like he's at a point where he's just going through the motions and if so, why? You've earned plenty of money to take some prolonged time off. Why play golf at all if it clearly isn't fun, because if you don't think you can win, how can it be fun?

[Addicted2Golf]

Aside from the sheer stupidity of saying that to the media... it's just not a smart business decision. If I were a sponsor and heard that, I'd go looking for another tour player to hitch my wagon to.

 

With that said, nothing Sergio does or says really surprises me at this point. He's a real head case.

[GolfSpy WD]

Aside from the sheer stupidity of saying that to the media... it's just not a smart business decision. If I were a sponsor and heard that, I'd go looking for another tour player to hitch my wagon to.

 

With that said, nothing Sergio does or says really surprises me at this point. He's a real head case.

 

I don't know, the sponsors care about attention as much as anything else. Sergio does get plenty of camera times for all his head issues.

[Stuart81]

I love Sergio as a golfer, the boy has more talent than most out there, I just think he was in a bad place when he said those things.

 

Look at it this way, money isn't the issue for him so to be in the perfect position going into the weekend at Augusta only to have a poor Saturday must be soooo frustrating for him because he knows Sunday will just be a formality, He can't win but still has to play it must be the top guy's pet hate not playing for anything on a Sunday

 

Just my opinion

 

Stuart

[RookieBlue7]

If he's smart, he'll keep his head down and his mouth shut and just keep taking TMag's checks.