I've never liked Sergio Garcia, never will.
He burst onto the scene in 1999 at the PGA Championship at Medinah C.C., falling just short of the title for which Tiger Woods outdueled him. The enduring image of that golf tournament was Garcia, first hitting a huge slice from the base of a tree his drive had come to rest behind, and then running up the uphill fairway and leaping in the air with a scissor kick to catch a glimpse of the ball's resting place over the crest of the hill.
A scissor kick? A scissor kick?!? Please.
That day would begin a pattern with Garcia -- displaying a flare for the dramatic but in the end, coming up short of accomplishing anything significant. He has a penchant for missing putts when things begin to get a little tight and who can forget the trouble he had pulling the trigger on his swing a few years ago, gripping and re-gripping the club time and again before beginning his backswing? I counted one time how much he re-gripped and while I forget the number, rest assured, it was in the mid-twenties.
All of that aside, what really bothers me about Garcia -- and I'm certain I'm not alone -- is his off-the-course behavior. After all, some of my favorite players of all-time, Arnold Palmer, Greg Norman and Phil Mickelson to name three, have managed to squander chances at titles big and small, but when a microphone was placed in front of them afterwards, they always handled the failures with decorum and grace.
But not Garcia, when things don't go his way, he makes countless excuses, or gives the gallery the finger, or whines about perceived preferential treatment of Tiger Woods, or takes it out on a tournament volunteer. Garcia's latest incident, caught on videotape, is nothing short of deplorable.
After missing a putt at this weekends CA Championship (Doral), Garcia taps in, picks his ball out of the cup and then spits into said hole. Besides setting a poor example for anyone young and impressionable that might have been watching, it was also extremely inconsiderate for the players that had to retrieve their ball out of the hole after Garcia.
Someone needs to remind Garcia that golf is a gentleman's game. On second thought, someone needs to remind Garcia of basic human etiquette. If I was Greg Norman, I'd get my daughter away from him in a hurry.
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Below is the video of Garcia's salivary incident and his attempts to cover it up in an interview afterwards.
