Monday, September 29, 2008

Garcia, the man who can't win play-offs,
goes down to Villegas this time

Sergio Garcia has added yet another play-off defeat to his CV of golfing disappointments.
Colombian Camilo Villegas stormed from five strokes behind in the final round before beating the Spaniard in a play-off for the Tour Championship on Sunday.
Villegas compiled five birdies in six holes from the eighth on his way to a closing four-under-par 66 at East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta (which was the home club of the late, great Bobby Jones).
Garcia's closing 71 left both players on seven under par, one stroke ahead of American duo Phil Mickelson (69) and Anthony Kim (69) in an exciting finish.
Villegas subsequently won with a par at the first extra hole, the par-3 18th, after Garcia sprayed his tee shot right of the green and could not get up and down.
"I'm proud of myself. I cannot emphasis how hard I've worked," Villegas said.
A disappointed Garcia added: "I just didn't play well enough today. I just wasn't myself. I had a hard time trusting myself although I managed to do it a little bit later in the round."
Villegas, 26, who also won the BMW Championship three weeks ago, is the first player in 11 years to post his first two US PGA Tour victories in consecutive starts.
But the defeat was the latest in a growing line of disappointments for Garcia, who was pipped to the USPGA Championship in August by Padraig Harrington, the same player who beat him in a play-off for the Open Championship at Carnoustie in 2007.
Garcia, who was hoping to become the first player since 1990 to win the Players Championship and Tour Championship in the same year, also lost a play-off to Vijay Singh at the Barclays Championship five weeks ago.
It was his second successive Sunday disappointment. Playing lead-off singles on the last day of the Ryder Cup, Garcia was well beaten by Anthony Kim.
Villegas's victory was worth $1,260,000 compared with $756,000 to Garcia.
The Fedex Cup also ended officially on Sunday with Vijay Singh the winner of the $10,000,000 bonuz prize. Villegas finished second and pocketed another $3,000,000 with Garcia third in the Fedex Cup final standings for which he earned $2,000,000. Beats working for a living!

Labels: ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Copyright © Colin Farquharson

If you can't find what you are looking for.... please check the Archive List or search this site with Google