Sergio Garcia taking a two-month break
FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH WEBSITE
By OLIVER BROWN
We might have guessed that Sergio Garcia was falling out of love with golf when he ambled through his Open practice rounds at St Andrews wearing the Spain football strip.
But his decision to take a two-month break from the competitive arena has been bizarrely timed, depriving Colin Montgomerie, Europe's Ryder Cup captain, of a vibrant and successful player to galvanise the team at Celtic Manor in October.
The Spaniard, a fixture in Europe's teams since 1999, holds the remarkable record of never losing a Ryder Cup foursomes, but has endured a miserable unravelling this season. Listless and lethargic, he has played just 17 events and confirmed, after a closing 70 in the Bridgestone Invitational, that he needed time to digest his decline.
"I haven't had a nice long break in my whole career," said the 30 year-old, whose latest world ranking of 50th comes less than two years after he challenged Tiger Woods for the top spot. "I need to miss the game a little bit."
For Montgomerie, Garcia had always been an attractive alternative as a wild-card selection. His presence would have shored up a side rich in youthful promise but conspicuously short on hard lessons in golf's most demanding team event.
Garcia has suggested he would accept a wild card if offered one, but that prospect looks remote after his withdrawal from this week's US PGA, the last major qualifying event before the wild cards are announced at Gleneagles.
Instead Montgomerie, already amenable to the selection of the 52-year-old Bernhard Langer, is poised to turn elsewhere to strengthen the spine of the team.
Of those outside the nine places for automatic qualification, Justin Rose and Paul Casey are near certainties for Montgomerie's vote after stirring recent performances, while the final berth could be filled by a non-English player. Most likely it will fall to that cigar-chomping countryman of Garcia's, Miguel Angel Jimenez, whose status as a tour veteran should satisfy the captain's need for greater experience among his men.
FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH WEBSITE
By OLIVER BROWN
We might have guessed that Sergio Garcia was falling out of love with golf when he ambled through his Open practice rounds at St Andrews wearing the Spain football strip.
But his decision to take a two-month break from the competitive arena has been bizarrely timed, depriving Colin Montgomerie, Europe's Ryder Cup captain, of a vibrant and successful player to galvanise the team at Celtic Manor in October.
The Spaniard, a fixture in Europe's teams since 1999, holds the remarkable record of never losing a Ryder Cup foursomes, but has endured a miserable unravelling this season. Listless and lethargic, he has played just 17 events and confirmed, after a closing 70 in the Bridgestone Invitational, that he needed time to digest his decline.
"I haven't had a nice long break in my whole career," said the 30 year-old, whose latest world ranking of 50th comes less than two years after he challenged Tiger Woods for the top spot. "I need to miss the game a little bit."
For Montgomerie, Garcia had always been an attractive alternative as a wild-card selection. His presence would have shored up a side rich in youthful promise but conspicuously short on hard lessons in golf's most demanding team event.
Garcia has suggested he would accept a wild card if offered one, but that prospect looks remote after his withdrawal from this week's US PGA, the last major qualifying event before the wild cards are announced at Gleneagles.
Instead Montgomerie, already amenable to the selection of the 52-year-old Bernhard Langer, is poised to turn elsewhere to strengthen the spine of the team.
Of those outside the nine places for automatic qualification, Justin Rose and Paul Casey are near certainties for Montgomerie's vote after stirring recent performances, while the final berth could be filled by a non-English player. Most likely it will fall to that cigar-chomping countryman of Garcia's, Miguel Angel Jimenez, whose status as a tour veteran should satisfy the captain's need for greater experience among his men.
Labels: RYDER CUP
posted by Colin |
See story on its own page | Monday, August 09, 2010
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