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Sergio García (born January 9, 1980), nicknamed El Niño, is a Spanish golfer who plays on both the United States PGA Tour and the European Tour. He has spent much of his career in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings.
Career outline García began golfing at age 3, taught by his father. He was a star player as a junior, winning his club championship at age 12, and setting a record at age 16 being the youngest player to make the cut at a European Tour event, the 1995 Turespana Open Mediterranea. That same year he also became the youngest player to win the European Amateur Championship. García turned professional in 1999 after shooting the lowest amateur score in the 1999 Masters. He achieved early prominence with a duel against Tiger Woods in the 1999 PGA Championship, eventually finishing second. Late in the final round García hit his most famed shot: with his ball up against a tree trunk and the green hidden from view, he swung hard with his eyes shut (lest the ball rebound and hit him) and hit a low curving straight shot that ran up onto the green, during which he sprinted madly into the fairway and then jumped to see the result. When García first turned professional he had an unorthodox swing with a loop and large lag, but during 2003 he worked on making his swing more conventional. For a time he also had a practice of repeatedly gripping, releasing, and regripping his hands on the club handle before finally taking a shot; this "waggle" habit got out of control, such as at the 2002 U.S. Open when some galleries audibly counted the number of regrips into the twenties. Since then he has eliminated the habit. He won his first PGA TOUR tournament at the 2001 MasterCard Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas and won again at the Buick Classic the same year. In 2002, he won the Mercedes Championships and in 2004, García won the EDS Byron Nelson Championship and the Buick Classic for the second time. His sixth PGA Tour victory came at the 2005 Booz Allen Classic. He also plays a limited schedule on the European Tour, where he has also won six times. García was also a member of the European Ryder Cup team in 1999, and again in 2002, 2004, and 2006, with a very impressive career record at the Ryder Cup of 14-3-3, with 3 of these appearances being overall victories, Garcia's input in the team has proved invaluable. He has risen as high as the top five of the Official World Golf Rankings, but is struggling in 2006 (he is 46th in year to date world ranking points for the calendar year as of 9 June.) A few have recently called García "the best golfer never to win a major." In the 2006 Ryder Cup, at the K Club in Ireland, Garcia won both his fourball and foursomes matches (with Jose Maria Olazabal and Luke Donald, respectively) on day one, beating David Toms and Brett Wetterich in the fourballs and Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk in the foursomes. On day two he paired up with Olazabal again, who won both their matches against Phil Mickelson and Chris DiMarco in both the foursomes and fourballs. Going into the final day in the singles, Garcia was heavily tipped to be the first person to win all their matches in one Ryder Cup, however Stewart Cink beat him 4 and 3. Europe won the cup again by 18 and a half points to the United States' 9 and a half points. Personal life A bachelor, he drives a Ferrari 360 Modena "quickly." Ex-girlfriends include Martina Hingis, who helped him cope with the emotional side of the game, and Greg Norman's daughter, Morgan-Leigh Norman, a student at Boston College. Golf equipment García is currently sponsored by TaylorMade Golf•, and uses almost all TaylorMade clubs. The most recent look into his bag came from an interview done by Golf Digest Magazine •. His club lineup is as follows: He was also plays the new TaylorMade TP Red.The ball represents years of trial and error on TaylorMade's part, with TaylorMade working closesly with tour pros to develop the ball. García reports being a big participant in the development process of this ball.• There is also unofficial video documentation of a press conference where Senior Director of R&D of TaylorMade Dean Snell speaks on the new TP balls while García demonstrates some shots.• Current World Ranking As of 15th october 2006: 9th PGA Tour wins European Tour wins Other professional wins Results in major championships LA = Low Amateur DNP = did not play CUT = missed the half way cut "T" indicates a tie for a place. Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10. Team appearances Amateur Professional Trivia Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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