In Dubai, he caught sight of a copy of Andy
Farrell’s recently published “The 100 Greatest
Ever Golfers.”
“You’ve no idea at how touched I am to be in
this book,” he said, leafing through the pages.
“You look at all the great names – Tom Morris,
Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and
Tiger Woods – and you think, ‘Can I really be in
here with them?’ ”
Sergio Garcia was able to capture the improvement in his attitude – he won back-to-back
tournaments at the end of October – with the
way he completed his first-round 67 in Dubai.
When his foot slipped on the tee of the short
17th, he hit into the water and ended up with a
double-bogey. “In the past,” said the 31-year-old,
“I would probably have got really frustrated and
then done something bad on the 18th, too.
“As it was, I made the effort not to get caught
up in it and that’s why I was able to finish with
a birdie. You learn as you go – and hopefully I’ll
keep learning.”
He told Jose Rivero, his coach, that he was
no longer comfortable on the course. Rivero
replied that since the changes were now in-
grained, he could forget everything and go back
to playing with feel, which he does well under
the desert sun. (In addition to yesterday’s win,
he also won the Qatar Masters in 2010 and the
Dubai Desert Classic earlier this year.)
Alvaro Quiros is one
of those who can identify
with what happened to
Garcia when his fellow
Spaniard fell out of love
with the game. Where, for
Garcia, it was a matter of
having reached saturation
point and needing to take
time away, Quiros says that his
problems had to do with becoming
too technical.
“I lost my golfing soul,” he
said. “From being a natural
player, I became very technical. It was like north to south. I
was at a black point.”
Ricci Roberts was not surprised at the be-
mused reaction to how he is back caddying for
Els following their umpteenth split. “It’s like
a bad marriage,” laughed Roberts, by way of
illustrating how the two of them are always
prepared to give things another go.
Jamie Donaldson, who qualified for
the Race to Dubai for a first time,
will tell you that he learned
a lot from the 2007 sea-
son he spent on the
Challenge Tour.
“It’s a great
tour of its kind
but is a place
you know you
don’t want A
Sergio Garcia is all smiles
again on the golf course.
