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Sergio García

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 Sergio Garcia

Personal Information
Birth: 9 January, 1980,
Castellón de la Plana, Spain
Nationality: Spanish
Residence: Borriol, Spain
Career
College: n/a
Turned Professional: 1999
Current Tour: European Tour (joined 1999) and PGA Tour (joined 1999)
Professional wins: 16 (European Tour 6; PGA Tour 6; Others 4)
Majors: None
Awards: European Tour Rookie of the Year 1999

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 is one of the leading young stars in the game, and has spent much of his career in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings.

Contents

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 14 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 punch shot that ran up onto the green, during which he sprinted madly into the fairway and then jumped to see the result.

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 and 2004, with a very impressive career record at the Ryder Cup of 10-3-2. 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.)

García is a charismatic player with a large fan base, especially among young women. When he first turned professional he had an unorthodox swing with a loop and large lag in it, 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.

For a while in the early 2000s García dated tennis star Martina Hingis.

Many have recently called Garcia "the best golfer never to win a major," a title with previously belonged to Phil Mickelson.

Sergio's Bag (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 Central, for which there is only unofficial documentation. His club lineup is as follows:

This interview, however, looks to be 1-2 years old, and García's club lineup may have changed since. He is more than likely playing a mix of this set of clubs along with some of the clubs from TaylorMade's newer TP series, which may include the r7 425 TP Driver, r7 TP Fairway Woods, rac Forged TP Irons, and rac Black TP Wedges.

He was also reportedly (from the same interview) playing the Titleist Pro V1x ball, but this has since changed due to TaylorMade's entry into the golf ball market with their new TP series of golf balls that are expected for a May 2006 product release. 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 unoffical 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. Snell reports that García is now using the TP Red on the tour.

PGA Tour wins

European Tour wins

Other professional wins

Results in major championships

Tournament 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
The Masters DNP DNP DNP T38 LA T40 CUT 8 T28 T4 CUT 46

U.S. Open DNP DNP DNP DNP T46 T12 4 T35 T20 T3 CUT

The Open Championship CUT DNP T29 CUT T34 T9 T8 T10 CUT T5

PGA Championship DNP DNP DNP 2 T34 CUT T10 CUT CUT T23

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

Notes

External links

 

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