Quick, find a dry cleaner.
Less than two days after Sergio Garcia won the Masters – and the accompanying green jacket – the newly crowned golf major champion was in big trouble.
Two grease stains were found on the right sleeve of his sport coat after a day spent in New York City appearing on morning television shows, opening the New York Stock Exchange, doing numerous other interviews and taking countless pictures.
“I'm thinking, my God, I've had the jacket for a day and a half and I already have two massive stains on it,” Garcia said this week as he prepares to defend his title at Augusta National Golf Club. “What am I going to do?”
Garcia assumes the damage came during a backstage photo. Indeed a dry cleaner was found and the jacket returned none the worse for wear. His membership intact. Still, relating the story was cause for the Spaniard to palm his shaking forehead, laugh and exclaim “That was tough.”
That may have been the only tough moments for Garcia in the past year. The year of Sergio.
Garcia got engaged to Angela Akins, the former Golf Channel reporter, on New Year’s Eve as the couple ushered in 2017. In April, Garcia won the Masters in a playoff to capture a major tournament and add the crowning achievement to a successful career devoid of the ultimate trophy. The couple wed in July and the green jacket made an appearance. No report as to whether another trip to the dry cleaner was necessary due to a wedding cake mishap. In March, 11 months after his win, the couple welcomed their first child, a daughter they named Azalea. It’s not a coincidence she was named after the 13th hole at Augusta National.
“We started looking at different names from here that related to Augusta, obviously looked at Georgia, we looked at Magnolia, Holly, different ones, but we really liked Azalea, for different reasons,” Garcia said. “First of all, because we thought it was a very pretty name. You write it the same way in English and in Spanish, which is great, and also because of it’s the hole that kind of turned things around on the final round and kind of got me going to be able to win the Masters last year. So it’s just one of those nice stories that we'll be able to tell her when she grows up a little bit.”
To say No. 13 turned around his final round is a bit of an understatement. Garcia and Justin Rose entered the final round tied at 6-under par. They remained tied, at 8-under par, to start the back nine. Garcia found himself down by two strokes just two holes later with bogeys at Nos. 10 and 11.
Disaster was avoided at No. 13. Garcia’s tee shot clipped the trees to the left of the par-5 and he had to take a drop in the pine straw. His third shot was a punch to 89 yards away in the fairway. Garcia then hit into the green and watched as the approach trickled back to the hole. The made putt to save par saved Garcia.
Garcia eagled No. 15 to get and finish at 9-under par. Rose briefly got to 10-under par but the two tied after the final round and Garcia won the playoff.
Garcia said he hit the same drive as the previous three days that all landed nicely in the fairway. A change in direction in a slight breeze led to the near disaster.
“It made it a little more interesting, I guess,” Garcia said.
The dramatic victory came several years after Garcia questioned if he had the game to win at Augusta National when he shot himself out of contention with a third-round 75 in 2012. Always one to wear his heart on his sleeve, Garcia said he never really thought he couldn’t win here. He just voiced his disappointment at the time.
“I always say what I feel at the time, and at that time that's the way I felt,” Garcia said. “I felt like that I was letting it slip away. But like I said, it didn’t mean that as soon as I left Augusta my mind wasn't different. And obviously if I thought that I didn't have what it takes to win a major, I would have probably stopped playing majors and just played PGA Tour events and European Tour events and stuff like that.
“So I kept believing, I kept giving myself chances, that's what I always said, just to give myself chances, that's the only thing I can do, and just wait for the right time, and that was last year.”
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