Golf was once again cruel to Sergio García. This Sunday, the player from Castellón was once again on the verge of his first victory in LIV, the Saudi league, by losing in a tiebreaker against the South African Dean Burmester in the event held at the Blue Monster in Doral, in Miami, owned by Donald Trump. After finishing both tied at -11 (Jon Rahm was fourth with -8), García sent his ball into the water on the second occasion in which the 18th hole was played and again touched his debut in the Saudi league: he was already second in the first stop on the calendar this year, in Mayakoba (Mexico), again after a tiebreaker, lost to the Chilean Joaquin Niemann.
García had rowed to the last hole with a putt sidereal of 13 meters on the 17th hole. But when he needed a close hole and had glory in his hands, he missed with his 1999 Scotty Cameron (he has recovered the club from his first year as a professional, a quarter of a century ago, with some retouching) and the duel led to the playoffs. Victory was once again elusive for the Castellón native, who at 44 years old has not celebrated a title since October 2020, in the Sanderson Farms Championship of the PGA Tour, while his last victory on the European circuit dates back to 2019 at the KLM Open. The professional crown counter has since been frozen at 36, and remains uncorked in the Saudi league.
The golfer from Castellón was in the eye of the hurricane since his signing for LIV as one of the first great players to change sides, along with Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson. They opened a path that other stars have followed; the last, Jon Rahm, in a civil war of which the end is still unknown (PGA Tour and LIV have been negotiating for months the creation of a kind of great world circuit). García has also been one of the players who has suffered the most from this internal battle in golf. Especially due to his exclusion from the European circuit and therefore from the Ryder Cup, the competition that has elevated him to Olympus as the top scorer of all time. The Spaniard, always passionately defended by Jon Rahm, is one of the faces that best symbolizes this rupture that has divided golf into two halves that are still very far apart. His friction with the European circuit has raised the tension while waiting to know the scenario that will open in the coming months.
Now Sergio García will land in Augusta with renewed faith in the game at the beginning of the season, a patient and calm style the product of a ton of experience. In the Masters he touched the sky in his career with his victory in 2017, although since then he has accumulated a good number of missed cuts in the big ones and has not again sneaked into the top 10 ranked in a Grand Slam event when he has always been a metronome in the elite: 22 top ten the majors until that bingo on the Augusta prairies. His signing for the Saudi league and therefore his fall in the world rankings (LIV tournaments do not count in the ranking) has even banned him from participating in any major tournaments, a surprise in 25 years of experience dancing among the best.
Final classification of the LIV tournament in Miami.
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