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CARNOUSTIE, Scotland -- He did everything but shake his fist at the heavens.
Given what had just taken place, a series of events he insisted would make any right-minded golfer question whether the deities had it in for him, perhaps Sergio Garcia had a point.
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| Sergio Garcia's expression says it all as another major title slips away. (Getty Images) |
"I don't know," he said with a sigh. "I am playing against a lot of guys out there. More than the field."
Garcia shaved the cup with a seemingly perfect par putt on the 72nd hole and lost the 136th British Open by a shot in a playoff to Padraig Harrington at Carnoustie Golf Links. After the way it played out, for once, the often controversial Spaniard had become a sympathetic figure.
His wasn't a completely skewed opinion. His 10-foot par putt on the 72nd hole, which would have earned the bedeviled Garcia his first major, looked stone in the hole all the way. Until it clipped the lip and veered away.
"He did hit a lovely putt," Harrington said. "I am sure he's going to look back on that and -- I thought he holed it."
He's looking back already, if not looking skyward. Garcia began the day with a three-shot lead, but by the back nine, players had begun to pile up behind him. Hole after hole, Garcia's new belly putter had the ball tracking for glory, only to miss by the width of a blade of grass.
At least, that's how it appeared from his vantage point -- and he wasn't entirely off-base. Putts on Nos. 15, 17 and 18 burned the cup, as did all four putts in the playoff.
"They all touched the hole," he said.
Garcia's been touched, all right. When you are 0-for-35 in the majors, it must feel like heaven and earth have aligned against you.
"I should write a book on how not to miss a shot in a playoff and still shoot 1 over," he groused.
Garcia hit a drive that landed in a divot on the front nine, yet still made a birdie. On the second hole of the playoff, the par-3 16th, his tee shot hit the flag -- yet caromed perhaps 15 feet away and he missed the birdie putt. He feels snake-bitten and, at age 27, is becoming hard-bitten.
"It's funny," he said, shaking his head. "It's funny how some guys hit the pin and it goes in, or hit the pin and it goes to a foot. Mine hits the pin and goes 20 feet away.
"You know the saddest thing about it? It's not the first time."
That's frustration speaking, obviously, but he has had a hand in his own fate, to be sure. Garcia has finished fifth or better in each of the past three Opens, but has shot 73 on Sunday in each event. He was one of two players to finish in the top 11 Sunday that didn't manage to shoot par or better.
If it's true that it's better to be lucky than good, Garcia is the wrong guy to ask. He would not have the foggiest notion.
"It's the way it is," he said. "It's not news to me. I just have to move on and hopefully do better next time."
