Sergio García

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**Sergio García**
Personal Information

Birth:	9 January 1980, Castellón de la Plana, Spain
Height:	5' 10"
Nationality:	Spain
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 has spent much of his career in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings.

1 Career outline
2 Personal life
3 Golf equipment
4 Current World Ranking
5 PGA Tour wins
6 European Tour wins
7 Other professional wins
8 Results in major championships
9 Team appearances
10 Trivia
11 Notes
12 References
13 External links

[edit] 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 16 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 straight shot that ran up onto the green, during which he sprinted madly into the fairway and then jumped to see the result.

When García first turned professional he had an unorthodox swing with a loop and large lag, 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.

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, 2004, and 2006, with a very impressive career record at the Ryder Cup of 14-3-3, with 3 of these appearances being overall victories, Garcia's input in the team has proved invaluable. 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.)

A few have recently called García "the best golfer never to win a major."

In the 2006 Ryder Cup, at the K Club in Ireland, Garcia won both his fourball and foursomes matches (with Jose Maria Olazabal and Luke Donald, respectively) on day one, beating David Toms and Brett Wetterich in the fourballs and Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk in the foursomes. On day two he paired up with Olazabal again, who won both their matches against Phil Mickelson and Chris DiMarco in both the foursomes and fourballs. Going into the final day in the singles, Garcia was heavily tipped to be the first person to win all their matches in one Ryder Cup, however Stewart Cink beat him 4 and 3. Europe won the cup again by 18 and a half points to the United States' 9 and a half points.

[edit] Personal life

A bachelor, he drives a Ferrari 360 Modena "quickly."^[1] Ex-girlfriends include Martina Hingis, who helped him cope with the emotional side of the game,^[2] and Greg Norman's daughter, Morgan-Leigh Norman, a student at Boston College.^[3]

[edit] Golf equipment

García is currently sponsored by TaylorMade Golf^[4], and uses almost all TaylorMade clubs. The most recent look into his bag came from an interview done by Golf Digest Magazine ^[5]. His club lineup is as follows:

Driver: TaylorMade r7 425 TP 9.0° (Marked 9.5°), TaylorMade Fujikura RE.AX 105 TP shaft
Woods: TaylorMade r7 TP 13.5° (Marked 15°) (3 Wood), RE.AX 105 TP shaft
Irons: TaylorMade rac MB (2-PW), True Temper Dynamic Gold With SensiCore S300 Shafts
Wedges: TaylorMade rac Satin 52° (Marked 50°) (Approach/Sand Wedge), Titleist Vokey Design 58° (Sand/Lob Wedge)
Putter: TaylorMade Rossa Monza Corza AGSI

He was also plays the new TaylorMade TP Red.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.^[6] There is also unofficial 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.^[7]

[edit] Current World Ranking

As of October 15, 2006: 9th

[edit] PGA Tour wins

2001 (2) MasterCard Colonial, Buick Classic
2002 (1) Mercedes Championships
2004 (2) EDS Byron Nelson Championship, Buick Classic
2005 (1) Booz Allen Classic

[edit] European Tour wins

1999 Murphy's Irish Open, Linde German Masters
2001 Trophée Lancôme
2002 Canarias Open de Espana
2004 Mallorca Classic
2005 Omega European Masters

[edit] Other professional wins

1997 Catalonian Open Championship (Spain - not a European Tour event)
2001 Nedbank Golf Challenge (South Africa - unofficial event)
2002 Kolon Cup Korean Open (Asian Tour)
2003 Nedbank Golf Challenge (South Africa - unofficial event)

[edit] 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	T36	T9	T8	T10	CUT	T5	T5
PGA Championship	DNP	DNP	DNP	2	T34	CUT	T10	CUT	CUT	T23	T3

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.

[edit] Team appearances

Amateur

Eisenhower Trophy: 1996, 1998
St Andrews Trophy: 1996, 1998
Junior Ryder Cup: 1995, 1997
Jacques Leglise Trophy: 1994, 1995, 1996 (winners), 1997, 1998

Professional

Ryder Cup (representing Europe): 1999, 2002 (winners), 2004 (winners), 2006 (winners)
WGC-World Cup (representing Spain): 2001, 2004, 2005
The Seve Trophy (representing Continental Europe): 2000 (winners), 2003
Alfred Dunhill Cup (representing Spain): 1999 (winners)

[edit] Trivia

In 2002, during a practice round, García made an Albatross, or double eagle, on the par-5 second hole at the Masters, one of the few players to have ever done so. On the 575-yard hole at the Augusta National Golf Club, García holed a 253-yard 2-iron following a 325 yard drive. During the tournament, however, he wasn't even able to record a single eagle. “It was a fun thing,” he said. “It’s always special if you make your first double-eagle (the American term for an albatross) ever and make it at Augusta. It was an amazing thing. I hit a great shot, but thought it was like a yard and half right of the hole, but all of a sudden the crowd went crazy. It’s a shame it wasn’t in the tournament – but still nice."