A Day After....

Say what you want about Mr. Sergio Garcia (and by the end of this, I probably will) but his win yesterday at Sawgrass was pretty damn impressive once you look back on it all.

Garcia made one bogey on his last ten holes, including the playoff "par," and made the necessary pars when it counted. Sergio is the only Spaniard to win the event and only the second European ever to win the Players (That is, if you count Scotland as a country in Europe, damn "historians.")

It is worth noting that this was Garcia's first PGA Tour win since 2005 and a pretty impressive playoff comeback, considering the sickening playoff loss at last year's British Open, a tournament Serg had control of pretty much the entire week until it was all over. Sergio was without a top-10 finish this year and missed the cut at the Masters, so a win was highly unlikely in the big scheme of things.

With all the putting troubles he's encountered over the last few years, it was amazing to hear all the announcers talk about how well he was rolling the rock. I watched the tournament with a good golfing buddy of mine at a bar in Scottsdale and anytime he had a putt outside of about 15 feet we expected him to make it and anytime he had a birdie putt five feet or in we pretty much carded it as a par. This was most apparent on 16, when a short left-to-right birdie putt didn't even scare the hole (you could also use the birdie putt on the playoff hole as an example, but that one is too easy).

Garcia never broke 28 putts in a round, but was first in driving accuracy and first in greens in regulation, a stat that normally is high when he is in contention. I guess when it comes down to it, you rely on what you do well. Lindsay Lohan drinks, Adrian Grenier "acts" and Sergio tries to hit it close enough to where even he can't miss it.

I never thought I'd say this, but look out Torrey Pines. Sergio Garcia might be back.