PORTRUSH, Northern Eire — Sergio Garcia, at age 45 and taking part in on LIV Golf, has been glad to have certified for the British Open.
That pleasure, nevertheless, turned to rage early in his closing spherical Sunday when he snapped his driver in half, smashing it to the turf after hitting an errant tee shot on the second gap.
The Spaniard missed the green left on the par-5 second gap and pounded his driver on the bottom, breaking it on the shaft.
Garcia, who mockingly birdied the second gap, was pressured to play the remainder of his closing spherical and not using a driver, as a result of the principles of golf state that you just can’t substitute a membership that was damaged in anger.
Rule 4.1 states: “A participant is allowed to maintain utilizing and/or to restore any membership broken through the spherical, it doesn’t matter what the harm and even when the participant broken it in anger.
“A player is not allowed to replace a damaged club, except when it is damaged during the round by an outside influence or natural forces, or by someone other than the player or his or her caddie.”
“The last two or three months have been really tough the way I’ve played, and I controlled myself very, very well,” Garcia mentioned afterward. “To be sincere, I didn’t really feel like I did that a lot on the second tee. Clearly, I didn’t hit drive. I didn’t smack it straight down. I sort of like swiped it again. I’ve executed that fifty instances, and I’ve by no means damaged a membership.
“The shaft just snapped in half, and I was surprised. I wasn’t trying to break it, and I was actually surprised when I saw that. I didn’t feel like with what I did it should have broken, but that’s what it was, and then I got some good practice when I threw it.”
Garcia went on to shoot his finest spherical of the week, a 3-under-par 68, and completed the week 3-under for the event. He was in want of a powerful end to point out European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald that he’s worthy of a captain’s decide.
Garcia missed the minimize on the Masters earlier than ending tied for 67th on the PGA Championship. He didn’t qualify for the U.S. Open.
“I had a good conversation with Luke last week, and we both know what we want,” Garcia mentioned. “The one factor I can do is preserve working laborious, preserve constructing my confidence up, and if I’m in a position to try this, then it ought to be high-quality. We’ll see.
“It would mean the world to me to be there,” he went on. “If I can help the team, that’s my main goal. I think that I can bring things to the team. At the end of the day, he’s going to make whatever he thinks is the best decision for him and his team, so we’ll see.”
Garcia mentioned he believes the Open wasn’t his “last chance” to show himself to Donald, saying, “There’s still a good amount of weeks left. I’ve got to try to play the best I can, and then we’ll see what happens. This week, I felt like my game was on and off a little bit.”
Garcia mentioned he’s been assured by Donald that the choice might be solely golf associated and never political, with LIV Golf being a deterrent.
“That’s what he’s told me — it’s just about how my game is and what I can bring, what I can add to the team, as simple as that,” Garcia mentioned. “Clearly, going into the U.S., going into New York, expertise is at all times good, principally since you’re nonetheless going to have some rookies there, and I believe these skilled guys have an incredible job to do there to make it possible for these rookies know what they’re moving into.
“It’s nice to have one of those experienced guys to put their arm around you and make you feel like ‘don’t worry, I’ve got you,’ when people are shouting at you and screaming and wishing you all the bad things that you can think of.”
