Garcia Needs to Start Dressing for Success

MEDINAH, Ill.--Sergio Garcia is back at Medinah Country Club, where his sprint down the 16th fairway after a spectacular Sunday shot from underneath a tree in the 1999 PGA Championship may have been the enduring memory of that tournament. Tiger Woods eventually won that week, but Garcia, then 19, seemed to announce his presence as a potential formidable rival for the world's No. 1 player.

Over the next seven years, Garcia grew into a decent enough talent, with six titles on the PGA Tour already on his resume and 10 wins internationally. But as he returns to the Chicago suburbs this week for the 88th PGA Championship, the 26-year-old Spaniard clearly has not fulfilled the expectations that memorable week in '99 produced. His disappointing performance last month in the British Open paired in the final group Sunday with Tiger Woods was only the latest setback in his quest to win his first major championship.

Garcia is not among the more popular players on the PGA Tour. Some of his peers consider him to be a tad whiney, something of a preening prima donna and a young man who often seems in denial about the reasons for his continuing failures in major championships, where he is now 0 for 32.

Listen to his comments after shooting 73 in the final round at Hoylake to Woods' 67, and finishing fifth, his 11th top-10 finish in a major.

"I hit some great putts today and I felt very good about my putter," he insisted that day in the Liverpool suburbs. "I hit some great putts that didn't want to go in. That shows me when I'm in this position the next time, I can handle it."

But he's obviously been in that position before with all those top-10 major finishes, and never been able to handle closing the deal.

"My personal opinion about Sergio is himself," said 2005 U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell. "He's the only person that controls his own destiny. He's held himself back, no one else has. If he just finds the secret formula or the "X" factor, I'm sure he will win one, or more than one.

He's a good enough player, no question. He's got a wonderful game. We enjoy Sergio. It's up to him really."

Clearly there are times when Garcia seems to be his own worst enemy. At the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage, he was in the final group with Woods on Sunday, and also faded back to fourth place. Earlier that week, he also moaned very publicly that Woods always seemed to get the best breaks with the weather and tee times, hardly endearing himself to the best player in the world, who then went on to win the tournament.

At Hoylake, Garcia seemed to make a spectacle of himself simply with his choice of apparel for the final round. He showed up dressed in yellow literally from head to toe, a look more appropriate for a fashion runway than a first tee. The next day, the British press had a field day, including one wag who wrote that the cat clearly had eaten the canary.

Lynn Truss, the best-selling author of "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" and a born-again golf writer herself, observed in the Times of London that Garcia "turned up at the practice ground dressed entirely in pale yellow, a color that perhaps has more heroic and manly connotations in Spanish culture, but in the minds of many of the spectators, raised thoughts of bananas and custard, canaries, tweetie birds and (of course) lemons. No one wants to be thought of as a lemon on a golf course. It's madness to invite such an association. Rarely has a wardrobe selection in a sporting context been more unfortunate."

Garcia looked like half a banana on Wednesday for his pre-tournament news conference, in a gaudy yellow shirt and yellow hat, though his blue slacks toned down the overall look considerably. He also said that he is very satisfied with his career, despite his major failures, and insisted that it is only a matter of time before he does break through.

"You're only thinking about one guy that has done something unbelievable," Garcia said, lecturing the assembled media is he occasionally has done before. "And you expect everyone else to do the same. It's not easy to go out there and win a major when you're young and even when you're in your 20s. Tiger has been able to do that plenty of times, and you expect everybody else to do the same. It's not that easy.

"The only thing I can do is at least give myself a chance, and the more chances I give myself, the more possibilities I have of winning. Of course I'm going to lose some, no doubt about that. At the end of the day, you can only try your hardest and with time, you learn how to respond to those situations. The only thing I can do is keep looking forward."

But he also can do one more thing. Keep the canary/banana/lemon look in the suitcase this and at least start dressing for success. Clothes really do make the man, and occasionally, perhaps even a major champion.

Leonard Shapiro can be reached at badgerlen@hotmail.com.

Shapiro's Top 10 for the PGA Championship

1. Tiger Woods: He's on a roll with two wins in his last two starts, and a victory here would get him to an even dozen majors and make him player of the year one more time.

2. Phil Mickelson: Lefty has had three straight sub-par performances since the Winged Foot meltdown, but player of the year also is great motivation.

3. Chris DiMarco: His runner-up finish at the British Open was an encouraging sign, and this may be the week he finally breaks through for a first major win.

4. Ernie Els: Third at the British Open and tenth last week in Colorado, his game and his wounded knee finally seem to be coming around.

5. Jim Furyk: He loves tough old golf courses, and Medinah qualifies on both counts for a former U.S. Open champion who hits the ball straight and far.

6. Luke Donald: The talented young Englishman played college golf at nearby Northwestern and knows the course as well as anyone.

7. Vijay Singh: Though he's 43 and seems to be slipping slightly, two of his three major triumphs came in the PGA Championship.

8. Davis Love III: He's had a tough year, with only one top ten finish, but a win here gets him on the Ryder Cup team, and earns a second major title.

9. Retief Goosen: The quiet South African likes his golf courses the tougher the better, and there may not be a more consistent clutch putter in the field.

10. Colin Montgomerie: He nearly won the U.S. Open because he keeps his ball in the fairway, a key factor for anyone trying to win here this week on the longest major course in history.