Not since Basil Fawlty brought tears to the nation’s eyes by thrashing his car with a branch has an individual made such a fool of himself with a piece of foliage as Sergio García did yesterday by Royal Birkdale’s 4th green.
The Spaniard, who won the Masters in April, landed his tee shot at the par-three under a bush at the back of the putting surface, and could only prod his ball forward by a few yards. Furious with the outcome, García slashed wildly at the offending shrub — and came off second best.
While the bush remained in place, García clutched at his shoulder having injured himself in his fit of herbaceous rage. He sought the attention of a physio and was clearly in pain for the rest of his round.
At the finish, García said his technique had let him down. “I hit it backwards and it was a very weak position,” he said. “It felt like the muscles went on top of each other.”
García admitted that he felt a little embarrassed by the incident but he was more concerned about the foolhardiness of putting his Open challenge in jeopardy. “I almost screwed up my Open,” he said. “Sometimes you are out there and you are trying your hardest and when you can’t do it, you get frustrated. We’ve all had this.”
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For all his anger, García got away with just a bogey and at the next hole he had an eagle-two. And for a man who was carrying an injury, a round of 69 was not too painful to his prospects.
García said: “The eagle definitely cheered me up but at the same time I didn’t know if I was going to be able to finish the round.”