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Garcia didn’t comment about the gaffe at Southern Hills, but if I could speak for him, the explanation might go something like this:
“I wouldn’t change a thing. I made a nice read, had the right line, wrote a perfect signature. I never get a break. Why don’t you go talk to the guys whose signatures always seem to keep them qualified.”
No one is certain exactly how Garcia bogeyed the signature. But we might speculate it had something to do with his act on the 18th green. He three-putted from a short distance, stopping between misses to glare into the gallery. See aforementioned “Monty” reference.
Or maybe his John Halfcocked was initiated on Thursday. He birdied two of his first four holes to get on the leaderboard, then he left two shots in the bunker at No. 11. His response was to gesture at the sand and give a “Why me?” to his caddy.
You know, it’s just like that darn sand to play favorites.
The bottom line appears to be Garcia was too sorry for himself to look closely at his card and too anxious to start brooding to prevent the mistake. Weekley said afterward he realized the discrepancy and tried to catch Garcia, but the sulking Spaniard had already signed and signed off.
When Boo tried to explain the boo-boo, Garcia’s reply was, “That just puts icing on the cake.” Well, at least he got one score right. The cake is always going to fall flat at the majors until Garcia changes the ingredients, until he stops blaming everyone and everything and starts holding himself accountable.
In contrast, Scott Verplank, who has Type 1 diabetes to contend with as he plays in a heat index of 105, shot a disastrous 74 on Saturday. He has a built-in excuse anytime he wants to use it, but his explanation was: “If you want to play at the highest level and play with or like Tiger, then you’ve just got to play a little better.”
The champions make their own breaks in this game. They don’t make excuses.
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