Hey~ guys! most of you prolly don't watch golf like me....but i've been kindo watching the US open for golf that's goin on right now... I'm not a big fan, but my parents are...and really, im only watching it because I saw pics of JC playing golf and read somewhere on atptennis.com that he's friends with sergio garcia *if you don't know him, well he's that young guy that's not fat and wears adidas hahaha jk jk* anyway...I used to hate golf, and i know that this is so wrong for me just to pick it up b/c of JC -_- but...uh...well....guess i have no excuse, except that i used to play it/learn/practice at the range in 6th grade until i decided not to be gay anymore :lol: jk

anyway, I was wondering if any of you guys were interested and if so, could someone explain the whole scoring b/c i'm a bit confused and i don't want to make my parents seem like i'm interested by asking them or else they'll make me play :ph43r: dun dun dun *worst nightmare* :') jk jk....ok i'll stop rambling...

ok, i have to say jus one more thing....sergio is also from spain, but I gotta say his english is way, and i mean WAY better than any of the spaniards on the atp tour=you can barely hear his accent :blink: but JC's accent adds to his cute factor right....*sigh* his post-match interviews in english are just brilliant! :)

does anyone know why golf is more popular than tennis?? they have like commercials with pga tour players...i jus saw two of them with sergio....and with all these other guys, granted the us open is going on, but still......and they're like cool commercials too....hmph, that new atp campaign better make some commercials with JC to air here :P

ok.....this is more tennis related: sergio garcia plays tennis and used to go out with martina hingis :blink: wow....i must be really bored....and everyone here must really not be into golf....but i would think that since tennis and golf are both "country club" sports some would :lol: .....ok ok, now i'm just going off :rolleyes:

oh this is so cool! i luv golf!

sergio garcia is definitely my favourite - i remmeber d 1st time i saw him, USPGA like 5 years ago n no1 knew about n he came from nowhere to challenge tiger woods 4 the title n he hit this shot -his ball was in the roots of a tree and he whacked it out with his eyes clothes n it landed on d green, it was class!i luved him since then, and the fact that he's mates wit jc makes it much better!

he's doin ok this week, he's six shots away, if he dosent win it i hopoe phil mickelson will, he's deadly.

i met loads of players about 2 years ago at a tourney in ireland - sergio, phil, tiger woods, appleby, adam scott, mike weir, nick price, ernie els and a few more!

i luv golf!

wow roisin! that's really awesome! wasn't sergio's first win in ireland?? I like know all these things about him b/c i was being retarted last night reading articles about him at like 3am!!!!! hahahaha I've becom nocturnal! :ph43r: a vampire! :lol: ....no, but yea he seems like a real character so he's my favorite golfer.....i read that in 1999 he skipped a tourney b/c he got an acne break out! LMAO....and i'm not sure but in long island like he was taking long to hit his shots and then he gave like the middle finger to the crowd/they gave it to him or somtin?? but yea it's all crazy and good stuff hehe He's like the marat of golf! :') :lol:

Hey again! This is one of the articles i read....it's pretty good from espn or sumtin so...

Thursday, June 10, 2004

Garcia climbing back to stage
Garcia climbing back to stage
By John Hawkins
Golf World
The woman's legs are strapped to silver braces at the bottom of a wheelchair, her head tilted at an awkward angle as it rests against an arch of padded steel.
From a special accommodations platform above the 18th green at Quail Hollow Club, she can hear the simmer of idle youth rise to a crescendo of idol clamor. It's pro-am Wednesday at the Wachovia Championship in Charlotte, N.C., the city of queens, and a dashing prince is king of the hill, regaling all who approach him on his way up the steep embankment leading back to the clubhouse.
Her neck may be weak, but the woman's mind is sharp, her voice strong. "Sergio!" she shouts, loud enough to be heard over the adolescent din. When caddie Glen Murray points toward the handicapped pavilion, his employer is struck by what he sees -- a moment of clarity in a world of disparity. Separated by no more than 10 yards, their fates could not seem further apart.

Garcia remains popular despite having trouble with his game recently.
The golfer has dated actresses (Jennifer Alba) and tennis stars (Martina Hingis), drives his Ferrari 150 miles per hour, plays four sports in the same afternoon. The woman calling his name requires two tires for transportation and needs 30 minutes to use the restroom, maybe more. How far has she come? How long did it take? When Sergio Garcia climbs halfway up the back end of the bleachers to give her a ball, to touch her hand, to chat while dangling from a steel girder six feet off the ground, you do not ask yourself what is wrong with golf's Boy Wonder.
It's amazing, the stuff you don't see on TV. Six weeks earlier, on what appeared to be the 11th hole in the final round of the Players Championship, Garcia, who was out of contention, imparted too much draw spin on his approach to a green bordered hard on the left by water. His ball took an unforgiving hop off the putting surface and into the fishies, setting off a tantrum so violent that NBC must have chosen not to show it on the "live" telecast.
Garcia ripped off his cap, kicked it, tomahawked his club, made several woe-is-me gestures, then went after the hat again. To those viewing on a soundless feed piped into the media center, it was hard not to laugh or shake your head. Here was this gifted, 24-year-old international superstar -- fastest car, beautiful girlfriends, endless supply of talent -- full of rage and seemingly very troubled, warped not only by a glaring shortage of perspective, but a sense of false entitlement. As if, in golf, there is any other kind.
Good Sergio, bad Sergio. The truth of the matter is, we must learn to accept both, for they clearly are the same person, all the emotional dials stuck on high. We can't adore him one minute and abhor him the next. We can't marvel at the depth of his potential without acknowledging that potential is life's greatest curse, and on occasion, an immense burden only to the man who bears it. Perhaps more than anything, we can't ignore Garcia's chronological entry point in golf history -- the first and most highly acclaimed player to begin his career in Tiger Woods' exhaust fumes.
It all goes a long way to explain the last five years. From Garcia's dazzling pro debut in the spring of 1999 to last month's not-a-week-too-soon triumph at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, the dull moments have been few and far between. Some might say the same of his victories: four on the PGA Tour, eight official worldwide.
"I definitely would've liked to have been a little bit better, [especially considering] the way I started," Garcia admitted after beating Dudley Hart and Robert Damron in a playoff in Dallas. "You know, we're never satisfied. We always want more. Sometimes maybe we get a bit too greedy."
Almost 2½ years had passed since his last U.S. title, an eternity for a guy who won on the European Tour in his sixth pro start. Ranked fifth in the world in August 2002, Garcia fell deep into the 30s while undergoing a much-publicized swing reconstruction, which amounted to far more than merely reducing his lag at the top. Better posture, higher hands at address, less width on the takeaway -- some divot engineers say they can't see much difference. Sergio suggests they spend less time talking and more time looking at the videotape.
"Riviera, seventh hole," he says, referring to the second round of the 2003 Nissan Open -- the exact point at which he decided something had to be done. "I'd hit it straight down the middle and tried to punch a little 8-iron into the green, a nice little fade. I mean, it just went dead right, probably 35 yards [offline]. My dad, he says, 'If you want, we can go see somebody else.' And I said, 'Dad, I don't need anybody else.'
"He tells me, 'You know, this is a dangerous move.' I told him, 'I don't care. It's time for me to be a really good player, not just a decent player.' I just felt like it was time."
Father and son -- teacher and pupil -- got more analytical than ever. To score more consistently with the short clubs, Sergio had to develop a reliable cut shot. He could no longer pump a wedge from 160 yards and leave his fate in the hands of gravity. He couldn't rank 181st on the tour in driving accuracy, as he did in 2003, because nobody wins at this level by playing from the left rough. It took a year, give or take a thousand practice balls, but the puncher has become a boxer.
The golf ball is finally listening to Sergio, even when he swears at it in Spanish. "My swing is so much more together, so much more compact," he explains. "That makes it more repetitive. I don't depend so much on the rhythm as I did before. The lag is still there, but I have more control."
For all the progress and optimism, it's worth noting that Garcia also ranked 175th in putting last year -- in three full seasons prior to '03, he had finished fourth, 24th and 35th. Sergio doesn't like it when you rag him about his flat stick, but facts are facts. Even in this latest victory, some of his rolls looked like they had been struck by a pitchfork, but hey, if facts are facts, a win also is a win.
So consider Dallas the official Sergio relaunch -- a return to competitive prominence, a reward for the year of mechanical alterations, an emotional rebirth. As his winless stretch dragged into 2004, Garcia's high-strung disposition seemed to be transmitting more negativity than ever. If few people saw the outburst at the Players Championship, his behavior during the final round of the Masters was insufferable -- the Bad Sergio on golf's biggest and most visible stage.
On two separate instances during Sunday's front nine, Garcia became huffy at playing partner Jerry Kelly when Kelly asked who was away -- their balls were almost equidistant to the hole on the fourth green, then again on the seventh. Garcia later became incensed when he said "good shot" to Kelly and didn't hear a response. "It wasn't the Sergio I knew, or thought I knew," Kelly says. "He snapped at me a couple of times."
The two men had become relatively close, making the situation difficult for Kelly to discuss. He knows there are possible implications as it relates to the Ryder Cup, but he also is a man of high principle -- and was paired again with Garcia in Sunday's final group in Dallas. "I waited all week for him to say something, was kind of hoping he would," Kelly says. "Then I thought maybe he'd take care of it when we got to the first tee, and I tried to make light of it. He had these little smiley faces on his ball. I said, 'Oh, smiley faces?' He said, 'Yeah, well I had them at Augusta, too.' And I said, 'Well, at least your ball did.' "
"His response was, 'You worry about yourself, I'll worry about me.' It wasn't nice. He made it clear he wasn't going to apologize when it would have been nice to clear it up early in the week. He obviously feels like he didn't do anything wrong."
They had teed off 10 groups before the leaders on Masters Sunday. Despite the friction, Garcia leapt into peripheral contention with a 66, a round of ballstriking so superb that, given the context of when and where it occurred, ranks as one of his best ever. Although it was a case of too little, too late -- Garcia and Kelly completed play as the leaders began the back nine -- Sergio was only two strokes off the lead when he finished. CBS wanted him in Butler Cabin. He also was asked to come to the media center, although print journalists who needed Garcia could have joined an informal "scrum" session outside with the foreign press.
Things started bad and got worse. A flurry of non-stop action early on the back nine forced CBS to make Garcia wait 20 minutes before he was interviewed by Dick Enberg. By that point, Sergio's lower lip had grown to twice its usual size. Instead of talking about his great round and using it to validate the swing changes, he lamented his poor luck, saying, "I definitely didn't have my best week break-wise." Enberg, a happy-talk legend, tried cajoling, but it was no use. With eagles and birdies flying throughout Amen Corner, Garcia wanted pity in his few awkward minutes with golf's largest TV audience.
He moved on to the media center, where a psychic wasn't needed to pick up on Sergio's mood. First comment from the press: "You seem to be upset with something." Garcia's answer: "It's been going on for a while. I just hope you guys don't come out now saying I'm back, that this is the Sergio we all know, and all that." He continued to grieve a week of bad bounces and what-ifs, at which point the downside of being the game's most talented young player seemed grossly self-imposed.
"I've come in lots of times with a hot head and bit my lip," says Nick Price. "It's a maturity thing. You go into the locker room for five minutes and cool off, then remember that people are listening to every word you say."
Garcia drove off to his rented house in Augusta and watched the tournament's magnificent conclusion, then prepared for the long flight back to Spain -- his first trip home in 2½ months. "I started thinking about it a little bit," he says in Charlotte. "Coming back on the plane, then when I settled down, I realized what I had done. The only thing I can say is, it was one of those stupid things you do sometimes. I wish I could go back in time, but unfortunately I can't. I've got to learn to live with those things."
Actually, he doesn't. For all his endearing qualities -- great manners, terrific core values, an effusive love of kids, a modestly sized ego -- Garcia can be a very different guy on the golf course. His self-absorption and lack of composure inside the ropes have earned him a reputation among his colleagues as being difficult to play with. Nobody glares longer at the 15-footer that burns the right edge, as if some grave miscarriage of justice has transpired. Nobody struggles more with one of the game's great character assets: self-accountability.
Granted, his fellow tour pros can be a sensitive, judgmental bunch. Is Garcia fiercely competitive, driven to achieve the greatness predicted by so many, or is he simply immature? "He's gotta grow up," one veteran player says. "It's all about how you handle it out here. His role model ought to be [New York Yankees shortstop] Derek Jeter. The guy's the captain on the biggest franchise in sports, goes 0 for 30 and gets booed. The media comes up and says, 'Derek, they're booing you. What do you think of that?' And he says, 'Hey, they should boo me. I'm 0 for 30. I'd boo me, too.' "
There was concern about Sergio's attitude in the Garcia camp before the sourpuss sonnet at Augusta National. If the tournament hadn't produced one of the most memorable finishes in golf history, or if Phil Mickelson hadn't won, the interview with Enberg might have gotten a lot more attention. And though he obviously was annoyed CBS made him wait so long before putting him on the air, Garcia refuses to blame the delay for the chip on his shoulder.
As it turned out, the Mickelson afterglow prevented any serious image damage. Asked if he wishes he were more aggressive when advising Garcia on matters involving public perception, Sergio's agent, IMG's Clarke Jones, says, "Are there times I wished stuff didn't happen? Sure, but the media is likely to jump on the negatives. Is there room for improvement? Yeah, I'm not going to argue with that. We had a very constructive conversation after the Masters."
When Garcia turned pro, he signed a management contract with a Miami-based Spaniard named José Marquina, whose firm had no other PGA Tour players. Many of Sergio's day-to-day affairs were handled by Robert Gutierrez, who worked for Marquina but has since started his own business. As Garcia's star power rose, he quickly outgrew Marquina's operation. He signed with IMG at the end of 2000.
According to Gutierrez, who now represents players on several tours, IMG has mishandled Garcia to the point where his career has been compromised. "He went to a transaction-based company that only cares about itself," Gutierrez says. "Here was this guy who was open and happy, and now he's cautious. I love Sergio to death, but IMG took a polished diamond and roughed it up."
Unlike some player-service firms, IMG doesn't have a media-training specialist, someone who helps avoid interview-related double bogeys and dispenses a little grease when needed. Woods learned the hard way early in his career; now he's the best in the game at talking for 45 minutes and not saying anything. "I've been telling them that for years," an IMG client says of the need to create such a position.
Asked about hiring a "transaction-based company" to handle his own affairs, the same player mentions 1999 British Open champ Paul Lawrie, who has been known to groan about not being known. IMG did well to help Lawrie cash in on his major title in the months following the victory, but these days, the taciturn Scot doesn't sign 10 autographs the entire week at a U.S. tournament. "They [IMG] always go for the quick buck," the player says, perhaps forgetting P.T. Barnum would have a hard time selling a guy as inconsistent and charismatically challenged as Lawrie.
As for the "polished diamond" claim, some of Garcia's most erratic behavior occurred while he was under contract to Marquina. Who can forget the hilarious shoe-throwing incident at the World Match Play in late 1999, when Sergio tore off the faulty footwear and fired it at a billboard? His rationalization for such an action was as bad as the traction: "It's not something I should be showing children, but it sometimes happens. What can you do? I am not doing this every day."
A year later, Garcia walked off after nine holes at the European Tour's Volvo Masters pro-am. He'd nearly come to blows with one of his partners, a Spanish businessman named Luis Somoza, over a disagreement about Somoza's yardage to the hole. "Nobody hits me but my dad," Sergio announced, unintentionally incriminating Victor, who is as gentle a soul as his son is volatile.
"He's an emotional kid, and that's what makes him attractive," Jones says. "Great heart, great character, great charisma. He's made some mistakes -- the goal is to minimize them. I'm not going to say he's never going to make mistakes again."
One could even see how all the childish antics have become part of Garica's charm; he's the high-maintenance cartoon character in a game full of low blood pressures. His ridiculous response to a ruling at a 2001 European Tour event in Australia -- he was penalized two strokes for taking a bad drop in the third round, then lost in a playoff to Aaron Baddeley the next day -- was vintage Sergio: "Somebody didn't want me to win, and he did it," referring to rules official John Paramor.
It all leads to a relevant observation: Garcia has played some of his best golf when pushed to a state of maximum agitation, however poorly justified. Immediately after the series of disagreements with Kelly, Sergio ripped through Augusta National's last 12 holes in 8 under, his longest birdie putt measuring no more than 20 feet. "Shot after shot, it was exactly the shape I wanted," he says. "I just couldn't miss."
Extreme Sergio has never played to more vivid effect than at the 2002 U.S. Open. It was the week the waggles went wild -- Garcia's constant regripping of the club and interminable periods over the ball made him an easy target for Bethpage's boisterous galleries. In the rain that Friday afternoon, Garcia responded to the derision by showing his middle finger to the crowd -- a Long Island peace sign hand-delivered right back to the hometown folks.
In the media center afterward, he claimed the USGA would have suspended play in the downpour had Woods been on the course, then went the extra mile to bemoan Tiger's frequently landing on the weather-friendly half of the draw in recent majors. It was a ludicrous whimper, felonious by suggestion, spurred no less by ill will and jealousy than the conventional pangs of youth. "It's tough to beat a guy when he's getting all the breaks," Garcia groused. "If he doesn't win this week, I don't know what else can happen to him."
Yet, there he was Sunday afternoon, teeing off with Woods in the day's final pairing, three strokes off the lead but able to look his arch-nemesis in the eye. By the way, the weather couldn't have been better when Garcia, his deficit reduced to one, whiffed a three-footer for par on the third green. He would never recover, but he can't wait to go back to Long Island, to the Big Apple, to the place where so many people are just like Sergio himself. "I just love that city," he says. "It's the closest thing to Europe you can get here in America. The people say things sometimes that aren't right, but I don't think they mean them. They even talk to their friends like that. I didn't take it [Bethpage] personally."
The longer you think about it, the more it begins to make sense. After months of searching for consistent command of his ball flight, it all comes together on the last day of the Masters, but only after Garcia tangles with Kelly, another headstrong guy who won't back down from anyone. Sergio triple-bogeys the post-round interview process, then returns to the east coast of Spain, where life is a whirlwind of fun and friends, as opposed to his home in Orlando, which he owns largely for the purpose of having a U.S. base.
"Always the golf atmosphere," he says of the Lake Nona residence, where he can count his companions on one hand: Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Justin Rose, Trevor Immelman. "They like to relax with their families, and I get so tensed up. I like to move around. I like to do things."
He returns to the United States three weeks later invaluably refreshed, having overdosed on a diet of tennis and soccer, biking and four-wheeling. Garcia tunes up in Charlotte, then wins in Dallas. And just like that, all is fine in Sergio's world. The boy who began pursuing Woods on a sprint up Medinah's 16th fairway at the 1999 PGA Championship can resume the chase again. The swing changes have worked. The playing field is far more level now.
Mickelson has won a Masters. Vijay Singh is, in the eyes of many, the best player in the world. Woods can't find the fairway, at least not on a regular basis, and Garcia is ready to pounce. Didn't Tiger play his greatest golf ever -- five major titles, 19 total victories in 42 starts -- as soon as the Boy Wonder showed up? Wasn't it the pressure applied by someone four years younger that motivated Woods during that two-year stretch of dominance, not a pack of guys four years older?
The game is on. The future is now. And Sergio Garcia, of course, can't sit still. "I know that if I do well, I will get the attention I deserve," he says. As if we'd have it any other way.
John Hawkins is a senior writer for Golf World magazine


ok so the us open is going on......and this thread is supposed to be about that so, um yea tiger....talk about him, he's not doin so hot, is he?? hahaha :rolleyes:

never mind about tiger - he's crap now, cant put a drive on d fairway!

back to sergio! yeah his 1st win was in ireland. he's such a pet. when he was walkin up to the first tee (this is at d american express golf championship 2 yrs ago when i met him!) me n me sister walked up alongside him well there was a rope seperating us but still! n i says 2 him, "will u sign my hat plz sergio?" n he says "after the round". then i say "good luck now sergio" and he luks over at us smiles and says "thanks", a smile 2 melt to......phew he is hot! neway, we followed him all d way round d golf course and then afterwards (when i was autograph hunting!) sergio comes out n every1 is lukin 4 his autograph! so i stick my hat out and im screaming at him..."sergio!!!" and just as he's about to walk in2 the players area, he takes my hat and signs it n tosses it back at me! i was so happy!

i wanted his autograph so much that when i was shouting at him 2 sign my hat (n wher we wer was bside d 9th green) my sister who was watchin tiger woods on that green said that just as woods was about 2 putt all u cud heard was me shouting (at d top of my voicei mite add...) at sergio....i'd say i wasnt so happy!

back 2 d us open tho, yeah 2 yrs ago at bethpage at d us open d fans called sergio the "human rain delay" becuz he took so long to hit the ball. he used 2 do all this regripping n stuff - headwreckin! i used 2 c wot was on all d channels, go bak 2 d golf n he stil wudnt have hit the shot!

my god the crowd this yr r luvin phil mickelson! they're goin mad 4 him!

US Open leaderboard


US Open, Shinnecock Hills
THIRD ROUND LEADERBOARD
(US unless stated)


R Goosen SA -5

P Mickelson -3
E Els SA -3

S Maruyama Jpn -2
F Funk -2

T Clark SA -1
J Maggert -1







US Open, Shinnecock Hills
SELECTED THIRD ROUND POSITIONS:
(US unless stated)

M Weir Can level
S Garcia Spa +1
T Woods +4
A Cabrera Arg +4
N Price Zim +5
B Curtis +5
D Toms +5
V Singh Fij +5
J Haas +6
M C'vecchia +6
L Westwood Eng +7
P Price Wal +8
A Cejka Ger +8
J Furyk +9
P Harrington Ire +10

whoa roisin! you are one LUCKY grl to have met/get autopgraph sergio! I'm sure his smile was jus irresistably cute!!!
damn.....my parents are into golf, but they've never been to a real tournament :( boohoo...and since they don't know that i've taken a sudden interest in golf *cough*cough sergio! hahaha..the prolly wouldn't even consider usin a ticket on me haha!

are those scores you posted the end of the day results?? they've changed a bit from when i was watching this early afternoon...glad sergio got up from +4, which was his score last time i saw him :D

btw didn't you like the article i posted...loved the ending, really good ^_^ ;) and if it's not too much trouble, do ya think you could post his signature?? gosh, he's so cool!

god, am i becoming sergiobsessed??! well....it's ok to spread the love right?? I think Ferrero will be the guy that i'll always have a crush on...you know, always be so emotionally attached with his mysterious, subtle, yet great and so sweet disposition......sergio is the guy next door that you just want as your best friend, the guy that you just can't help but love, the guy that'll give you laughs upon laughs while hanging out! ...or at least that's the way I look at it heeheehee :') --is this smiley supposed to be sad crying or jus kind of laughing/cringing...i think i'm using it as the latter ^_^

hahaha...u crack me up!

yeah those are the end of the day results....sergio was back at +5 at one stage! he came back well. i'll post a pic of his autograph later.....he was just so cute!

and i meant 2 say, that article was deadly! i luv when he throws tantrums.....

hahaha thanks roisin.......and i love those tantrums too, he should throw more of them heheh ;) from what i was watching but i don't think he's going to win it but that's ok....next tourney, whichever one it is :D

yeah retief goosen won the us open which is stupid cos he's so boring.....he barely smiled when he won...mickelson double bogeyed the 17th i was so mad at him!!! sergio finished +11, nightmare last day...

hey here's some golfers autographs i got...

if u can read them!

there's rich been, padraig harrington, adam scott, nick price, davis love III, ernie els & stuart appleby on that...

and *drumroll please....*

my pride and joy.....

my sergio garcia signed hat!

*AAAAH!!!!!* sergio's autograph! on your hat! so awesome! YOU ARE TOO LUCKY TO GET THAT CHICO'S AUTOGRAPH!!!!!!!! hahaha :lol: well.....hehe, maybe one day i'll be able to hahahha.....but I'll be meeting JC, but it'd be nice to meet SERGIO too!!!! Maybe I should get JC to sign my visor as well as a poster or whatever hehehe.....although i can't really tell how that says sergio garcia, i guess i can kinda see the sergio, but the garcia is like jus lines hahaha.....but then again, that's every other famous person's autograh heehee

Yea, he finished +11, unfortunate.....can't believe tiger finished better +10!!! :blink: :angry: hahaha....so weird...so what's the next tournament, i saw something about the Ryder Cup on the bottom line of espn, but it was for like the top 10 players and sergio wasn't part of it boohoo <_< And how is tiger woods still #1....hasn't he been sucking for like ages??!

btw.....jus a little question....is golf more popular than tennis in ireland/europe?? It is here in the states....so sad/stupid how unpopular tennis is -_- Do you know how much coverage there was on the us open (golf) like there's the golf channel and espn and nbc and like they show it for hours upon hours on nbc.....and 24/7 (literally) on the golf channel......and like hours on espn.....repeating the same things a million times a day! and they're not through, there's an encore presentation of the final round tomorrow .....tennis GS-RG....umm 30 minutes a day, sometimes and hour or 2....but that's it really......and honestly the whole reporting set up thing on the golf channel is better b/c they have like predictions and like debate type things and show a lot of playes' interviews....psh tennis is stupid...or at least the people in charge *agreeing with marat* hehehe...another good thing about golf is that the players can play forever...and get better with age.....tennis, what JC has like 6/7/8/9 years left.......sergio has like over two decades!!!! to be playing in prime hahaha.....but still, im more of a tennis fan, but golf is cool, or maybe it's jus the appeal of sergio.......hmm lemme think about it, o yea it is! big surprise.....as everyone else is old and fat and not very "out there" hehe

Why is Phil Mickleson so nice...he never says anything mean/bad!?

great...i had something else to say, but i forgot! hahahaha.....Roisin: "*sigh of relief* thank god she stopped ramblin...." :')

ah sergio is in the ryder cup team standings-theres 2 its really f**ked up, they changed it this yr n i dunno how it works but even if sergio dosent qualify they'll pick him as a wildcard neway!

as 4 phil mickelson - he's a dude! he's so cool, dead nice. im really glad all the american crowds go crazy 4 him now instead of tiger. he's stolen his limelight! i was so happy 4 him when he won d masters cos every1 called him "the greatest player never 2 have won a major" (now thats sergio's title btw!) and now they call phil "the greatest player to have won only one major". he always does so well in majors too.....hope he wins more but i want sergio 2 win the british open!

well i dunno bout europe in general i can only speak 4 ireland & britain. and golf is defintiely more popular here. tennis is like non-existent in ireland and although it better in britain, not by much. they have proper tournaments so obviously theres a bit of popularity there. and when wimby comes along, it goes henman crazy (or henmania as they've called it).

irish tv channels dont broadcast much golf r tennis live but i get all the english channels 2 n i have english satellite 2

they show lots of golf n tennis. every golf tournament on d european tour is either shown on bbc or sky sports n they show all the tournaments from the us tour as well. and not just bits of it - no, they have like 5-6 hours live coverage a day and 4 major tournaments they have like 10 hours live coverage a day. when they show us tour tournaments on sky, the cverage and commentators r from american stations like espn, abc and them.

with tennis, sky sports shows all the masters series events, the nottingham open, us open and davis cup

and british eurosport shows the french open, the australian open and TMC as well as a bit of live coverage from other smaller ATP and WTA tour events.

and as well, bbc show queens and wimbledon - which has so much coverage its untrue.

a lot of the tournaments on bbc and sky sports like the masters series events and the slams are interactive so u can choose what court u wanna watch which rules!

but in ireland, golf is really popular. even more so when tournaments r played here...

O, so he is gonna play in the ryder cup, great! :D

and about the title of "the best player to have never won a major" is.....well, coincidently i read an article form msnbc yesterday about it online.....and yea it was after the masters and how phil passed the title to sergio hahaha
I'm sure sergio will win majors, but hopefully he will soon......what are the majors anyway?? at first i thought they were just like the opens or whatever like tennis, but then the masters is a major too.....ok, yea i'm really stupid....but can you explain? heheheh.... :lol:

last night, i also saw sergio's post-round interview on the last day of the masters......he was acting so funny and "marat-like" haha....the article on msnbc called him a "sulking toddler" :lol: but i like that kind of sergio, it makes me laugh......aren't we supposed to like that bit of immaturity left in him?? but from things i've read it seems like the golf world doesn't encourage it too much.....well, they do say that it adds to his charisma...but i guess they don't need it as much as tennis, since golf isn't a "dying" sport, in terms of popularity -_-

it's so strange though, that golf is more popular than tennis.....golf-not the most athletic sport in the world....how did it come to this??!!! :lol: why do i always feel like I need some phantom of the opera type music and some mad scientist laughing?? :lol:

is there a way to change the name of this thread.....b/c it's more about sergio and golf now since the us open is over.... :rolleyes:

sure it dosent matter bout the topic title! we're d only ones who post here neway! ;)

bout sergio 'immaturity' - all the golfers r way older than tennis players so its more frowned upon. :mellow: u can play golf on d main tour 4ever! theres sum guys like fred funk n jay haas who did well at d masters who r like 50! :o

and golf is more popular than tennis cos we're all so lazy. u can b fat n play golf no problem but bein fat n playin tennis cud b a problem! :P (egh - very bad mental image!) :wacko:

and the majors in golf are:

The British Open (known as The Open)
The USPGA
The US Open
The Masters

british open is nxt in july, sergio better win! i had €10 on him 2 win last year but he finished 10th....stupid boy!


im surprised we've gotten this far in2 the conversation without postin sum pics! well i'll start that now me thinks!!!

yea i guess the topic title doesn't really matter....hahaha

icic why his immaturity is not so hot in golf....but it sure does give more dimension to him and attracts more young people to the game ;) so i think they should be thanking sergio right about now! hahahaha jkjk.....but how is tiger still popular....for some reason i never jumped on that ban wagon, it's like yea he was all dominant for a while, but he's so boring to watch with that serious game face all the time.....it's like, lay back and have a little fun, u know hahaha...but if it works for him, then i guess i shouldn't say anything. And what's with his gf, i'm pretty sure she has some impact on his game right now and is prolly there b/c he's tiger woods....jus like kobe bryant's wife hahaha (u know who kobe is right?? or is nba not an irish thing?) btw how long has it been since tiger's won anything??

aah, yea.....golf is popular cuz i guess the world is lazy...i thought it was jus us americans with the beer-bellies and all *andy roddick hahaha....but it's nice to see someone fresh like sergio--young, slim, friendly, and o yea, hot :P but jenny cap is kind of chunky...no offense to her, but yea

thanks for addin a bit of knowledge to my stupid golf-lacking brain with the list of the majors hahaha.......

British Open! GO Sergio!!! Whoo-Hoo! YEA! hahhaha love how you call them stupid boys......so funny and cute

and speakin of pics.....well, first of all is that pic from the us open, like the 3rd day, he was wearin red on the 3rd day right?? secondly, did i tell you about my gay/porno mag that im trying to publish before the end of the summer with my friend b/c i've come across so many gay JC/marat pics.....and even more gay SERGIO pics i decided that something had to be done hahaha....god i have so many pics to post......

go with d pics then!

no dat pic is from a while back, he was wearin d same clothes d other day. his clothes r so lovely!! :D

as 4 tiger, hasnt won n e thing since last yr sumtime i think....i never liked him either....he was so class when he first arrived on d scene tho....amazing fact - sergio is the youngest player ever 2 make d cut in a european tour event, he was just 14.....bless..... ^_^

back 2 tiger tho, he always luks like he's gonna cry! and i hate his caddy if he finds sum1 tryin 2 take a pic of tiger on d course, he goes over n takes d camera off dem. once he threw sum1s camera in a lake....im sure he's a luvly person tho!

andy roddick beer belly - funny!

and yes im aware of d kobe bryant deal.....he's a bit of a hottie 2!

another sergio pic-from dis yrs us open!

now these aren't for the magazine, but doesn't he look so adorable.....it's from 1995, but he looks like he's 12 hahaha

haha...i have that on my computer 2!

he luks like a baby!

so cute!

is it jus me or does he look like doug from the cartoon, esp. here

he's such a nice lookin guy, soft, he looks like nice.......JC is hot, but can look kind of evil *hahahha* :lol:

now here comes the mag pics

another

oooh scary.....i just have nice pics of him!

frolicking with parnevick (think i spelled his name wrong)

more frolicking

oh jesus....u may stop with d scary pics now!

im goin off him!

newho, im off 2 bed but i'll b back 2moro wit more pics n chat bout golf!

lol!

sry roisin, but there's more frolicking.......this time with Michael Jordan

looking a little interested with this caddie

now this one speaks for itself hahaha........what is he doin??! is our boy wonder really doin what it looks like he's doin??!

and the bit about him being the youngest player to make the cut in a european tourney is awesome just 14!!!!! brilliant! :wub:

how is this humanly possible :huh: .......now he really is the boy wonder! hahaha

now don't they look jus sweet.... :P

he looks really nice in this pic though hehhe :D

here's the msnbc article i was talking about earlier love the last bit in red :) and the pic that was with it


Mickelson passes
loser label to ... Garcia
Spaniard becomes new
Best Player Never To Win a Major
Despite once being heralded as a rival to Tiger Woods and a potential superstar, Sergio Garcia has yet to fulfill it.
COMMENTARY
By Dan O'Neill
NBCSports.com contributor
Updated: 2:46 a.m. ET April 15, 2004AUGUSTA, Ga. - There is a flip side to what took place at Augusta National on Sunday. While there was a dispensation, there also was a discard. Phil Mickelson picked up an official title he has sought for so long and at the same time dropped the unofficial title he has carried with such distinction.


Now that Mickelson is entitled, who is the "best player never to win a major?"

There has to be one, you know. A golfing nation needs an unfortunate soul. This unpredictable game has to have a predictable fall guy, a tough-luck loser the rest of us tough-luck losers can cling to.

Mickelson will be a tough act to follow. His performance as a BPNTWAM were beyond reproach. He has long been considered among the elite players in the game. He came into the weekend having won 22 PGA Tour events and having gone 46 majors without a win. His disappointments often were played out in spectacular form.

He picked up that standard dropped by Tom Kite at the 1992 U.S. Open, ejected by Davis Love III at the 1997 PGA Championship and took it to a whole new level. "Lefty" may go down in the books as the best of the "best players" to ever play this game. Even Mickelson realizes his resume was impossible to ignore. When asked on Sunday if he minded being labeled, he answered: "It was expected."

Now it’s extracted and his victory in the 68th Masters leaves a gaping hole on the "best player" landscape. The available candidates to fill the slot aren’t nearly as qualified. Perhaps most deserving of the label would be Colin Montgomerie, who certainly might be the people’s choice. The tortured Monty has 28 victories world wide, but has never won a major championship.

He has flirted with the notion, though not nearly as often as Mickelson. But it has been a while now since Monty made a serious run. You have to go back to Congressional in 1997 to find the last true heartbreak. Montgomerie doesn’t play in the U.S. often enough to satisfy our needs and frankly, at age 40, it’s a little late in the game for the "easiest player to heckle" to become the BPTNWAM.

Jim Furyk would have been a nice fit. Furyk was running in the shadows of Mickelson all these years, piling up top 10s, finishing high on the money list, failing to win majors. But Furyk went and spoiled it all by winning the U.S. Open last year. Chris DiMarco has potential. He’s a fine player who has contended often in recent years, but with just three PGA Tour wins, DiMarco isn’t established enough to be underachieving, if you follow.

Jay Haas and Scott Hoch are too old. Charles Howell III and Adam Scott are too young. Darren Clarke and Padraig Harrington are too Irish. Fact is, it might be easier to start a new category, a "best player to never win more than one major" label.

With eight different players winning the last eight majors, there would be no shortage of candidates. You could start with Love, add Justin Leonard, put Retief Goosen in there. You could go back to Tom Lehman, consider David Toms, pour yourself a Rich Beem. And best of all, Mickelson would be right back in the mix.

But it wouldn’t be the same, sort of contrived, and the double jeopardy wouldn’t be fair. The truth is, golf is just going to have to develop a "best player." It’s going to take a few majors, a few disappointing finishes, a few Mickelson-like moments. The challenge is for a prominent newcomer to step up and bring order to the “best player” universe. And fortunately, there is a one showing great promise – Sergio Garcia.

"El Nino" hasn’t quite put together the body of work you would like to have in a "best player." With him being only 24, it’s a little like robbing the cradle to give him the BPTNWM license plate now. But he has limitless potential in this area.

He has won three times on the PGA Tour and four times on the European Tour. He has shown an ability to be on the leaderboard at majors and an inability, thus far, to win one. He has had a second at the PGA, a fourth at the U.S. Open and eight top 10s in the big dances overall.

More important than that, he has the kind of makeup you like to see in a "best player," which he demonstrated with an immature pouting performance on Sunday. While shooting a remarkable 66 and toying with the idea of stealing the show, Garcia pouted around the place like he was shooting a 76. Afterwards, he conducted his post-round interview like sulking toddler.

"It’s been going on for a while, it’s OK," Garcia said, when asked about the long puss. "That’s the way you guys are. When we’re playing well, we’re the best and, even if we’re playing well and things are not going our way, you know, we can be shocking.

"So it’s nice to see how fair you guys are. And I just hope that you guys don’t come out now saying, 'Oh, you know, he’s back,' and 'This is the Sergio we know,' and all that peep."

Talented player, no major, emotionally vulnerable. No doubt about it, that’s our man.

© 2004 NBC Sports.com

sergio doin some of his routine exercises! hahhahaha

this is jus in general, but don't you jus love his sweet smile, it's so cute and nice looking :wub:

of course! i love his clothes and they look extra nice on him too! hahaha like on the last day of the us open i forget who, maybe jay haas, but some old guy wore a red outfit, similar to the one sergio wore the day before and all i could think about was how it so looked better on el nino hahaha.......i love his shoes too, black/white or like khaki-colored/white so awesome.....and his caps and everything, it's all adidas, my fav. sport brand B) he looks so hot! and lovable.....like in this one article from golf digest in like 2002.....they said that he was "one you could hug, one you could cuddle" or somethin of the sort.....i'll prolly end up postin that too hahahha.....and then did you read an interview from 2000 where he's all talking about how his interests are tennis, games, and grls! he kept bringing up grls! hahaha :wub: lovable!(did i spell that right?? aah im turnin stupid!) :lol: :rolleyes:

btw have you seen any of his commercials??........have i mentioned any of them before?? i think i have.....hrmm.....ok i have like no more sergio info left in my brain! NOOOOOOOO! you have to give me some more hahaha....if you haven't read the article "fast and loose"--the one i was talking about from 02 or the interview, jus ask and i'll be glad to post them

also, isn't he super good at english! i read that he memorized some player's trophy acceptance speech when he was young and he has been traveling to america, i think, since he was an early teen, maybe earlier for tourneys.....but still, learning a second language is hard, esp. when u don't live in the country full time....he must be really smart man...he's like totally fluent cuz in the interview i saw after the masters this year when he spoke spanish to some spanish journalists he sounded the same, not any faster, not any slower.......he even used a word i didn't know, but maybe that's cuz im stuupid! ahahahaha if he really is friends with ferrero....he should teach him and the rest of the spanish tennis players more english :lol: ;) but it's so weird cuz the first time i started watching him seriously, and not jus hearing his name in the background as i passed the living room, which was at bryon nelson this year he won! whoot! anyway.....for some reason, even before i heard him speak i had a feeling he would speak english pretty well hehehe....something about him i guess.....and the announcers were sayin how he's usually more talkative and he's a real friendly guy :wub: how sweet, so much sweeter than tennis announcers! hah, in your face cliff drysdale! *mad scientist laugh--agian...* jus his body language too, durin the playoff with the other players told me that he's a really cool, social guy :D He's so awesome!

.....sorry for my ramble, yet again.......and yet again, roisin sighs a deep sigh of relief with hallelujah music in the background, exhaling "thank god..." :lol:

now i talk again.....and roisin screams "no, no more! stop the torture!" hehehe jk (hopefully) didn't u like my pics.....they were so funny and the frolicking was gay, but SO cute! :wub: :')

phil and sergio from 03 they won some thing against ernie els and tiger woods.....would you like to dance?? mmmhm :lol: ahh is it true love :wub: or lust :') ??

guys guys, settle down! there's no need to fight, there's enough of me to go around! hahahaha :P

u know i've seen a lot of pics like this.......but i've read somewhere that after some incident at a tournament they've kept their distance.......do you know anything about their relationship?? :unsure:

whoa-so much to reply 2!

ok lets go - no i havent seen ne of his commercials.

the reason why he's goin so mad in the 2 pics at the top of the pg is becasue europr just won the ryder cup (yeah! :D )

yeah he's class at english isnt he??? maybe he shud giv jc some lessons. he dosent even sound spanish n e more. if it wasnt 4 his name u'd never no!

u have so many funny pics, :lol: i just have cute ones...well my sister does.

you see, what jc is 2 me - sergio is to my sister. ^_^

its quite a funny deal....lol :P

and sergio is like best friends with jc. sumtimes he's at sergios golf tournaments - ive seen him on tv and last yr sergio was at jc's matches at wimby...hopefully he'll b there again this yr!!!

and about the whole tiger-sergio deal....when sergio burst on2 the scene at the 1999 USPGA (this is when sergio fought with tiger all d way to the last hole but tiger won in d end), tiger was asked about him in a press conference and he said "yeah if he needs a few pointers i'd help him out". and then on the final day sergio was playin in the group ahead of woods and sergio was on the green on a really tough par3 and tiger was waiting to tee off the elavated tee above the green. and then sergio holed a class putt to birdie it and he luked up and shouted at tiger "yeah help me please!"

and thats kinda why they're not the best of friends...funny tho....sergio is such a cheeky wee bugger...