Sergio Garcia has always had a love-hate relationship with the Masters and Augusta National.
Place Sunday’s final round in the “hate” category.
The 46-year-old Garcia, the 2017 winner of the green jacket, had a meltdown of epic proportions early in his final round Sunday. He tore up the turf at the tee box on No. 2 and smashed his driver on a water cooler.
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The tantrum was so bad that he was issued a code-of-conduct warning by a tournament official two holes later.
“Obviously, not super proud of it, but sometimes it happens,’’ Garcia said after shooting 75 to finish the week 8-over par and in third-to-last place.
Jon Rahm, who was paired with Garcia, a fellow member of LIV Golf, said, “Obviously, he hasn’t been swinging it the way he would like. It wasn’t the easiest day for him so … not much I can say.’’
Garcia was approached by a tournament official on the fourth hole for a conversation about his meltdown, one that came with a code-of-conduct warning. A second infraction would have resulted in a two-shot penalty and a third would lead to disqualification.
When asked after his round what was said to him on the fourth hole, Garcia said, “I’m not going to tell you.”
Asked what his issue was, he said, “Bad golf. Bad shots.”
Asked if he was given a warning, as was reported by the AP, Garcia said. “Next question, please.”
And the interview, as well as Garcia’s 27th Masters, was over.
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His latest incident has earnt him widespread criticism.
“Garcia has been an infantile basket case throughout his adult life,” Golfweek columnist Eamonn Lynch wrote.
“Perhaps some of that owes to the corrosive frustrations of 73 unsuccessful attempts to win a major championship, something he finally accomplished at the Masters in 2017, and the realisation that he hasn’t delivered to the extent his talent promised when he emerged as a teenager.
“But mostly it’s because he’s a jerk.”
Meanwhile, Telegraph Golf Correspondent James Corrigan said it was an “embarrassing” incident and that Garcia needs to “grow up”.
“At 46 years of age, the petulance and anger in Sergio Garcia depressingly shows no sign of abating,” he wrote.
“Goodness knows what was going through Garcia’s head. He was near the bottom of the leaderboard and had little chance of achieving even a backdoor top-20. How embarrassing for a veteran, with his wife and two young children looking on.”
This was not an isolated incident for Garcia.
At last year’s British Open, he was forced to play most of his final round without his driver after he slammed the club into the ground and broke it on the second hole.
In 2019, he was disqualified from a tournament in Saudi Arabia after he damaged several greens in frustration.
In 2022, he got into a confrontation with an official at the Wells Fargo Championship after a dispute over a lost ball, telling him, “A couple of more weeks, I don’t have to deal with you any more,” referring to his impending move from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf.
In 2012, Garcia, after shooting a third-round 75 that knocked him from contention, went on a diatribe to Spanish reporters about how he’ll never win a Masters.
“I’m not good enough,” he told reporters. “I don’t have the thing I need to have. In 13 years, I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to play for second or third place.”
Five years later, he won the Masters in a playoff over Justin Rose and later named his daughter Azalea — after the 13th hole at Augusta.
Garcia clearly wasn’t in a good frame of mind entering the tournament, based on his struggles in LIV and his pre-tournament comments.
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Earlier this week, he was asked by a reporter, if there are any holes or shots where he needs added concentration, Garcia proceeded to say, “Yeah, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18.”
“This course tests you every single hole,” he went on.
He also said he was “not super happy” with his game, adding, “At the moment, I’m not feeling amazing.”
Garcia, who opened the week with rounds of 72, 75 and 74, had bogeyed the first hole Sunday and then drove his tee shot on the second hole into a fairway bunker.
That triggered his temper tantrum as he made two swipes at the ground with his driver, taking a large divot out of the ground. Then he smashed his driver against the bottom of a water cooler, which snapped the shaft a few inches above the club head.
Garcia has just one top 10 in five LIV Golf starts this season, and in his seven Masters appearances since his win, he’s missed the cut six times.