Sergio Garcia goes back to putting basics at LIV tournament at Doral
Sergio Garcia has never been fond of putting.
He has used a conventional grip, a cross-handed grip, a claw grip. He has even tried putting with his eyes closed.
It’s the shot Garcia says has given him the most difficulty in his quarter-century- long career. The one trait he would want to acquire from another golfer: Jon Rahm’s putting, he says.
So, the Spaniard figured it couldn’t hurt to switch things up for this weekend’s 2024 LIV Golf Miami tournament at Trump National Doral.
He’s using the same Scotty Cameron putter here this weekend that he played with as a 19-year-old rookie in 1999 when he nearly beat Tiger Woods in the PGA Championship and played in his first Ryder Cup.
Garcia said he played with that putter a few events late last year, and then enlisted the Scotty Cameron staff to refurbish the relic to new condition for him to use while his regular putter is being customized to be more compact.
“Obviously, I have a lot of good memories from that, with that putter, and I wanted to bring it back, and it worked quite nicely [Friday],” Garcia said.
Garcia, of the Fireballs, started the second round of LIV Golf Miami on Saturday tied atop the leaderboard with the Smash’s Talor Gooch and RangeGoats’ Peter Uihlein at 5-under-par 67.
The threesome teed off from the first hole, with Bubba Watson, a three-time runner up on the Blue Monster when it hosted an event on the PGA Tour, Matthew Wolff, and Dean Burmester — all at 4-under — beginning the shotgun start from hole No. 2.
While Garcia needed just 29 strokes (1.61 per hole) from the green in Round 1, tying for 22nd among the 54 golfers, his success was largely due to his ability to hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation and shoot a bogey-free round — the only one of the day.
“I’ve just got to keep giving myself chances. It’s as simple as that,” Garcia said after the round. “Some weeks you feel better than others and I’ve been close [to winning] a couple of times. I feel like my game is still not exactly where I want it to be. So, there’s still quite a bit of room for improvement.”
The 1997 Master’s Champion, Garcia is one of 13 LIV golfers who will compete at Augusta National, Georgia., next week for the green jacket. And like the others, he’s hoping to build momentum at Doral.
“Obviously, if you play nicely, it gives you a little bit of confidence, for sure, but every week is different, and you never know how Augusta is going to play, the conditions you’re going to get,” he said. “Even if you win this week, you’ve got to go out there with your feet on the ground and just try to do the best possible.”
Winning here would be significant for Garcia because he has yet to capture an individual title in LIV. He has been part of two of the seven playoffs in the Saudi-backed circuit’s three seasons, finishing second to Gooch in Singapore last year and losing to Torque captain Joaquin Niemann on the fourth playoff hole in near-darkness at this year’s season opener at Mayakoba in Mexico.
Saturday, wearing a white ball cap embroidered with the red Fireballs insignia, a yellow and black polo with red accents over a white long-sleeve shirt, and white pants, Garcia birdied the par-5 first hole, hitting the cup with his third shot for a near eagle.
Garcia also birdied the sixth, seventh, and ninth holes to move to 9-under midway through the round — two shots ahead of the Cleeks’ Richard Bland, who birdied six holes on the front nine — before bogeying at No. 11 for his first setback of the tournament.
Like Garcia, Uihlein is also in pursuit of his first individual LIV title. Uihlein tied Gooch for second place in Las Vegas earlier this year — one stroke behind winner Dustin Johnson — after finishing second three times the previous two seasons.
His 23 putts Friday were the fewest for any golfer in the first round.
“I just have to take advantage of times that I’m in the fairway with wedges and hole some putts,” Uihlein said. “Just stick to what I do really well, and hopefully just keep capitalizing on opportunities.”