Winning changes everything... Or so it seems...

Jeff sparks

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Apr 2, 2015
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Houston, Texas
Now everything is cool... He loves everybody...

'Twas not so long ago that Sergio Garcia hated the galleries in America... and the feeling was mutual....

Sergio was a golf prodigy out of Spain, who became a media darling at Medina with his tree trunk shot... He ran and jumped his way up the fairway trying to see the flight of the ball, and a young star was born...In that moment, he captured the hearts of America... Sergio was gifted, he was young and enthusiastic, he smiled all the time, how could we not like him... He was a winner...

Sergio turned pro, and expectations were high, he was expected to carry the touch passed down from Seve to Jose and now to Sergio... He was To carry the country of Spain on his back... And at such a young age, that's a big load...

That was the plan at least... Then the drought started, and Sergio came up dry in every major... He changed his grip over and over, re-gripping the club time and time again, to the point of exhaustion... It got so bad that the gallery would needle him about it, hecklers began to rib him about it, and he fought back verbally... He was young and immature, and didn't have good counseling as to how to deal with the crowd... So, he fought back and that only made matters worse... The crowd turned completely against him, and he against them...

Then came the spitting incident where he physically spit in the cup on the green during a major tournament and he was dressed down by the pga of America and the media... It was a vile incident caught in slo-mo on national TV and it created one of the biggest stirs on tour since The Fuzzy Zoeller comment about fried chicken... His fellow players turned on him... None the less, Sergio, despite the mental anguish he must have suffered due to that childish incident, continued to play well, and win tournaments both in America and abroad...Somewhere along the way, someone got to him, could have been Seve, could have been Jose Maria, but someone said something that helped him with his attitude.. Although he wasn't high five ing the gallery all day during the final round of the Masters, he wasn't growling and sneering at them either... He looked like he would turn into the old reliable give it away Sergio when he dogged it on 10 & 11, then on 13... But something in his make-up, something new showed on the 13th hole, he refused to knuckle under, he handled the pressure, and he salvaged a par... When Justin Rose missed his birdie putt on 13, Sergio never missed a shot after that... He didn't dog another shot with the exception of the putt on the 72nd hole to win the Masters... The pressure got him on that putt!

Time goes on, and people forgive and forget... We in America love winners, and we pull for the under dog... Sergio Garcia just won The Masters... He bagged the elephant, and we got to see the kid in him again... I hope the kid sticks around awhile, he's much more fun to watch....
 
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