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Even the best golfers aren't always at their best

Thursday, August 20, 2009
(Updated 7:31 am)

GREENSBORO — This just in: Golf is hard. Even for the guys who play for a living.

Sure, it's just a game. But it's not always fun. It's certainly not fun right now for Sergio Garcia. Just ask him.

"I'm not playing well," a stone-faced Garcia said Wednesday morning after the pro-am at the Wyndham Championship. "I'm just ... not enjoying it."

This from a guy who moments earlier chipped in for birdie on Sedgefield Country Club's par-4 18th hole to finish with a 4-under 66. A guy ranked No. 7 in the world. A guy who has more than $25 million in winnings since turning pro in 1999.

A guy in a slump, at least by his own lofty standards.

Garcia has one top-10 finish in 13 starts on the PGA Tour this season. His scoring average is north of 71 for the first time in three years. And he's No. 115 in the FedExCup playoff standings after finishing third last year.

He missed the cut at the PGA Championship last week, and immediately committed to play here -- the final event before the top 125 in the FedEx Cup standings begin golf's version of the playoff chase.

"That's the way it worked out this year," Garcia said of adding the Wyndham to his schedule. "I played here before, and I knew how well they treat you. You know I wanted to take this week off. I couldn't."

Garcia tied for 13th in 2005, when the PGA event was played in the fall at Forest Oaks. Now he's back at Sedgefield's Donald Ross-designed course for the first time since he finished third at the Nike Tour's 1998 Greensboro Open.

"I remember Joe Ogilvie won," Garcia said of the minor-league tour stop. "I remember I played good. That's pretty much about it. It's a good golf course."

With its soft greens, slow fairways and welcoming length, Garcia said Sedgefield is a course the pros can attack.

"It looks like it's probably going to be low scoring," Garcia said. "Do I like it? If I'm playing well, then, yeah, I love it. But at the moment, the way I'm playing, I don't think it's best for me."

When he tees it up at 1 p.m. today, the Spaniard will continue the quest to find his missing game. It's a quest that has made him testy.

Can he turn it around?

"We'll see," he said. "Unfortunately, I don't know. I can't see the future."

What's causing the slump?

"Bad shots," he said. "Usually, that's the way it works. Bad shots."

And what's causing that?

"Bad swings." Silence.

And then?

"More bad swings." More silence.

If there is a fix, what is it?

"Well, that's what I'm trying to figure out," Garcia said. "If I knew, I would be playing well. So I'm trying to work on it and see if I can figure it out."

Garcia said he has figured it out before. He's been through similar stretches in his career, and his fix-it formula is simple.

"Just work," he said. "It is what it is, so you just work on it. There's nothing else you can do. You work, and you get better."

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com

Accompanying Photos

Joseph Rodriguez (News & Record)

Photo Caption: "I'm not playing well. I'm just ... not enjoying it," Sergio Garcia said despite a 4-under 66 in Wednesday's pro-am.

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