Sergio Garcia

          Sergio Garcia is possibly the best golfer from Spain of all time. Sergio Garcia started playing professional golf in 1999 and has spent much of his career in the top ten world rankings. He plays in the PGA Tour and in the Europe Tour and has done very well in each. He has reached up to second in the world rankings only behind the best golfer of all time, Tiger Woods, which happened in November 2008. And has made $25,611,522 while player professional golf.

          Sergio Garcia was born in Castellon, Spain. He had his childhood in Spain and then later came to America. As a very young child he did not want to even pursue the idea of playing golf for a career. He would rather have played soccer for Real Madrid. This was unusual because his father was a professional golfer, Victor Garcia, and his mother, Consuelo Fernandez, was a pro shop employee. Just after he turned age three he decided that golf was right for him. In the 1997 British Boys’ Championship it made him only the fourth Spaniard to win the event and the first since Jose Maria Olazabal. He always was a fierce competitor and a very sore loser. But something different about him is that he always cared a lot about how he looked playing sports. On time he even withdrew from a pro event because of a severe case of acne.

          Now Sergio is twenty nine years old and is currently ninth in the world rankings which is extremely good. However he has had a somewhat challenging year on the PGA Tour with only three top ten finishes this year. Currently he is number 38 in the FedEx Cup standings with 1379 points and only the top 125 make it to the playoffs. Garcia has played only 11 times on the PGA Tour this year and needs 15 events to maintain his membership. Pending on the results of the next few events he might need to add the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro just to get a higher rank going into the playoffs.

          Sergio Garcia has also won a few notable awards. Here they are, Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year in 1999, the Vardon Trophy in 2008, and the Byron Nelson Award in 2008. He also has 19 professional wins. He has 7 PGA Tour wins and 8 European Tour wins which is tied for twenty-eighth all time. As much as Sergio is a good golfer he has never won in a Major Championship. These include the Masters, the U.S. Open, the Open Championship, and the PGA Championship.

          This year compared to the last two years for Sergio Garcia has been a definite let down. Last year he ended the season number 3 in the FedEx standings and he earned almost $5,000,000. The year before that he ended the season number 9 and he earned nearly $3,750,000. This year he is currently number 38 in the standings and has earned just over $1,210,000. A definite drop in performance but still earning over a million dollars for playing a sport is still remarkable.

          As shown through his passion through playing golf, Sergio Garcia is easily won of the best golfers in the world and will be around for quite a long time.   

Bibliography

PGATOUR.com - Sergio Garcia's Official Profile." PGATOUR.com - The Official Site of the PGA TOUR. Web. 20 Nov. 2009. <http://www.pgatour.com/players/02/12/09/>.

"Sergio Garcia JockBio Facts." JockBio " Full-length biographies of sports heroes and discount sports memorabilia. Web. 20 Nov. 2009. <http://www.jockbio.com/Bios/Garcia/Garcia_numbers.html>.

"Official World Golf Ranking - ranking - Player Bio - 11/21/2009 12:46:22 PM." Official World Golf Ranking - Home - Introduction - 11/21/2009 12:46:18 PM. Web. 21 Nov. 2009. <http://www.officialworldgolfranking.com/players/bio.sps?ID=5689>.

          "Sergio Garcia needs good showing to make FedEx Cup Playoffs | Tours & News | Golf.com." Golf news, instruction, equipment, travel, courses and more | Golf.com. Web. 21 Nov. 2009. <http://www.golf.com/golf/tours_news/article/0,28136,1914601,00.html>.

          "Sergio Garcia Biography - El Nino, Chronology, Awards And Accomplishments, Further Information - CONTACT INFORMATION." Famous Sports Stars. Web. 21 Nov. 2009.

<http://sports.jrank.org/pages/1603/Garcia-Sergio.html>.

"Official World Golf Ranking - ranking - Player Bio - 11/21/2009 12:46:22 PM." Official World Golf Ranking - Home - Introduction - 11/21/2009 12:46:18 PM. Web. 21 Nov. 2009. http://www.officialworldgolfranking.com/players/bio.sps?ID=5689.