can't wait to leave this tour

 

Wells Fargo second-round tee times Friday, May 6, 2022

If you have problems viewing the email Click Here

NEWS & TOURS

The Latest

HOT MICS Sergio Garcia tells rules official 'I can't wait to leave this tour' following rules dispute Frustrated with a rules issue, the Spaniard was caught offering a potentially revealing rebuke

PGA TOUR

Sergio Garcia tells rules official 'I can't wait to leave this tour' following rules dispute

By Joel Beall

May 05, 2022

Ben Jared

Sergio Garcia has been linked as a possible defector to the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series. His remarks during a rules dispute Thursday at the Wells Fargo Championship did little to quell those rumors.

At TPC Potomac’s 10th hole during the first round of the PGA Tour event, Garcia rope-hooked his drive into a marsh, the area marked as a penalty area. Though Garcia eventually found his ball, a rules official deemed he took longer than the three minutes granted for search and thus could not play his initial ball.

Garcia countered that the rules official was too quick with his timing, a point that the PGA Tour acknowledged was correct after the round. Understandably upset at the ruling in the moment, the 2017 Masters champ—in a scene caught on PGA Tour Live and shared over social media—proceeded to tell the rules official, “I can’t wait to leave this tour."

Microphones also picked up Garcia saying he "Can’t wait to get out of here," and "Just a couple more weeks until I don’t have to deal with [the rules official] anymore.” He finished with several expletives directed at the ruling.

Garcia ultimately made par on the hole, holed out from 161 yards for eagle on par-4 15th and shot a three-under 67. He declined to speak with reporters after the round.

MORE: Lee Westwood makes official his interest in playing LIV Golf opener

Thursday’s on-course comments from Garcia are noteworthy given reports that he is among those considering jumping to the aforementioned LIV Golf series. Garcia has made no public comments about playing LIV Golf events, but the Spaniard has been a frequent participant at the Saudi International—an event sponsored by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which is also backing the LIV Golf endeavor. According to a recent story in The Telegraph, Garcia is said to be “willing to snub the Ryder Cup” in order for a guaranteed payday. (The DP World Tour has threatened that those that jump to LIV Golf will be disqualified from participating in future Ryder Cups.) The first LIV Golf event is slated for June 9, the week before the U.S. Open.

After the round, Steve Rintoul, PGA Tour senior tournament director, released a statement via PGA Tour Communications noting that, in fact, the rules official had mistakenly started timing Garcia too early. “To clarify, the time spent by Garcia trying to access the other side of the creek should have delayed the start of the search time clock, and the ball would have still been ‘in play’ if not for that error. Garcia was informed of the developments following his round. Under the Rules of Golf, Garcia’s score does not change despite the clarification.”

MORE: Greg Norman says players gave back money to LIV Golf after Mickelson comments

NEWS & TOURS

The sharpest analysis and best writing on golf’s most important stories.

Will be used in accordance with our PRIVACY POLICY

an uncluttered mind

 

The best virtual instruction hub in golf Thursday, May 5, 2022

If you have problems viewing the email Click Here

| INSTRUCTION

TIP OF THE DAY

MENTAL GAME Clear your mind For new golfers, an uncluttered mind is a beautiful thing–here's how to do it.

KEEP A CLEAR HEAD

For new golfers, an uncluttered mind is a beautiful thing

By Keely Levins

April 26, 2022

Illustration by Chloe Zola

Bad shots plague every golfer, from tour players to someone picking up a club for the first time. The reaction is usually one of anger or resignation, which can carry over into the next shot and cause more exasperation. Before you know it, you’re on the final hole in a daze, unsure of how everything went so wrong.

Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott are here to save you from yourself. The two women were working as golf coaches—Marriott after a collegiate golf career and Nilsson after playing on the LPGA Tour and coaching the Swedish national teams—when they created Vision54. It’s a golf school in Scottsdale where people can go to get on-course training from the performance gurus. Nilsson and Marriott also work with professionals on the LPGA Tour and PGA Tour. Ten are major-championship winners, including Annika Sorenstam, Suzann Pettersen and Ariya Jutanugarn.

RELATED: Golf's mental-health benefits are not just the ones you think

Nilsson and Marriott believe that the key to good golf starts with a healthy mental approach, and a major part of that is learning how to react to bad shots. Their research in neuroscience has informed their teaching. For example, the way a person reacts emotionally to an event affects the way that person’s brain stores the memory. If you get mad after a bad shot, the shot and that negative reaction are stored in your mind. The more you replay it, the more prominent the memory becomes. Because of those negative reactions, your brain starts to associate golf shots with something scary, something to avoid. This can be detrimental to your game.

If you shouldn’t get mad after a bad shot, then what should you do?

“As a new golfer it’s extremely important early on to realize that you can separate the outcome from the process,” Nilsson says. “Even though the goal is to get the ball in the hole, to get the ball in the hole you need to know what your intention is for that stroke or putt. That’s what you should evaluate, not the shot’s result.”

Here are five things Nilsson and Marriot say you can tell yourself instead of cursing or tossing a club when your ball ends up in a bunker:

(1) “I didn’t hold my finish.”

(2) “I misjudged the wind.”

(3) “Next time, I will make a smaller swing.”

(4) “I was thinking about the outcome instead of feeling my tempo.”

(5) “I didn’t trust my decision. Next time I will honor my gut.”

Most of the golfers Nilsson and Marriot work with have been playing golf for a while, so they have been “brainwashed” to think about the result and not the process. The advantage that beginners have is that there are no bad habits that need reworking. It’s a lot easier to start out thinking like this on the golf course than trying to train yourself to do it after years of agonizing over bad shots.

The good news is that the way our brains store memories works for positive emotions, too.

“When you do something well, you should celebrate it for about 15 seconds, even if it’s just internally,” Nilsson says. “Anything from great to good to good enough you need to recognize and take in and be proud of it.”

Nilsson also suggests talking about good shots after your round.

“What we practice, we get good at,” she says. “If I practice reminding myself of good shots and what I do when I hit good shots, it’s going to be easier to do those things more often.”

TIPS

The best of Golf Digest instruction handpicked for you.

Will be used in accordance with our PRIVACY POLICY