ShareThisAs Sergio Garcia waded through a sea of autograph hounds at PGA National, where he played his way onto the Honda Classic leader board Thursday's wind-blown first round, he looked entirely comfortable with his lofty place in the game.
"It's a good thing, definitely," he said of his No. 2 world ranking. "It's not as good as being No. 1, but it's better than being No. 3. It's not easy to get there.
"I hope I can stay there, or maybe move higher. But whether or not I move up, there's only so much control I have over that. The guy ahead of me is pretty good, you know?"
Yeah, we know.
The guy ahead of him is Tiger Woods, who is only the best golfer of his era and one of the truly great players in the game's long and storied history.
And though Woods just returned from reconstructive surgery on his left knee and has played only two meaningful rounds of golf since his dramatic triumph at last year's U.S. Open, there is little doubt that he will soon resume his winning ways.
Winning tournaments.
Winning major championships.
Winning the way he did before his broken knee took him off the course, temporarily stalling his historic chase of Jack Nicklaus' 18 majors.
The only real question is: Can anyone play with him, stay with him or maybe even take some of these championships away from him?
"That's always the goal, every year," Garcia said after shooting a 3-under-par 67 that left him in a six-way tie for second place, one stroke behind the Honda's first-round leader, Robert Allenby. "That's what we practice for, that's why we work so hard. But you can't think about that on the course.
"All you can do is keep trying to improve and play well, try to play at a high level and maintain it. That's how you give yourself chances. But, like I said, if it was easy to do, a lot of people would be doing it."
Thing is, a lot of golfers have won majors since Garcia joined the PGA Tour in 1999 and, at age 18, was called a phenom following his second-place showing in the PGA Championship.
Guys like Mike Weir, Zach Johnson, Trevor Immelman, Jim Furyk, Michael Campbell, Angel Cabrera, Paule Lawrie, Ben Curtis, Todd Hamilton, David Toms, Rich Beem and Shaun Micheel.
Garcia has more game than all of them. He has more game than almost everyone he plays against. Yet he hasn't won on any of the game's grandest stages.
He has only come close.
Twice, he has finished in the top 10 in The Masters. Twice, he has finished in the top five in the U.S. Open, earning a tie for third in 2005. He has posted six top-10 showings in the British Open, settling for second in 2007. And among his four top-10 showings at the PGA Championship are two seconds and a third.
He also has been a terrific Ryder Cup player for the Europeans, who have won three of the last four competitions.
Clearly, Garcia has the talent to win anywhere, win big and beat anybody. Yes, even Woods. So it's puzzling, really, that this 29-year-old Spaniard with all the shots doesn't have much, in terms of significant victories, to show for it.
He has won seven times on Tour, 11 times internationally. But it wasn't until the Players Championship last May that he played his way to victory in a major-like setting.
Yet here he is, embarking on his 11th year on Tour, sitting in the No. 2 spot in the world rankings and, perhaps, finally ready to give golf what it needs most.
A real rivalry.
A No. 2 capable of seriously challenging No. 1.
Somebody with the game and grit to stand toe-to-toe with Woods.
"That's what everyone wants, and it would be great if that happens," Garcia said. "I hope I can give myself a chance, but we'll see. The only thing I can focus on is what I'm doing, the way I play. That's all I can control."
And no matter what he does, it might not be enough.
That guy ahead of him? He's pretty good, you know?
(Ray McNulty is sports columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast (Fla.) Newspapers, The Stuart News, Fort Pierce Tribune and Vero Beach Press Journal. Contact him at -ray.mcnulty@scripps.com.)
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