Sergio Garcia’s Triumph of Persistence

In 1999, as he was playing in the final round of the P.G.A. Championship, at the age of just nineteen, Sergio Garcia reached the eighteenth hole one shot behind the leader, Tiger Woods. As he stood on the tee, he reportedly said, “Guys, I’m having so much fun. This is so great, I don’t even care if I win.” All week, the crowds had thrilled to the young, good-natured Spaniard. He made par on the eighteenth, took second place in the tournament, and declared the week the greatest of his life. The sport of golf seemed to have, along with Woods, a second prodigy on its hands. It would, it appeared, be just be a matter of time before Garcia—El Niño, they called him—won his first major tournament.

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