After watching one of the most exciting final rounds and collapses under major championship pressure from a 20 something player in recent history, Andres Romero captures his first tour victory by three shots at the Deutsche Bank Players Championship.

On Open Sunday Romero at the 71st hole, with all his inexperience and youth threw away a three shot lead at the Open in Carnoustie.  When asked of his performance and shot selection as he tried to “muscle” a 2 iron through the wispy fescue right of the fairway on 17, Romero laughed and felt lucky to even be leading the Open near the end.   At the18th, he even missed a par saving putt that he struck perfectly hitting the back of the cup and somehow managed to squirt around the lip and out.

What Romero did not do is take a woe is me attitude which he could very easily done when his ball hit the Marshall short, right of the 12th green and landed unplayable in the gorse, or when the 2 iron hit the burn wall and ricocheted into OB right of 18 or that par putt that would have put him in the playoff with Garcia and Harrington.  No, what Andres Romero did was learn from his mistakes and believe in the caliber of player he is as he kept the momentum of a fine Open showing to win his first event the next week.  This is the attitude and demeanor that champions are made of. 

Over the years many have wondered why Sergio Garcia has not won more tournaments and never won a Major, I would offer a few reasons but none more telling than his post-Open press conference where he blamed everyone and everything in Scotland except for himself. “Unfortunately, this is not the first time”… “some guys hit the pin and the ball lands a foot away, I hit the pin and it lands 20 ft away”…be glad you hit that pin otherwise par was OUT of the question and bogey would have been impressive from behind that green.   Garcia has yet to learn what it takes to be a champion on the big stage and I mean Majors.  He is without question one of the top ten ballstrikers in the world.  I saw him hitting shots earlier this year at Oakmont on the practice range and his ability to work the ball consistently with a variety of clubs is poetry in motion.  His putting stroke however, not even close.  Some would say that is the reason he hasn’t won and continues not to, I offer that it contributes but the single greatest factor is his demise is his own head.  He had not one positive thing to take away from the Open, or if he did it wasn’t expressed.  After all he did lead the best players in the world for 3 ½ days at the toughest tough in the Open Rota, I guess there’s nothing positive in that.

(0)