Sergio Garcia is known for his short fuse, and that was in evidence again following his opening round of The Masters at Augusta National.
The 2017 champion completed a two-over round of 74, which had looked like being better until four bogeys on the back nine saw him slip down the leaderboard. It didn’t appear to help his mood when talking to the media afterwards, either, with the Spaniard taking issue over the line of questioning he received.
The LIV Golf player was asked how it felt “coming back and playing and concentrating on your game,” to which he responded: “Totally normal. You guys need to stop it. You guys are making a big deal out of this, and it's you guys."
The reporter then retorted, “No, it’s not,” which Garcia again took issue with, saying: “Yes, it is. I've had nothing but great things from every single player I talk to. So please stop it and talk about The Masters.“
The exchange continued, with the reporter saying: “I think actually, in defense, I think actually I was thinking you haven't had as many reps as sometimes you normally would. How did you feel coming in and playing this golf course because of that?”
However, the 43-year-old was unconvinced and insisted his preparation had been fine. He said: “I don't think you meant that, but I did play - I played one, two, three, four - I played five tournaments coming in here. So it's pretty good. There's been times where I probably maybe haven't played that much coming into here. But it's usually around that, four, five, six tournaments. But that wasn't the problem. “
At that point, there was a change of subject, but even then, Garcia’s answers were not particularly illuminating. When asked whether he was aware of the decision to rule in favour of the DP World Tour over LIV Golfers, which left Garcia’s future on both the Tour and Ryder Cup in jeopardy, he simply said: “I’m not.”
The exchange only went downhill after that. He was asked, “Does that mean you wouldn't talk about it if we told you what happened?” He responded: “How can I talk about something I don't know? Obviously I don't look at the news. So I don't know what happened. I'm not going to talk about something without all the information that I need.”
After Garcia was then asked if he's interested in playing in future DP World Tour events, he at least didn’t write off the possibility, saying: “We'll see how the year goes.” However, if that left reporters with a sliver of hope that Garcia would open up on his plans the following day after having time to catch up on the news, it was soon extinguished, when he responded: “We'll see. I probably won't catch up on it.”
In Garcia’s defence, that may not be a bad idea considering the work he has ahead of him. While his first-round performance leaves him in contention to make the cut, he is well off the early pacesetters after both Viktor Hovland and Jon Rahm finished their first rounds on seven-under.
