Sergio Garcia hits hole-in-one to win sudden death playoff
Lee Westwood was shocked but also in awe of Sergio Garcia after the Spaniard hit a hole-in-one to win a sudden death playoff against the Briton to reach the WGC Matchplay knockout rounds.
“Well, 28 years on tour and I thought I’d seen everything. I hadn’t!” tweeted Westwood.
Garcia’s moment of inspiration on the fourth hole of the playoff had come after he’d sunk two lengthy putts to stay in contention.
“A hole-in-one is amazing. Lucky No. 13 for me. But the two putts I made on two and three, massive, to keep myself going. And then obviously the shot on four, it’s a great shot, but then you get lucky that first of all it doesn’t hit the flag … and then it rolls back in,” Garcia told reporters.
Earlier on Friday, Garcia had had to take an anti-inflammatory painkiller in his match against Matt Wallace, which the Spaniard lost to set up the playoff against Westwood after he had beaten fellow Briton Tyrrell Hatton.
“It was a tough day. I had to take some Advil on the sixth green because the arch of my left foot was cramping and I was struggling to get through the ball,” Garcia, who will now face Canadian Mackenzie Hughes, told reporters.
“Because of that I didn’t hit the ball as well as I did the other days. I didn’t hit it poorly, but I just didn’t hit it quite as well. I’m going to have to work on it because tomorrow hopefully is going to be a very long day, and I need my feet to be in perfect shape.”
It’s the third consecutive year that Garcia has reached the WGC Matchplay knockout rounds
READ: Rory McIlroy suffers nightmarish loss as he hits ball into swimming pool
Match play etiquette
Meanwhile, world No. 1 Dustin Johnson exited the tournament after losing to Kevin Na, who birdied three of the last four holes to win after controversy at the par-3 11th over a breach of match play etiquette.
“I had just inside three feet for a par uphill; it’s a straight putt, and his lipped out and he had six inches and obviously it’s good, but I hadn’t said anything, and he whacked it,” Na told reporters.
“I froze there … and I wasn’t going to say that’s a penalty, you’re going to lose the hole. I was going to say, you know what, that was good anyway. I didn’t want to be over that putt and be thinking about that.
“So I called him over and said, Hey, I’m not going to take the hole from you, but I just want to let you know before I said something you whacked the ball. But I’m going to give that putt to you, so we’ll call it a halve and go to the next hole. That’s what we did. I think it’s the right thing to do.”
