2017 U.S. OPEN

D'Amato: Sergio Garcia goes from petulant to a people's favorite

Gary D'Amato

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Sergio Garcia (right) socializes while waiting to tee off on the 10th hole during a U.S. Open practice round Tuesday.

TOWN OF ERIN – It’s stunning how the fortunes have changed for Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods, how much differently both are viewed now than they were just a few short years ago.

When Woods was at the top of his game, dominating golf as few ever have, Garcia was the sometimes petulant kid who said the wrong thing at the wrong time, threw pity parties and rubbed Woods – and American galleries – the wrong way.

At the 117th U.S. Open this week, Woods is nowhere to be found. We’ll just leave it at that. And Garcia is the Masters champion, having ended an 0-for-73 streak in the major championships on that glorious Sunday in April.

The victory did more than validate the 37-year-old Spaniard’s skill as a striker of the golf ball. It transformed him into a people’s favorite, as if golf fans suddenly realized they’d never really given him a chance and that he was, after all, a really good guy.

“I’ve always said that I felt like everywhere in the world, and here in the U.S., the fans have always treated me amazingly well, even more for being a foreigner, for being from Spain,” Garcia said Tuesday. “Definitely throughout the whole Masters and on Sunday I felt even more supported than in the past, if that’s possible.”

Garcia was taking the high road. He could have talked about the hecklers he has had to tune out over the years, the nasty things that have been yelled at him by over-served fans. He invited some of it early in his career with his occasional pouting and impertinence. But then it became self-perpetrating.

D'AMATO: Garcia goes from petulant to a people's favorite

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“For him to power through that noise, that seemingly a lot of the world is against you type of thing, and to carry that load and come through on golf’s biggest stage was phenomenal,” said Jordan Spieth.

Justin Rose, the playoff loser to Garcia at the Masters, had a front-row seat to the groundswell of support for El Nino that began building at Augusta National and has followed him to PGA Tour stops from Florida to Texas.

Sergio Garcia signs autographs during a U.S. Open practice round Tuesday at Erin Hills.

“You know, it’s good for Sergio,” Rose said then. “Often he feels like he’s not supported the way he would like to be here in America and it was encouraging to see the crowd get behind him. I think they realized that he paid his dues.”

And then some. Garcia’s many close calls in the majors had earned him the dreaded “best player never to win a major” label.

“I was rooting for him down the stretch there to see if he could finally do it and I think a lot of the golfing world was, too,” Steve Stricker said. “He’s been bitten a few times and he hasn’t come through on a few others. But it was good to see him finally get it done and take care of it.”

SECTION: More coverage of the U.S. Open at Erin Hills

Garcia arrived at Erin Hills in a good frame of mind. He has followed up his Masters victory with solid play, including a tie for 12th in his most recent start on the PGA Tour three weeks ago. In July, he’ll marry fiancée Angela Akins.

And everywhere he goes, he’s reminded that he’s the Masters champion.

“It’s been fun,” he said. “Obviously, it’s been very overwhelming and very busy. But it’s been a great experience to be able to call myself a Masters champion. It’s a dream come true and something that I’m extremely proud of.”

At 7,741 yards, Erin Hills is a big course but Garcia has the length to handle it and he remains among the best iron players in the world. He’s ranked second on the PGA Tour in strokes gained-off the tee, second in total driving and third in strokes gained-tee to green.

He has a good U.S. Open record, with five top-10 finishes in 17 starts, including a tie for fifth last year at Oakmont. He hasn’t missed the cut since 2007.

Only six men have won the Masters and the U.S. Open in the same year. Spieth did it most recently in 2015. The others were Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Craig Wood and Ben Hogan.

No one has ever won the modern Grand Slam, a calendar sweep of the four majors.

“I definitely hope that I can keep playing well and win many, many more, now that we have our first one,” Garcia said. “Like I said before the Masters, the only thing I can do is keep putting myself in that situation as many times as possible and now I can maybe rely on what I felt on Sunday at Augusta and hopefully it gives me a little bit of an edge when it comes down to that situation.”

Garcia plays on, moving ever further from the shadow cast by Woods. The sunlight suits him well.