Clay feat inspires Garcia's Open bid

Sergio Garcia hopes to use fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal's maiden tennis Grand Slam title triumph as his inspiration when he begins his challenge for the 105th US Open today.

Nadal, 19, claimed the French Open title on the clay of Roland Garros last month and that has given Garcia an extra spur as he looks for his own first win in a major, golf 's equivalent of a tennis Grand Slam.

Garcia said: "I'm just hoping to do a little of what Rafael has been doing. He is a friend of mine, he's actually a bit of a golfer too, and I was thrilled watching him on television.

"After he won in Paris I called him and left a message. I was so happy for him.

"I've always said I would love to win a major, and I've had my chances. But it is not something that bothers me that much at the moment. Fortunately, I'm only 25 so if injuries and everything go right I should have a lot of chances of winning a major in the near future."

Perhaps the pressure to perform is unfairly piled on Garcia's shoulders for the reason he seems to have been on the scene for so long.

Remember the astonishing shot with a six iron from the roots of a tree that climaxed a spellbinding final-round duel with eventual victor-Tiger Woods in the US PGA Championship at Medinah? That happened six years ago.

Since then Garcia has won six times on the US PGA Tour, including on Sunday in the Booz Allen Classic at Congressional. That is one more victory than Phil Mickelson had achieved at the same age.

By 25, Mickelson had finished in the top 10 of a major three times and the American, regularly tagged the best player never to have won a major, did not break that duck until the 2004 Masters which he won at the age of 33.

Already, Garcia has eight top-10 finishes in majors, and new-found form with his putter suggests he might finally make the big breakthrough come Sunday evening.

However, history is against him. No golfer has triumphed in the US Open having won on the US Tour the previous week. And no European has won America's national championship since British hero Tony Jacklin at Hazeltine in 1970.

Yet Garcia has cured the weak link in his game, his play on the greens, after Australian Adam Scott gave him a putting tip during last week's tournament.

Garcia said: "Adam was talking to my caddie Glenn Murray and Glenn was saying I was hitting the ball well but my putting was so-so.

"So Adam gave me this little tip he used - he didn't use to be a good putter but now he is one of the best. It was mainly to do with hitting short putts, those two and three footers.

"Adam said don't worry about the stroke, just worry about seeing the ball going in the hole and getting it into your head that the ball was going to go in the hole. Like 'it's going in the hole, it's going in the hole'.

"When I tried it, it didn't matter the length or the difficulty of the putt, I knew it was going in. That freed up my stroke and I started stroking it really nicely. I just couldn't miss."

The statistics confirm that claim. Over the first 10 holes of his final round on Sunday he one-putted eight consecutive greens. Of his round of 65 he putted just 24 times.

"I've kept believing in myself," said Garcia. Maybe it is time for others to believe in him, too.

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