Local pin-up, Sergio Garcia, angrily walked off the course during the pre-tournament pro-am here at Montecastillo yesterday, claiming that one of his amateur partners had threatened to punch him. It made for a dramatic build-up to the u £2 million Volvo Masters in which another Spaniard, Miguel Angel Jimenez, will open the defence of his title this morning.
Paul McGinley, one of four Irish challengers in the event, had problems of a different nature. The 33-year-old Dubliner is on medication to treat a stomach upset which had him vomiting much of Tuesday night. And Padraig Harrington will be using a replacement driver having broken the one which was in his bag for the two and a half years, including the victory in Madrid a fortnight ago.
But Garcia, who absented himself from Spain's recent Alfred Dunhill Cup triumph, was once again the centre of controversy. It had to do with a flare-up on the long ninth where one of his partners, 13-handicapper Luis Somoza, asked him for the distance of an approach shot to the green.
According to Garcia, he had a look in his caddie's book and informed the player, who happens to be the chief executive of a leading Spanish transport company, that he had probably 150 metres to the hole. "He said `Okay, thank you' and I said `You're welcome'," claimed the player afterwards. But when the shot came up short of the green, Somoza claimed he had been given the wrong yardage.
Garcia later asserted that the amateur accused him of not taking sufficient interest in the matter and proceeded to threaten him. "I had never met him before and I realised the best thing to do was to leave the pro-am because if that had continued on the back nine, maybe it could have got worse and that's not good for golf nor for me."
He added: "I don't think it was unprofessional of me. Would it have been professional for me to get into a fight? Would it have been better for him to give me a fight on the 17th hole? It looked like he wanted to fight."
Another amateur in the group, course designer Salvador Moll, took a somewhat different view of the incident. "Perhaps Sergio was provoked but he shouldn't have acted that way," said Moll, who was involved with Seve Ballesteros in the design of Novo Sancti Petri, another leading course in this area. "I heard him say `If you don't like it, don't ask.' He's not like Seve."
Tournament director, David Garland, backed Garcia. "This is a new experience for me but I think Sergio did the right thing. He insisted that he hadn't just walked off the course. He felt there was a problem he wasn't comfortable with. The chap threatened to fight him and that is not what golf is about."
In the interest of the three amateurs, Australian Lucas Parsons, who happened to be on the putting green at the time, was drafted into the breach. Remarkably, he knew nothing of what had happened until after the round. "I thought Sergio had an injured finger," he said.
As Garland indicated, it is highly unusual for a professional to walk off the course during a European Tour sanctioned pro-am. But Irish observers will recall the Quincentennial Classic of 1984 which was actually played to a pro-am format at Galway GC. There, Ronan Rafferty abandoned his amateur partners, one of whom happened to be leading British businessman Lawrence Batley.
In the event, Darren Clarke shot a 66 to be runner-up to Roger Chapman in the pro-am in which Harrington shared third place on 67. Some observers might see this as a reflection of fine form on the eve of the event, but Harrington took a different view. "I hate to waste a good score," said the player who birdied the 72nd hole to claim second place to Jimenez here 12 months ago.
As for the broken driver: surely he couldn't be sorry to be rid of an implement which sent him into all sorts of trouble during the final round of the Turespana Masters? "The driver wasn't the problem," he replied. "The problem had to do with the fact that I was pushing my left leg instead of my right leg going through, thereby getting my hips ahead of the ball."
From eighth position in the Order of Merit and more than £700,000 behind leader Lee Westwood, was it possible for Harrington to end the season on top, given that the remaining two events offer combined first prize money of £1 million?
"I'd have to win both tournaments and hope for a collapse of the Euro," said the reply, worthy of a qualified accountant.
It seems that whereas all of the Order of Merit events up to now have been calculated in Euros, this week's tournament is in sterling and next week's American Express Championship will be calculated in dollars. "You know next week's winner in Valderrama ($1 million) will collect more Euros that Darren did for his win in La Costa last February," he added.
Two years ago, Clarke captured this title with a glorious wedge shot of 135 yards to set up a birdie at the last. So his feelings about the place are fairly predictable. "The course is tougher than in the past and the rough is severe, but it's always nice to revisit a place where you've played well," he said.
He added: "If I play well enough over the next two weeks, I think I can win the Order of Merit." As to suggestions that he stole an easy march on his rivals with the $1 million bonanza at La Costa, Clarke shot back: "Ask them if they wanted to beat Hal Sutton, David Duval, Tiger Woods . . . Ask them the question."
There the matter was left to rest. One threat of fisticuffs was enough for the day.
