It looks like Tiger Woods will have a rival after all, and his name is Sergio Garcia. Garcia fired a four-under par 67 yesterday to match a tournament scoring record and outduel Scott Hoch by three strokes to win the $3.5 million PGA Buick Classic, his second career US PGA Tour title.
The 21-year-old Spaniard finished the rain-plauged event at 16-under par 268, matching the tournament record since Westchester Country CLub became a par-71 course in 1983.
Garcia, the eighth-ranked player in the world, won his first crown on US soil five weeks ago at the Memorial and has placed no worse than 12th in his past five starts.
And as David Duval and Phil Mickelson have fallen by the wayside, Garcia has found top form and seems ready to take up the challenge of Woods, a role he first earned by dueling Woods at the 1999 PGA Championship.
In June, Garcia became the first player born in the 1980s to win on the PGA Tour. On Monday, he became the second youngest to earn two titles - older only than Woods, who did it at 20 years and ninth months old.
Garcia has won two titles in 37 US PGA starts. By comparison, world number one Woods won seven of his first 37 starts.
With the $630,000 top prize, Garcia is fifth on the season money list with more than $2 million - nearly double the career-high $1.05 million he collected last year.
Known best for his spunk and creativity on the course, "El Nino" showed the poise of a veteran yesterday, playing three-free back rise in three-under to keep his distance his Hoch.
Garcia also showed no effects of last year's disappointment in the New York suburb. He led with eight holes to play but double-bogeyed the par 4-11th and missed a play off by a stroke.
Hoch ( 45), was seeking his second title of the season and the 10th of his career, but he settled for his seventh top 10 of the year. He is sixth on the money list with more than $1.6 million.
For the second week in a row, Woods was not a factor, tying for 16th at four-under 280.
The third round was washed out Saturday and officials decided to stretch the final round to yesterday rather than shorten the event to 54 holes.
