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Garcia suffering crisis of confidence

Sergio Garcia has admitted his confidence has taken a battering after a third narrow defeat in the space of seven weeks

Mon Sept 29 2008 - 01:00

Sergio Garcia has admitted his confidence has taken a battering after a third narrow defeat in the space of seven weeks. The Spaniard lost a play-off to Colombia's Camilo Villegas at the first extra hole of the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake yesterday.

Having been pipped by Padraig Harrington at the US PGA in August, he also was beaten by Vijay Singh in a play-off at the Barclays Championship five weeks ago.

Garcia also had a miserable Ryder Cup, winning just one point from four matches in the defeat to America at Valhalla.

And that run of disappointments has affected the 28-year-old.

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"I don't want to take anything away from Camilo," said Garcia. "He played an awesome round but I still felt like I let it go a little bit. I doubted myself too much early on and it cost me.

"I just didn't commit to my shots the way I should have, and then I paid the price.

"I lacked a bit of commitment. The freedom that I've been having with every part of my game, it wasn't there early on.

"When I'm on, and I know what I'm doing and my head is in the right place, I can be quite good, with all due respect, but sometimes I have a hard time committing to some of the shots, and it shouldn't be that way.

"I lost three hard ones late in the year and it's a bit disappointing, but the only thing you can do is move on."

"It could have been a great year but it was a very solid year. There are still things that I have to work on and I'm looking forward to what the future holds."

Garcia's victory in the Players' Championship back in May remains his only victory of the year.

But he has only himself to blame for this latest defeat as he went into the final round holding a three-shot lead - and five over Villegas - only to shoot one-over 71 and allow the Villegas to catch him with a 66, which included five birdies in six holes mid-round.

The pair tied on seven under but with a par at the first extra hole Villegas became the first player since David Duval in 1997 to post his first two PGA Tour victories in successive starts after winning the BMW Championship earlier this month.