Title: Sergio Garcia Wilts Under The Pressure Again
Description: NORTON, Mass. — Tiger Woods lost his FedEx Cup point lead. Sergio Garcia just lost it. Again. No, Sergio didn't show up at TPC Boston dressed head to toe in yellow like he did for the final round of the British Open at Hoylake. That was the July day in 2006 when Tiger took Sergio's lunch and, after lifting the Claret Jug, reportedly texted a friend, "I just bludgeoned Tweety Bird." Jeff Jacobs Jeff Jacobs E-mail | Recent columns Related Stenson wins Deutsche Bank Championship Stenson wins Deutsche Bank Championship Topics Sergio Garcia Golf Tiger Woods See more topics » On this Labor Day, Sergio settled for a bright yellow shirt to go with his black pants for the final round of the Deutsche Bank Championship. And while it would be uncharitable to say the shirt may have camouflaged the yellow streak running down Garcia's competitive backbone, sadly it would not be entirely inaccurate. Sign Up For Traffic Text Alerts "He's choking," NBC analyst Johnny Miller said as the Spaniard kicked away his two-stroke, 54-hole lead with the only over-par round among the top 20 finishers at this FedEx Cup playoff event won by Henrik Stenson. Miller called it a total collapse, although Garcia would eliminate that adjective "total" with birdies on two of the final four holes. "Collapse" would suffice. Only six players in the entire field finished worse than Garcia's 2-over 73. And what makes the number so stark is the fact that Garcia continued his string of final-round hatchet jobs. Garcia has a 69.96-stroke average before cuts this year. First two days, he's eighth best on the tour. He also entered with a final-round average of 72.33, 165th on the tour. We could argue Sergio always folds on Sunday, but as this event demonstrated he's not immune to Monday, either. Despite all the birdies surrendered on this rain-dampened course, when the average round was 69.97, he couldn't even be average. Stenson, who won a nifty $1.44 million at minus-22 and inched ahead of Woods heading into the final two events of the Fed Ex Cup, shot a 66. Jordan Spieth — put this 20-year-old on the Presidents Cup team, Fred Couples! — finished birdie, birdie, birdie, eagle for a 62 and a fourth-place finish tied with Garcia and two others at minus-17. Nobody on the big blue media tent leaderboard, in fact, shot worse than 70. Except Sergio. "I just wasn't comfortable," Garcia said in his brief remarks afterward. "I wasn't able to trust myself as I did the first few days."
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