Friday 12 May 2017 22:03, UK
Sergio Garcia admitted he was struggling to focus 100 per cent on his form at TPC Sawgrass as he described the "overwhelming" experience of being the Masters champion.
Garcia returned to action at The Players Championship for the first time since his making his belated major breakthrough at Augusta National five weeks ago, and he got off to a terrible start in the first round as he stumbled to four over par after sixth holes.
But the Spaniard battled back and lit up the tournament with a sensational hole-in-one at the 17th as he salvaged a 73, and he soon got under the card when he birdied two of his first three holes on Friday after starting at the 10th.
He responded to a bogey at 14 with a birdie at 18 moments after enjoying a lucky bounce off the wooden surround at 17, and he picked up another shot at the first before slipping back to level par with bogeys at the fourth and seventh.
"It has been difficult, but I felt like I fought hard the last two days after a terrible start," said the 2008 Players champion. "Without playing amazing, I felt like I could have shot three or four under par and that would have been really, really good.
"Unfortunately, I let a couple slip away there towards the end, but I played well the last two holes with the pressure of making sure that I didn't do anything stupid so I could be here on the weekend, and hopefully I can free up a little bit on the weekend and have a solid two days.
"I would have loved to have played better than I did the first two days, but being Masters champion has been overwhelming, I hadn't won a Major and I hadn't won the Masters before, so I didn't know exactly what to expect and what to feel.
"To come back to this golf course that we know how challenging it is, it's maybe not the best thing, but it is the way we planned it and we live with it. I've hit some really good shots but I hit some shots that I wasn't hitting lately, so I need to kind of tighten that up a little bit."
Of the three Spaniards in the field at Sawgrass, Garcia goes into the weekend as the lowest ranked as his Ryder Cup team-mate Rafa Cabrera Bello and exciting youngster Jon Rahm stayed firmly in contention at the top of the leaderboard.
Cabrera Bello birdied three of his last four holes to salvage a two-under 70 which took him to five under, while Rahm failed to build on two early birdies as he fired a 72 to remain at four under par.
"It is very tough, I'm playing some of my best golf and I'm only four under," said Rahm, who is making his debut at the Stadium Course this week." When you have the best players in the world and the cut is over par it shows that the golf course is very tough.
"You get rewarded if you hit good iron shots, but if you hit a bad one, you're going to be penalised. That's a Pete Dye design. If you miss a shot you're going to have to pay the price and work for a par and today was great proof of it."
