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Sergio García (born January 9, 1980), nicknamed 'El Niño', is a Spanish professional golfer who plays on both the United States PGA Tour and the European Tour. He has spent much of his career in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings.

Career outline

García began golfing at the age of three, taught by his father. He was a star player as a junior, winning his club championship at age twelve, and four years later set a record as being the youngest player to make the cut at a European Tour event, the 1995 Turespana Open Mediterranea. That same year he also became the youngest player to win the European Amateur Championship.

García turned professional in 1999 after shooting the lowest amateur score in the 1999 Masters. He achieved early prominence with a duel against Tiger Woods in the 1999 PGA Championship, eventually finishing second. Late in the final round García hit his most famed shot: with his ball up against a tree trunk and the green hidden from view, he swung hard with his eyes shut (lest the ball rebound and hit him) and hit a low curving straight shot that ran up onto the green, during which he sprinted madly into the fairway and then jumped to see the result.

When García first turned professional he had an unorthodox swing with a loop and large lag, but during 2003 he worked on making his swing more conventional. For a time he also had a practice of repeatedly gripping, releasing, and regripping his hands on the club handle before finally taking a shot; this "waggle" habit got out of control, such as at the 2002 U.S. Open when some galleries audibly counted the number of regrips into the twenties. Since then he has eliminated the habit.

He won his first PGA TOUR tournament at the 2001 MasterCard Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas and won again at the Buick Classic the same year. In 2002, he won the Mercedes Championships and in 2004, García won the EDS Byron Nelson Championship and the Buick Classic for the second time. His sixth PGA Tour victory came at the 2005 Booz Allen Classic. He also plays a limited schedule on the European Tour, where he has also won six times.

García was also a member of the European Ryder Cup team in 1999, and again in 2002, 2004, and 2006, with a very impressive career record at the Ryder Cup of 14-3-3, with three of these appearances being overall victories, Garcia's input in the team has proved invaluable. He has risen as high as the top five of the Official World Golf Rankings, but after an inconsistent 2006 he has dropped out of the top 10.

A few have recently called García "the best golfer never to win a major."[citation needed]

In the 2006 Ryder Cup, at the K Club in Ireland, Garcia won both his fourball and foursomes matches (with José María Olazábal and Luke Donald, respectively) on day one, beating David Toms and Brett Wetterich in the fourballs and Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk in the foursomes. On day two he paired up with Olazábal again, who won both their matches against Phil Mickelson and Chris DiMarco in both the foursomes and fourballs. Going into the final day in the singles, Garcia was heavily tipped to be the first person to win all their matches in one Ryder Cup, however Stewart Cink beat him 4 and 3. Europe won the cup again by 18½ points to the United States' 9½ points.

Golf equipment

García is currently sponsored by TaylorMade Golf, and uses almost all TaylorMade clubs. The most recent look into his bag came from an interview done by Golf Digest Magazine. His club lineup is as follows:

• Driver: TaylorMade r7 425 TP 9.0° (Marked 9.5°), TaylorMade Fujikura RE.AX 105 TP shaft
• Woods: TaylorMade r7 TP 13.5° (Marked 15°) (3 Wood), RE.AX 105 TP shaft
• Irons: TaylorMade rac MB TP (2-PW), True Temper Dynamic Gold With SensiCore S300 Shafts
• Wedges: TaylorMade rac Satin 52° (Marked 50°) (Approach/Sand Wedge), Titleist Vokey Design 58° (Sand/Lob Wedge)
• Putter: TaylorMade Rossa Monza Corza AGSI

He was also plays the new TaylorMade TP Red.The ball represents years of trial and error on TaylorMade's part, with TaylorMade working closesly with tour pros to develop the ball. García reports being a big participant in the development process of this ball. There is also unofficial video documentation of a press conference where Senior Director of R&D of TaylorMade Dean Snell speaks on the new TP balls while García demonstrates some shots.

PGA Tour wins (6)

• 2001 (2) MasterCard Colonial, Buick Classic
• 2002 (1) Mercedes Championships
• 2004 (2) EDS Byron Nelson Championship, Buick Classic
• 2005 (1) Booz Allen Classic

European Tour wins (6)

• 1999 Murphy's Irish Open, Linde German Masters
• 2001 Trophée Lancôme
• 2002 Canarias Open de Espana
• 2004 Mallorca Classic
• 2005 Omega European Masters

Other professional wins (4)

• 1997 Catalonian Open Championship (Spain - not a European Tour event)
• 2001 Nedbank Golf Challenge (South Africa - unofficial event)
• 2002 Kolion Cup Korean Open (Asian Tour)
• 2003 Nedbank Golf Challenge (South Africa - unofficial event)

Results in major championships

LA = Low Amateur
DNP = did not play
CUT = missed the half way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place.
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.

Team appearances

Amateur

• Eisenhower Trophy: 1996, 1998
• St Andrews Trophy: 1996, 1998
• Junior Ryder Cup: 1995, 1997
• Jacques Leglise Trophy: 1994, 1995, 1996 (winners), 1997, 1998

Professional

• Ryder Cup (representing Europe): 1999, 2002 (winners), 2004 (winners), 2006 (winners)
• WGC-World Cup (representing Spain): 2001, 2004, 2005
• The Seve Trophy (representing Continental Europe): 2000 (winners), 2003
• Alfred Dunhill Cup (representing Spain): 1999 (winners)