Topic: Sergio Garcia

Sergio García Fernández (born 9 January 1980) 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 (over 300 weeks between 2000 and 2009). He reached a career high ranking of two after winning the HSBC Champions tournament in November 2008.

García began playing golf at the age of three and was taught by his father, Victor, who is a club professional. He was a star player as a junior, winning his club championship at age 12. Four years later, he set a record as the youngest player to make the cut at a European Tour event, the 1995 Turespaña Open Mediterranea. This record was broken by amateur Jason Hak in November 2008 at the UBS Hong Kong Open, beating García's record by 107 days. Also in 1995, García became the youngest player to win the European Amateur. He followed that with a win in the Boys Amateur Championship in 1997. He won a professional tournament, the 1997 Catalonian Open, on the European Challenge Tour, as an amateur. In 1998 he won The Amateur Championship, and reached the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur Championship.

García turned professional in 1999 after shooting the lowest amateur score in the 1999 Masters Tournament. His first title on the European Tour came in his sixth start as a professional, in July 1999 at the Irish Open. He first achieved worldwide prominence with a duel against Tiger Woods in the 1999 PGA Championship, where he eventually finished second. Late in the final round, García hit his most famous shot: with his ball up against a tree trunk in the right rough on the 16th hole, and the green hidden from view, he swung hard with his eyes shut and hit a low curving fade that ran up onto the green. As the shot traveled, he sprinted madly into the fairway and then scissor-kick jumped to see the result. Shortly afterwards he became the youngest player ever to compete in the Ryder Cup.