Top 10 Golfers - Number 10 Sergio Garcia

Sergio García Fernández is a professional golfer from Spain who plays on both the PGA Tour and the
European Tour. He has won over 20 international tournaments, including The Players Championship in 2008.

García has spent much of his career in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking(over 300 weeks between 2000 and 2009). He reached a career high ranking of 2nd after winning the HSBC Champions tournament in November 2008, and has achieved post-tax career earnings of more than $28 million. As a player, he is particularly noted for his strong iron play and accuracy. To date he has not won any of golf's major championships, despite a number of near misses. He has finished a runner-up on four occasions, twice at The Open Championship and twice at the PGA Championship, with a further six top five finishes without breaking through.

García turned professional in 1999 and since then has won 8 PGA TOURS, 11 EUROPEAN TOURS, 5 ASIAN TOURS AND 5 other tours.

García began playing golf at the age of three and was taught by his father, Victor, who is a club professional in Madrid, Spain. 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. 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.

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.

When García first turned professional, he had an unorthodox swing with a circular loop and long large lag, and this method drew comparisons to Ben Hogan, one of the best players of all time. But during the 2003 season, he worked towards making his swing more conventional, but has largely kept his original method. In his early years, he repeatedly gripped, released, and regripped his hands on the club handle before finally taking a shot. This "waggle" habit created a stir, especially at the 2002 U.S. Open when some spectators shouted out, "Hit the ball, Sergio!", and some people audibly counted the number of regrips into the twenties. Since then he has eliminated the habit. Responding to criticism of his swing, he said, "My swing works for me, so why should I change it? I prefer to have a natural swing and play well rather than a perfect swing and not be able to play good."