Garcia finds Nelson comfort zone, looms as big title obstacle for Spieth

Sergio Garcia has not answered to El Nino (the kid) for a very long time in his PGA Tour career. Nor does he still have the nickname stitched into his golf bag as he did in 1999, when the Spaniard made his professional golf debut as a brash, promising 19-year-old at the Four Seasons Resort.

Garcia, now 36, threw down a stellar 62 in his first competitive round at the tournament now called the AT&T Byron Nelson. In the 17 years and 38 rounds that have followed, he’s never topped that introduction.

But he came close in Thursday’s opening round at the rain-softened TPC Las Colinas, stringing together four birdies and an eagle over his final eight holes while posting a bogey-free 63 to grab a share of the overnight lead. It marked Garcia’s lowest score at the Nelson since his first visit as a teenager, when he plundered the Cottonwood Valley layout back in the 20th century.

That caveat means Thursday’s 63 marks Garcia’s best-ever round on the TPC layout, the only course being used at this week’s Nelson. It also establishes Garcia, the 2004 Nelson champion, as the golfer most likely to rain on Dallas resident Jordan Spieth’s plans (figuratively speaking) to regain his missing swagger by winning his hometown PGA Tour stop.

Spieth, the reigning U.S. Open champion and No. 2 player in the world golf rankings, posted an opening 64 in the fading twilight minutes before play was suspended Thursday and is one shot off the lead.

Spieth said he “got the most out of my round” despite some glitches that included one three-putt and what he called a “two-way miss” on selected tee shots. Other golfers joining Garcia at 7 under were Irving’s Danny Lee and Johnson Wagner.

The day began with a half-inch of rain and a 2  1/2 -hour weather delay, leaving 30 golfers on the course to complete suspended rounds Friday morning at 7:15 a.m.

One of the players unable to finish was Fort Worth resident Tom Hoge, a former TCU golfer who was at 6 under through 14 holes. Also returning Friday morning will be Fort Worth’s Martin Piller, who stood at 1 over through 13 holes.

Garcia, the No. 15 player in the world rankings, will be able to sleep in before Friday’s 12:50 p.m. tee time. He’ll also be able to reflect on something on his career ledger that Spieth lacks but dearly covets: tour triumphs in Texas.

Garcia, winner of 28 professional events on multiple tours, captured his first PGA Tour triumph as a 21-year-old at the 2001 Colonial. Coupled with his 2004 Nelson triumph, Garcia is one of only 15 professional golfers to win both Dallas-Fort Worth tour stops in their careers.

“Texas has always been good to me,” Garcia said after Thursday’s five-birdie, one-eagle round. “I’ve done fairly well pretty much every time I’ve played here. It just kind of brings me to my comfort level, I guess.”

In particular, Garcia said the TPC layout ranks among the “top five or six” tour venues where he feels most comfortable. He showed that Thursday by draining a 58-foot eagle putt at No. 7 during a 26-putt round when the holes “kept getting in the way. Simple as that.”

No doubt, Garcia would trade either of his DFW titles for one of Spieth’s two major championships he won last season. Garcia’s lack of success in majors is the glaring void on his résumé that prevents him from being viewed as one of the game’s elite players or a future Hall of Famer.

One major triumph could change Garcia’s legacy. But he can’t make that happen this week.

What he can do is prevent Spieth, a native Texan, from securing his first tour triumph in the Lone Star State in Sunday’s final round. Spieth, 22, has talked openly about his burning desire to win a tour event in Texas after multiple runner-up finishes, including the 2015 Colonial. He considers it one of the unmet goals of his brief, but brilliant, professional career.

The irony is that Spieth’s version of Kryptonite has been his hometown event, the only one of Texas’ four annual tour stops where he has yet to post a top-10 finish. It seems to be a classic case of a golfer wanting something so badly that he cannot relax enough to allow it to happen.

A case could be made that Spieth at the Nelson looks a lot like Garcia at the majors. But Spieth, at this point, has lots of opportunities left to figure it out. Garcia, meanwhile, is running out of realistic opportunities to erase his name from the short list of golfers under consideration for the title of “World’s Best Golfer Without a Major Title.”

What he needs, Garcia said Thursday, is a little momentum to carry him into the U.S. Open. After finding 14 of 18 greens in regulation during his opening round, he thinks he’s come to the right place in his first Nelson appearance since 2011. Clearly, the venue overflows with positive vibes.

“In ’99, it was my first professional tournament. Finishing third to kind of get my career started here was unbelievable for me,” Garcia said. “It gave me a lot of confidence. It relaxed me a lot. It made my year a lot easier.

“And 2004 was great. I remember how well I played and taking a picture with Byron and my Byron Nelson trophy. Some great memories.”

The latest addition to that list came with Thursday’s career-best 63 at the TPC course to put Garcia back in his comfort zone at a venue where he has won before. That often equates to a difficult obstacle for pursuers to overcome. Even if the pursuer’s last name is Spieth.

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 9:13 PM with the headline "Garcia finds Nelson comfort zone, looms as big title obstacle for Spieth."