Players 2021: Leader Sergio Garcia was almost late for his opening-round tee time
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Rory McIlroy and Webb Simpson laughed as Sergio Garcia jogged onto the 10th tee early Thursday morning at The Players Championship.
The Spaniard, who would later shoot the round of the day at TPC Sawgrass, wasn’t late for his 7:40 a.m. ET tee time off the Stadium Course’s 10th tee, but he was close.
Garcia underestimated the amount of time it would take him to walk from the practice range to the 10th tee, which is situated on the far side of the sprawling TPC Sawgrass clubhouse.
“I thought I had plenty of time. Obviously I left the range at 7:35, I was teeing off at 7:40 so I figured it’s going to take me probably two, three minutes at most to get to 10,” Garcia said. “I don’t know if the clock on the range was behind or something, but when I got to the putting green just like 50 yards short of 10 I kind of looked at it and the sun was coming up so I couldn’t see if it was 7:38 or 7:39 but just in case I just took a little stroll, made sure that I got there before it turned to [7:40].”
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The rushed start didn’t impact Garcia’s play. He made the turn at 3 under thanks to an eagle at the par-5 16th hole and finished his day birdie-birdie-eagle for the early lead at 7 under par and his best round at TPC Sawgrass since 2013.