June14 USOpenpreviewSpan
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From the moment the USGA announced that the three Spaniards in the field would be playing together for the first two rounds, it was expected that Sergio Garcia and Jose Maria Olazabal would comfortably beat their younger countryman, Pablo Martin.
The 21-year-old Martin is very good (he became the only amateur to ever win a European Tour event earlier this year with his victory in the Portuguese Open) but he lacks experience and this was his first major championship.
As things turned out, Olazabal (with a brilliant level par 70) did edge the younger man out, but only just. Martin shot a hugely impressive 71, which included three birdies; and if a few putts had dropped, this could have been very much better. Garcia meanwhile had a nightmare, missing fairways and three-putting on his way to a horrid 79. He had two double-bogeys on the 3rd and the 6th, and four other bogeys.
Martin was as good as Garcia was bad; and you could see this irked the 27-year-old, who missed the cut last year at Winged Foot, and needs to have a very good day tomorrow to avoid missing it again. At 27, Garcia is no longer a spring chicken; and with Martin playing so impressively, his fan base are beginning to shift sides. The week at Medinah when he was hailed as the main threat to Tiger, seems a very, very distant memory.
