Defending champ looks gassed on and off the course

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Defending champion Sergio Garcia made the cut on the number at even-par 144.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- TPC Sawgrass is not a golf course you can play half-heartedly. Even if you have won here before. Even if you are the third-ranked player in the world.

Sergio Garcia will not successfully defend his title at this year's PLAYERS Championship, where he's fortunate just to be around for the weekend after a symbolic 73 that included two birdies and two bogeys over his final four holes. Symbolic because that's how Garcia's year has gone. Some up, some down.

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Spotlight: Sergio Garcia

Garcia through 36 holes

Stats Rd. 1 Rd. 2 Total Eagles -- -- 0 Birdies 5 3 8 Pars 10 11 21 Bogeys 2 4 6 Double bogeys 1 -- 1 Other -- -- 0 Driving accuracy 50 86 67.9 Driving distance 276.0 300.0 288.0 Putts per round 25 32 28.5 Putts per GIR 1.444 1.923 1.727 Greens in Reg 50 72 61.1 Sand saves 0 100 50.0

Unfortunately, at least of late, it's been mostly down, and Garcia knows it. He admitted as much in his pre-tournament press conference, and his play did the rest of the talking even when he didn't.

His Dress Sergio campaign was incredibly popular. Kumquat was the color of choice. But you can't help but wonder what color symbolizes a broken heart or a level of personal uncomfortableness -- both or either of which have affected his play on the golf course.

Whatever it is, Garcia's game is not right, and no one's quite sure when it will be, other than to say it will be eventually. He's too talented for it not to be.

"I think that there's obviously a couple of things missing," Garcia said earlier in the week. "I am not feeling 100 percent with my game at the moment, and it shows. I'm just not having a great time on the course."

He's certainly not having the kind of time he did at the 1999 PGA Championship, where he sprinted and leaped into the hearts and minds of fans as an energetic 19-year-old who seemingly had the world at his fingertips and who most certainly seemed the rival of Tiger Woods for a decade to come.

In the decade since that magical moment at Medinah, and like all other rivals to the world's No. 1 player, Garcia's duel with Woods came and went. The two have teased us since -- take the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black -- and may do so again, but mostly the closest link between the megastars is that they share the same management company.

While Woods works to fix his game between the ropes, Garcia's working to fix his beyond them as well as between them. Garcia and members of his camp haven't been overly specific on what's bothering him, but it's clear it goes beyond bogeys and birdies.

Speaking of which, Garcia is a cumulative 5-over par in his 20 stroke-play rounds on the PGA TOUR this season. He's broken 70 five times, but he also shot 81 in Houston, had regrettable and overly-caffeinated remarks about Augusta National and, on Friday, three-putted from inside 7 feet on the 18th, which also included a miss from inside 3 feet, to make the cut on the number.

Afterward, Garcia happily signed a few autographs, but just as quickly made his way inside the clubhouse, wanting to disappear from the world. If Tiger gets as homesick as he says he does when traveling without his family, then Garcia seems equally depressed about the personal issues he's dealing with right now.

"A little bit of everything," Garcia responded when asked if he felt like he didn't want to be here or if it was simply a lack of confidence from his struggling play. "It's one of those stages in your life, in your career, that you've got to get through."

Right now, he's just not able to get through it, even at a course tailor-made for his ballstriking and ability to hit the driver straight, when he's playing well at least, anyway.

"It doesn't mean that because I've done well here I'm going to do well this year," Garcia said.

No it doesn't, and it's unfortunate that is the case.

When asked earlier in the week what advice he would give other rising young stars, to players such as Danny Lee or Rory McIlroy, both of whom are experiencing the same early success Garcia once did, he said, "When you come out, you hope or think you can win everything and it's going to be easy, and it's not. It's not that easy."

No it's not, especially for Garcia right now.

Follow all the action at TPC Sawgrass this week on Twitter at Twitter.com/pgatour and get more news and insight from Brian Wacker at Twitter.com/pgatour_brianw.