Sergio Garcia claims he felt like he had been in a fight with Mike Tyson after Tiger Woods described the opening day of the Masters as one of the most difficult of his career.
2017 champion Garcia went round in a level-par 72 on Thursday as he battled the inclement weather at Augusta National.
The start of play on Thursday was delayed due to storms in Georgia and players were made to wait for the first major of the year to begin.
Garcia had a difficult start and was three over par through 12 holes before a late flurry of birdies saw him end on a high.
Tiger Woods’ verdict rang true after Sergio Garcia felt as if he had gone 12 rounds with Mike Tyson
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Woods was one of many players who couldn’t finish their first rounds on Thursday and had to return to complete the final holes on Friday.
Woods described Thursday’s action as ‘one of the most tricky days that I’ve ever been a part of’.
And Garcia agreed with the sentiment, admitting the wind made it very difficult for all players.
He said: “It’s challenging, that’s for sure. It was very tricky, not only because of the strength of the wind but the gusts.
“On this golf course you have to be so precise with everything you do and all the shots into the greens. Not only on the tee, off the tee, but into the greens.
“When you have wind like this that is gusting and you don’t know if it’s blowing five or 30 (miles per hour), it’s very difficult.
“Obviously it happened to me a couple of times today where I felt like I hit a good shot.
“Ryan (Fox) hit a pitching wedge on 12 and hit it in the middle of the green about 15 feet away.
“I hit a nine iron and I was 15 yards shorter than him. I caught a big gust and made a double bogey.”
And Garcia then joked: “It feels like I’ve just gone 12 rounds against Mike Tyson.
“I’m looking forward to going home and rest.”
Garcia’s only major win so far came at Augusta seven years ago.
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Sergio Garcia explained the difficulties he faced on the opening day of the Masters
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The LIV golf star admitted before the tournament that he would try and ignore the weather conditions as much as possible.
Garcia said: “You talk about it a little bit, and there are some different things that you can do here and there, but at the end of the day, it’s still about hitting the shots.
“It’s as simple and as difficult as that. So you just got to try to do the best there.
“With as high as these pine trees are, it becomes tricky to know exactly where the wind is.
Sergio Garcia went round level par in the first round at the Masters
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“When it blows a little bit harder, it’s actually not easier, but you can guess it’s a little bit better because it’s more consistent.
“If it’s switching all the time, then it becomes a little bit trickier.
“But if it’s consistently blowing one way, at least you know more or less what it’s doing.
“Then on a course like this, where you have to be so precise in every single shot that you hit, when you play with that amount of wind, it becomes very, very challenging.”
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