Garcia's latest mea culpa

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- Seemingly every time he plays, Sergio Garcia creates a stir with his game or his mouth. The latest example was last month, when he criticized Augusta National.

"I don't like it, to tell you the truth," he said after finishing his final round of the Masters Tournament. "I don't think it's fair. Even when it's dry you still get mud balls in the middle of the fairway. It's too much of a guessing game."

What would he change?

"They can do whatever they want," said Garcia. "It's not my problem. I just come here and play and then go home."

To his credit, Garcia quickly issued an apology. But the damage was done.

"Like I said in my press release, it was unfortunate, but like I said there, Augusta is that kind of course, and we all look up to it," Garcia said Tuesday, where he is defending his title this week in The Players Championship. "It can be very frustrating when things don't go your way. An unfortunately for me that's the way it's been lately.

"I just said the wrong things, I guess. But you learn from those things."

At times, Garcia wishes he could push the reset button.

"There's a lot of things you do in your life that you wish you could have done differently, but not only myself, but I think everybody," he said. "And I am the way I am. And for good or worse, what you see is what you get. So the same way that my personality helps me a lot, sometimes it hurts me. It's just a matter of learning how to control it a little bit and just try to do the right thing."

-- Mark Soltau