DESPITE PLAYOFF LOSS, GARCIA THE MAN TO WATCH IN VEGAS

LAS VEGAS – Sergio Garcia will be focusing on the positives when he leads his Fireballs team in the second tournament of the season in Las Vegas after a heart-breaking playoff loss in the season-opening LIV Golf Mayakoba.

The Fireballs captain was involved in a four-hole playoff in Mexico, which ended in near darkness when Torque GC captain Joaquin Niemann made a birdie on the fourth extra hole to win his first LIV title.

The 44-year-old Spanish wizard will not have much time to mull over the loss, with LIV Golf Las Vegas starting a day earlier than usual this week to avoid clashing with the Super Bowl on Sunday.

However, the solace for Garcia is that he is playing fantastic golf, and all numbers from his effort at El Camaleon course point to another solid week on a narrow, tree-lined course, which seems to bring out the best in him. His success on courses like Valderrama and Augusta National, much tougher than the Las Vegas Country Club, is a great indicator.

One of the finest ball-strikers in the game, Garcia was second in greens in regulation in the field, which shows that his hitting is on song. And while his putting may have let him down in a crucial phase on Sunday back nine – when he three-putted twice – his new Golfyr putter hasn’t exactly let him down as he finished the tournament with an average of 28 putts each round.

There were also signs of Abraham Ancer finding some early season form with his bogey-free, final-day 67 after a couple of disappointing rounds.

The two Spanish youngsters in the team – Eugenio Chacarra and David Puig – have proven themselves on LIV Golf and in the opportunities they have got on the International Series of Asian Tour. Chacarra won the St Andrews Bay Championship and Puig triumphed in Singapore last year. Both have repeatedly shown that they can go extremely deep when on song.

Fireballs finished sixth in Mayakoba in the team championship with a total of 13-under par, after a run of second and win in the final two full-season events (Chicago and Jeddah) last season.

In Thursday’s opening round, Garcia will start on the first tee and is paired with Niemann and RangeGoats captain Bubba Watson