Garcia Ready This Time

Yo, Sergio, welcome back.

Two years after his somewhat unpleasant experience at Bethpage Black, Sergio Garcia of Spain returns to another U.S. Open played on Long Island.

“I never had a doubt about coming back to New York,” Garcia said.

In the Open played at Bethpage, Garcia became the target of a few New York hecklers, some of whom were not, uh-hum, familiar with the nuances of golf etiquette.

At the time, Garcia was working through a problem in which he could not take a shot without re-gripping his club at least a dozen times.

This did not go over well with a few impatient fans and, after being heckled during one shot, Garcia made what appeared to be an obscene gesture with his hand.

Garcia has always maintained he had a problem with only a “small minority” of the gallery and says he has grown up a bit in the last two years.

“Probably that week gave me the experience of handling it a bit better than I was at that moment,” Garcia said. “So, yeah, I’d probably say that it doesn’t affect me as much as it used to. Now I can block it out a bit better.”

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Garcia said he was playing so much golf in America now that he has even started to talk to himself in English, not his native Spanish.

“There’s been a couple of funny times where I’ve stopped and thought, ‘Why am I talking English to myself?’ ” Garcia said. “But whatever gets the ball in the hole.”

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A reporter asked Tiger Woods this week what he thought about being one of the “hottest celebrities” in the Hamptons, an area on Long Island populated by the chic and fashionable.

“I’m just a golfer, man,” Woods said, laughing. “I chase a little white ball around and work on my farmer tan, that’s it.”

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The USGA awarded the 2010 U.S. Open to Pebble Beach Golf Links, its fifth U.S. Open. The Open was held at Pebble Beach in 1972, 1982, 1992 and 2000.

“It’s a great combination, Pebble Beach and the United States Golf Assn.,” said Walter Driver, vice president of the USGA.

Also, the Pebble Beach Co. has offered to host a U.S. Women’s Open at the course.

The U.S. Open rotation: 2005 at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina; 2006 at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y.; 2007 at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania; 2008 at Torrey Pines; 2009 at Bethpage Black.

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Woods has a 5 a.m. PDT tee time in a group with Shigeki Maruyama and Chad Campbell. Ernie Els plays his first two rounds with Robert Allenby and Chris DiMarco.

Phil Mickelson is in a group with Paul Lawrie and Kirk Triplett and Vijay Singh is playing with Stewart Cink and Stephen Ames.

David Duval, who is playing his first PGA Tour event since October, is in a group with Scott Hoch and Phillip Price.

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Wednesday was the one-year anniversary of the Driving 4 Life ALS research campaign, started at the U.S. Open at Olympia Fields by Tom Watson, caddie Bruce Edwards and former pro Jeff Julian. The drive has raised $1.3 million.

Edwards died in April because of complications from ALS.