Why did Sergio Garcia gets 2 free drops?

Well, that's one way to get yourself into the Tour Championship. Sergio garcia came down the last hole at the BMW needing a par to climb from 34th into the all important Top 30 and a place in the lucrative season finale.

What ensued bordered on the bizarre and delved into the ludicrous as Sergio butchered the hole but receieved two free drops on his way to making par.

"I can laugh about it now, but at the time it was terrible..."

Sergio ended up with a final-round 69 that left him tied for 12th place at the BMW Championship. More importantly, he climbed from 34th to 25th in the FedExCup standings and qualified for the TOUR Championship and a chance (an outside chance it has to be said) at the FedExCup.

“I thought I needed to make five,” Garcia said of the last hole, where he hit his second shot into the lateral hazard that runs in front of the green, a rocky creek bed with a thin trickle of water.

What ensued was a bizarre ruling – Sergio was ruled to be interfered with by the grandstand, and got a free drop within the hazard, a development that took so long to resolve there were widespread flashbacks to Jordan Spieth’s commando adventures on the driving range at the Open.

After twice dropping his ball and watching it canon off rocks towards the green, Garcia placed it in the hazard so that he could get a club on it. From there, he was able to stab at his third shot, which hit the grandstand behind the green.

It was around about this time I figured I had time to go off and grab a beer. In fact, I could probably have made myself some pasta. Hand made, you know, the stuff that takes ages to make. Anyway, he got another drop, and scrambled to salvage a par on the 585-yard hole.

“It was one of the goals for the year to get to Atlanta,” said Garcia.

Garcia tied for 35th at the Dell Technologies Championship two weeks ago and started the week ranked 34th in the FedExCup standings. He was one of four players outside the top-30 bubble who advanced to East Lake; Tony Finau, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay were the others.

Tony Finau. Still using his lucky ball...

Garcia’s playing partner Phil Mickelson was also hoping to advance, but his eagle try clanked off the flagstick on 18. He made birdie to finish tied for 20th and 34th in the FedExCup standings.

“I was feeling bad for the people behind me and for Phil because they were waiting,” Garcia said. “But it was an important moment, and I wanted to make sure to … do what was best for me at that time, and obviously within the rules, and that’s what we did.”

Asked what he was thinking during the lengthy wait on 18, Mickelson said, “I was thinking this is what my playing partners go through most of the time.”

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