"Sergio Garcia has...cultivated the most laughable persecution complex this side of fellow divas Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan."

While reading Geoff Russell's Golf World Front Nine this evening, he reminded me of Sergio's cup-spitting incident and suddenly my sympathies subsided. I didn't even feel bad for him after this thrashing from Steve Elling at Sportsline:

For years, Sergio Garcia has manufactured thin excuses, pointed fingers elsewhere and cultivated the most laughable persecution complex this side of fellow divas Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan. Mostly, the sporting public has cut him some slack, because he was young and frustrated and playing in the shadow of Tiger Woods.

And... 

After last weekend's dive into the wallowing waters of self-pity, Garcia has faced excoriation on a global scale like no other top pro since Greg Norman. But of course, the Shark was consistently gracious in defeat, the consummate sportsman. Norman, as a rule, fell on his sword after his major-championship disasters, and many fans felt compassion, not scorn.

But Garcia, the preening and coddled superstar, deflects his shortcomings elsewhere. It recalls the scene in a locker room at another major championship a few years back, when Garcia was spotted repeatedly adjusting the rake of his cap before he left to play that day. Maybe if he had instead spent time looking at the man in the mirror, instead of the lid on his head, he'd find the source of his problems. Style trumps substance again.

Incomprehensively, at age 27, he lacks the maturity to realize that bad breaks, real or perceived, are why golf is the most brutal mental sport of all. Moreover, being accountable means more than just adding up a score at the end of the round.

Yet for the most notorious flirt on the PGA Tour, Lady Luck remains the lone woman in golf to escape his embrace, and it's driving him psycho.