Ah, say the sceptics, what has he ever won? And just because he grins a lot and once chased manically after a shot out of the trees during his duel with Tiger Woods in the 1999 US PGA at Medinah, doesn't mean he's the one to attract a new generation to the sport.

Well, the whole career of Sergio Garcia, the good side and the bad, was summed up in last week's Players' Championship in Florida.

The Spaniard had gone 53 PGA Tour events without a win, last tasting victory three years ago, but played superbly throughout the week and fully deserved his triumph.

OK, Tiger is still laid up after his recent knee operation, but it was still a field of the very highest quality and often touted, along with a few other tournaments it has to be said, as a 'fifth Major.'

On the downside, the fragility of temperament of which Garcia is so often accused showed itself on more than one occasion.

He's always been inconsistent on the greens, and had a tough time putting in the early part of the Players' Championship, prompting a few questions from the press at the end of the third round.

He finally sorted that out and putted superbly on the final day to cruise to victory, but sadly was rather less than gracious afterwards.

You might expect he would be on cloud nine after ending his three year win drought in style, but clearly still riled by his grilling 24 hours earlier, he ended up childishly sniping at the assembled journalists.

When asked what was the best thing about his win, he replied: "Not having to listen to you guys."

Fairly harmless, if a little unnecessary, but what it illustrated more than anything was that fatal temperament flaw which has surely played a big part in ensuring one of the best hitters of a ball on the planet has only flitted sporadically with the world's top ten.

He's crept back into that bracket with Sunday's win, and maybe at the age of 28 he will now start showing more maturity, relax a bit, and allow his talent to do the talking.

Maybe, but there was precious little sign of that as he slipped out of the press tent and into the Florida evening sun and lengthening shadows at Sawgrass on Sunday.