Garcia has endured a 'miserable unravelling'

London: We might have guessed that Sergio Garcia was falling out of love with golf when he ambled through his Open practice rounds at St Andrews wearing the Spain football strip.

But his decision to take a two-month break from the competitive arena has been bizarrely timed, depriving Colin Montgomerie, Europe's Ryder Cup captain, of a vibrant and successful player to galvanise the team at Celtic Manor in October.

The Spaniard, a fixture in Europe's teams since 1999, holds the remarkable record of never losing a Ryder Cup foursomes, but has endured a miserable unravelling this season.

Long break

Listless and lethargic, he has played just 17 events and confirmed, after a closing 70 in the Bridgestone Invitational, that he needed time to digest his decline.

"I haven't had a nice long break in my whole career," said the 30-year-old, whose latest world ranking of 50th comes less than two years after he challenged Tiger Woods for the top spot.

"I need to miss the game a little bit."

For Montgomerie, Garcia had always been an attractive alternative as a wild-card selection. His presence would have shored up a side rich in youthful promise but conspicuously short on hard lessons in golf's most demanding team event.

Wild card

Garcia suggested he would accept a wild card if offered one, but that prospect looks remote after his withdrawal from this week's US PGA the last major qualifying event before the wild cards are announced at Gleneagles. Instead Montgomerie, already amenable to the selection of the 52-year-old Bernhard Langer, is poised to turn elsewhere.