Sergio Garcia is the Greg Norman of the 21st century. Norman suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous golf fortune, sometimes self-inflicted, for the best part of 15 years. Garcia is now enduring the same mental torture.
Three times he has finished second in major championships, twice third and twice fourth, the swashbuckling Spaniard still seeking his first major trophy.
The 28-year-old’s latest heartbreak came today at the US PGA Championship where, for the second time in barely a year, following a play-off at last year’s British Open, fellow European Padraig Harrington stuck a dagger in Garcia’s heart, twisted the knife, and then plunged it in even further.
Harrington, putting with a brilliance that even the injured Tiger Woods would admire, sank clutch putts at the final three holes to edge Garcia and American Ben Curtis by two strokes at Oakland Hills.
In doing so, the Irishman became the first European to win the PGA since 1930, and the first European to win consecutive major championships in the same year, just three weeks after claiming the British Open.
Harrington, 36, has won three of the past six majors, pretty impressive stuff even by Tiger’s standards.
Garcia looked the winner for most of the final round.
Playing with an apparent new-found maturity, he used an assured putting stroke to quickly overcome a three-shot deficit in the final round and take a two-shot lead into the back nine, with Harrington three behind.
But Harrington roared back with three birdies in four holes to tie for the lead.
It wasn’t quite match play as they stood on the 17th tee, because Curtis, playing behind, was in a three-way tie, but it might as well have been.
Harrington, playing first at the tough par-three 17th, stuck a five-iron to three metres, only to watch Garcia respond by hitting his five-iron to inside 1.5-metres.
“I felt I had won,” Harrington said, recalling his thoughts after his tee shot.
“Obviously Sergio followed it up with a great shot but I had the opportunity to get the putt in first.
“I knew if I holed this, I probably would win the PGA. If I missed, Sergio would probably win, so it was down to that, and I hit a lovely putt.”
Alas, Garcia did not, missing his birdie chance and handing Harrington a one-shot lead with one hole left, a lead Harrington would keep with a brilliant up-and-down par at the last, where he sank a five-metre putt to deliver the fatal blow.
As at the British Open, Harrington was brilliant when it really mattered, over the final nine holes. What really was remarkable was that he even got to the final nine holes with a chance to win.
“At Birkdale (British Open), I was quite assured of what I was doing. Here I really didn’t know,” he said.
“I wasn’t happy with how I was swinging the club this week, in terms of my focus, or maybe dehydration or tiredness, but something had me a little bit off stride.
“My co-ordination wasn’t quite there. My game was going downhill very quickly. Once I got to the weekend and holed a few putts, it really was a question of adrenalin keeping me going.”
Harrington, who shot closing rounds of 66 66 to finish at three-under-par 277, had no sympathy on the course for Garcia, although he empathised afterwards.
“It’s a bit like the Greg Norman story at Birkdale (where Norman finished third),” Harrington said.
“It’s a great story, but you can’t let yourself get drawn into it. You’ve got to be very selfish in this situation when you’re on the course.
“I had to convince myself not to get into this sentimental thing of maybe it’s his turn, maybe he deserves it, maybe it’s his day.”
Said Garcia: “The only thing I can do is go back home with my head up high and keep working on it.
“I feel like I have played well enough to win probably more than two majors throughout my career. Unfortunately, it hasn’t happened, but that doesn’t mean I’m not on the right track.”
During a golden northern summer, Spain won the European soccer championship, Wimbledon and the Tour de France, but it has not produced a major golf champion.
Garcia can only persevere. But if he followed the career of Norman, whose daughter he used to date, he will understand that there are no guarantees.
A brief look at Sunday’s final round of the US PGA Championship:
WINNER: Padraig Harrington, 3-under 277.
RUNNERS-UP: Sergio Garcia and Ben Curtis, 1-under 279.
MONEY: Harrington won $US1.35 million ($A1.52 million) from the purse of $US7.5 million ($A8.47 million).
SHOT OF THE DAY: Harrington made an 18-foot putt for par on the 18th hole after his errant tee shot landed in a fairway bunker and his shot from there went about 60 yards into the rough.
KEY STATISTIC: The scoring average of 74.313 was second-highest on the PGA Tour this year behind the British Open (74.869), which was also won by Harrington.
NOTEWORTHY: Harrington became the fourth player to win the British Open and US PGA Championship in the same year joining Tiger Woods (2000, 2006), Nick Price (1994) and Walter Hagen (1924).
QUOTEWORTHY: “That’s Tiger-like, right there.” Ben Curtis on Padraig Harrington winning consecutive majors and three of the last six.
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