SOUTHPORT, England -- Calling it a thin line doesn't remotely do it justice.
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| Sergio was so close he could smell it last year. (Getty Images) |
The distance separating Sergio Garcia from long-awaited international mega-stardom, in both practical terms and how it impacted his persona, was too miniscule to measure last year at the Open Championship.
Standing on the 18th green at Carnoustie and facing an 8-footer to win outright, Garcia's effort caught the left edge of the hole and painfully lipped out, missing by a razor's edge and giving eventual winner Padraig Harrington new life in a playoff.
Harrington, who had utterly butchered the hole moments earlier by hitting two key shots in the water to blow a one-shot lead, looked like golf's biggest gagging goat in years. Then Garcia's ball refused to drop into the hole and everything changed. Almost comically, their images were reshaped by the stubbornness of Garcia's single, uncooperative putt. Harrington became the second Irishman to win a major, was embraced as a veritable national hero, while Garcia fell flat on his face, handling the disappointing defeat with little class or grace.
Rarely has such a narrow margin created such a huge breach. A year later, as they arrived Tuesday at Royal Birkdale to again test their fate, the absurdity of their respective positions was hardly lost on either of them.
"I would be aware myself of the twin imposters of success and failure, how similar they are," Harrington said.
Because he missed by that proverbial whisker, Garcia scratched his chin only for a moment when asked to ruminate on how their lives might have been different.
"We'll never know," Garcia said. "It's all speculation. I will let you know next time, when I aim a little more to the right."
Then, thankfully, he smiled.
Which, based on what's happened in the year since the misfire at Carnoustie, might be the most promising development of all. Garcia won two months ago at the vaunted Players Championship, and in the absence of his longtime major-championship nemesis Tiger Woods, has been installed this week as the favorite in the gambling parlors that seemingly dot every U.K. boulevard.
El Nino, ranked seventh in the world, has become El Hombre.
"It doesn't feel any different," Garcia said of being the top pick among the so-called punters. "At the end of the day, I know that I've got to be the favorite myself, in me."
