garcia out to break major duck

By Mark Garrod, PA Sport Golf Correspondent

Everybody who saw it still remembers the sequence of events.

The ball at the bottom of a tree. The decision to go for it despite the danger. The swing with his eyes shut. The run up the fairway. Then the scissor-kick jump.

It was the day "El Nino" blew into big-time golf and showed the world what a talent he was. And what energy he brought to the game.

Sergio Garcia could at that moment on Medinah's 16th hole have been less than an hour from becoming the youngest major champion since Young Tom Morris an amazing 131 years earlier.

"That's the future of golf," declared American Ryder Cup captain Ben Crenshaw, as excited as anyone by what he had just witnessed.

However, the 19-year-old was denied his first major title by a 23-year-old American called Tiger Woods - and seven years on he still does not have a major to his name.

On Thursday Garcia's next chance - indeed Europe's next chance to end a barren spell in the majors stretching back to the 1999 Open won by Paul Lawrie - arrives when the US PGA championship returns to Medinah.

The strongest field of the year will this time have to tackle the longest course in major history, though.

Measured at 7,401 yards in 1999 it has now been stretched to a daunting 7,561 yards and that can only serve to reduce the number of possible winners.

Woods, obviously, is one of them. He lifted his 11th major at the Open last month to move to joint second in the all-time list and in his one outing since then the world number one had four rounds of 66 to win the Buick Open - his 50th US Tour title in less than 10 years.

Garcia, though, will like the fact that the course is as long as it is. Woods used his driver just once in four days at Hoylake because the fairways were so fast-running. He will have to use his most troublesome club much more often at Medinah.

The Spaniard, Europe's highest-ranked player at ninth in the world, leads a contingent that is more than 30-strong and the good memories from seven years ago should help him to forget the bad memory of the Open closing round.

Garcia was only one behind Woods, but their head-to-head fizzled out. Woods won it 67-73, Garcia's slide to fifth place being his 11th top 10 finish in majors without a win.

Woods did generously say afterwards that he thought it wouldn't be long before Garcia broke his duck, but it still has to be done, of course.

"I've got to do it myself," he said. "I really felt good out there - calm, comfortable with myself. The best I've felt probably all year.

"Unfortunately on the front nine nothing wanted to happen. You start getting things going right and it seems like nothing can go wrong.

"If you kind of go the other way it's tough because you're charging more for the pins.

"You could see he was kind of going middle of the green, middle of the green, just going along.

"I couldn't have shot higher. When everything goes absolutely wrong you make zero putts.

But I gained confidence with my driver again and felt comfortable with my swing. That's important."

It has to be a worry that he is ranked only 178th in putts per round on the US Tour, but Woods is only 11 places ahead of him. Garcia must not panic.

Next week is not just about winning a major, though. For the United States it is the final counting event for the Ryder Cup and for the Europeans it is the third last event.

With the world's top 100 invited to Medinah every leading contender will be there battling for points. And, remembering that each side has two wild cards, to catch the eye of their captain.