NOW that Fernando Torres & Co have won Euro 2008 for the first time since 1964 and Raphael Nadal emerged as his country's first Wimbledon champion on Sunday since Manolo Santana in 1966, can Sergio Garcia complete an astonishing summer of sporting success for Spain by hoisting the Claret Jug at Royal Birkdale later this month?
In the absence of Tiger Woods, the bookmakers largely concurred yesterday that Garcia is the man most likely to win the Open. The Spaniard's impressive display at the European Open on Sunday, where he finished runner-up to Ross Fisher, installed Garc
ia as the 10/1 favourite in Southport, ahead of Ernie Els at 12/1 and Phil Mickelson, Padriag Harrington and Lee Westwood at 16/1.
While 20 years have elapsed since Seve Ballesteros won his third Open title at Royal Troon, many onlookers, including this correspondent, who were present at Muirfield in 1998 – the year Garcia won the Amateur Championship – felt sure Sergio would one day follow in the footsteps of Seve and triumph in the oldest major.
Since 2001, no golfer without a win in the Open has produced a more consistent standard of performance. In the last seven Opens, he's reeled off six top-ten finishes and has placed fifth, fifth and runner-up in the previous three. A regular visitor to the British linksland since his amateur days, Garcia has both the imagination and the ability to engrave his name on the trophy.
Two factors, up until now, have dogged Garcia's hopes. One was the long shadow cast by Woods, the game's best player and a force of nature in the most prized championships. The other was a shortcoming in Garcia's own game – a tentative putting stroke which tended to let him down under the most intense pressure.
A year after questions were asked about how well the Spaniard would cope with the disappointment of dominating the 2007 Open for three days before tossing aside a six-stroke advantage over Padraig Harrington in the last round at Carnoustie, there's been an impressive resilience about Garcia's performances. Yesterday he rose to seventh in the world rankings and is again Europe's leading light, ahead of Justin Rose, ninth, and Harrington, 13th.
At Sawgrass in May, when the injured Woods was an absentee, Garcia celebrated victory in the Players Championship by kissing the blade of his putter after the first extra hole of a play-off. It was a clear signal the Spaniard had put a testing time on the greens behind him and discovered a putting stroke which can help him win the most important tournaments in golf.
Significantly, even though his ball striking wasn't quite as imperious as usual in blustery conditions at the European Open, Garcia forced his way into contention at the London Club thanks to the tournament's second best putting average of 1.664 per green in regulation.
Not surprisingly, when he reflected on an excellent week with the putter, Garcia said he sensed how positive Woods must feel when he keeps himself in contention by holing almost everything he looks at. "Now I know what Tiger feels 90 per cent of the time on the greens," he said. "It's a great feeling."
Ever since he was thwarted by Woods in 1999 at the US PGA Championship, Garcia has suffered as much as any of his peers in the Tiger era. With Woods ruled out of both the Open and the US PGA while he recovers from knee surgery, the Spaniard would be an odd bird if he didn't sense a rare opportunity this summer to claim the first major of his career.
His re-emergence as a confident putter comes just five months after Garcia's work on the greens reached a low ebb at the Accenure Match Play when he carried both a short stick and a belly putter in his bag. It was then the 28-year-old decided to re-build his putting stroke with the aid of short-game guru Stan Utley.
The suggestion to work with Utley came from caddie Billy Foster, who previously carried Darren Clarke's bag and remembered how Utley helped with the Ulsterman's chipping and putting. Based at the Grayhawk golf club in Scottsdale, Arizona, Utley was less interested in mechanics than feel and imagination, which suited Garcia.
Having chosen to skip the Barclays Scottish Open at Loch Lomond this week in order to fine-tune his game for the seaside challenge of Birkdale, Garcia, who practised over the links at Old Head, near Cork in Ireland, earlier this month, is enough of a realist to know his blade will not always be so hot.
"I don't expect to putt like that every single round," he reflected. "I would love to, because it would be a very easy game. But the only thing you can do is believe in what you do. I'm looking forward to the Open.
"There are still things I need to keep improving, but there are positive things and overall I'm very happy."
