TULSA -- It remains one of the most memorable shots in PGA history.
A teenaged Sergio Garcia at the 1999 PGA Championship at Medina, chasing down Tiger Woods, finds his tee shot on 16 in the exposed roots of an old oak tree.
Rather than chip it out to safety, he does what many 19 year olds would do. He closes his eyes and takes a violent slash at it, resulting in that famous, spectacular recovery shot that bent around the tree and headed up the fairway like a David Beckham corner kick, with Garcia bounding up the lawn to watch it finish.
He was a rising star then. Likable, charismatic, fun-loving and long off the tee, he was going to be the Frazier to Tiger Woods' Ali for years to come.
Eight years and no majors later, Garcia still has that boyish twinkle in his eye, but a sizable chunk of his spirit has been hardened by all those summers of unfulfilled promise.
Zero-for-36 in the tournaments that he and every other golfer covet most, Garcia is in Tulsa for the PGA Championship, answering a fresh batch of questions about his drought, updated to include blowing a six-shot lead in the final round of the British Open.
"I guess it wasn't easy the first week, a couple of days after," said the fiery Spaniard, who had the tournament in his grasp until a final round 73, and missed par putt on 18, sent him to the ill-fated playoff where he lost to Padraig Harrington. "But you get over it.
"I just had some fun with my friends, played some different sports and I managed to get through it."
Like Phil Mickelson before him - another long-hitting, personable fan favourite forced to answers years of "why can't you win a major" questions - Garcia deals with the scrutiny the best he can.
He's more bristly than Mickelson was, and tends to blame everyone from golf gods to greenskeepers for his final-round failings before he'll blame himself. But at least he'll always stand in there and give you an answer.
Asked what he might have done differently at the British Open, he even managed to joke about it.
"I would have tried to hit that putt on 18 a little bit further right. That's pretty much it."
But the hurt, when you come that close and stumble is real, and deep. And long-lasting.
Sometimes it seems like it will never go away, but you can't beat yourself up.
Just ask Mickleson.
"I believed, just as Sergio believes, it's just a matter of time," said Lefty, 33 when he won the 2004 Masters, his first major. " He's too good a player for it not to happen."
But from now until he finally closes the deal in a major, Garcia will always be on the hot seat.
"You know, the guy who finishes second is always the first loser, I guess, so it's hard sometimes," he said. "But you've got to move on. I don't have a doubt that it will eventually happen. It's just a matter of giving myself chances, and I've definitely given myself a lot of them.
"I should have won at least more than one by now, but it hasn't happened yet. The only thing I can do is keep putting myself in that position and it will happen sometime."
And he can finally exhale.
"It takes all of the pressure off," said Ernie Els. "I won my first major when I was 24 years old, and it just took a lot of pressure off and added a lot of confidence to my game. So, you know, you basically can't win a major early enough anymore."
Which brings us to Southern Hills, where Garcia was one shot off the lead after 54 holes at the 2001 U.S. Open, before shooting a final round 77 that dropped him to 12th.
It seems like everywhere he turns there's another ghost.
