Bitter Pill

"I felt an edge in terms of my experience," said Harrington, who seems to have gained a sure knowledge that it is competitive intangibles that matter most at the end of a major, as well as the confidence that he possesses them. "I felt an edge in terms of my ability to take an opportunity when it comes around." Still, the big picture for Garcia remains bright. Despite his tenure near the top of the game, he is only 28. The odds are still well in his favor that he will keep getting better. Garcia's most obvious gift is an exceptional athleticism that produces a full-swing hitting action that is universally admired by his peers for its speed, correctness and versatility through the impact zone. It will make him a force to reckon with particularly in majors, where the high integrity of his shots is most rewarded.

Garcia is realizing that to not just impress but actually win, his mental game has to follow suit. As he struggled with his emotions in the aftermath of Oakland Hills, Garcia seemed to waver near a Carnoustie relapse of victimhood. "I've said it before, there are guys who get a little fortunate," he said. "They get in contention in a major and manage to get things going their way, either because they play well or because somebody else comes back. And unfortunately it hasn't happened to me. I feel like I played well enough to win probably more than two majors in my career. Unfortunately, it hasn't happened."

But then he caught himself, seeming to take value rather than frustration from the beatings he has suffered at the masters of intangibles, particularly Woods and now Harrington. "That doesn't mean that I'm not on the right track," Garcia said. "So I'm looking forward to the challenges."

The biggest of all remains the putter. Since beginning his work with short-game guru Stan Utley earlier this year, Garcia has not only shown improvement on the greens but actually putted like a whiz, most noticeably in winning the Players in May, and during his runner-up finish in the European Open earlier this summer, where he called his 21-putt final round the finest putting round of his life. But his final-round meltdown at Birkdale was foreshadowed by the shocking misses of two putts inside 18 inches as he was making his way into contention in the second and third rounds.

Utley has basically tried to encourage Garcia to return to the more flowing and freer stroke he made as a teenage prodigy, and at Oakland Hills Garcia brought the relaxed and fluid mannerisms of his full swing to his often too-tense stroke. Although he spoiled his second round by four-putting the 17th hole from 50 feet, the main result was his putts less than 10 feet regularly entering the center of the hole at ideal speed.

"He's much more confident with his putting than he's been in a long time," said Utley from his home in Scottsdale. "His good putting is now much better than it has ever been over the previous five years. He's still inconsistent, so he can still throw in a round where it's very mediocre. That's the evolution of someone improving, where technique comes before confidence. But he showed a lot on those Oakland Hills greens. The confidence is growing, and confidence is the most important piece."

It's the ultimate intangible. And golf's best healer of things that hurt.