One Tough Customer

Curtis survived a wayward drive on 16 to save par, but a two-shot swing on the par-3 17th (Harrington birdie, Curtis bogey) ended hopes of a U.S. victory. Photo: Stephen Szurlej

Wrist? Wind? Water? Weary? "What he's really doing is accepting that the way you play this game great is that you understand that you're going to make mistakes," says Rotella. "When you know you can keep your mind and your emotions together and let your body do what it knows how to do, you can accomplish a lot."

After the rain-delayed third round finished Sunday morning, Curtis ate lunch on the lead at minus two, a shot ahead of Henrik Stenson and J.B. Holmes and three ahead of Harrington, Garcia and Charlie Wi. Holmes collapsed immediately with a triple on the first hole on his way to an 81. Wi, playing in his first major championship, held it together until the fifth through the 10th holes, which he played five over par. Garcia went out fast with a birdie-eagle start and shot 31 on the front. By the time the last two threesomes had completed nine holes, Garcia was three under, Curtis two, Stenson one and Harrington even.

Stenson bogeyed the 12th when birdie was a must and dropped away from there. Harrington birdied the 10th when he hit 8-iron to 15 feet and holed it. Then came the crucial 12th where his 5-wood went through the green, but he got up and down for birdie. At the par-3 13th, Harrington hit a 5-iron to 15 feet and made that for another birdie to get to three under par, tying Garcia, who had failed to take advantage of the 12th. Curtis, playing behind Garcia and Harrington, bogeyed the 11th to drop to one under.

It was nearly down to Harrington and Garcia -- just a couple of Europeans with warm and fuzzy recollections of a four-year-old Ryder Cup Riverdance on the livers of the Americans looking for more fond memories -- only no one told Curtis, who was attempting to become an even more unlikely two-time major champion than he was a one-time major champion by birdieing the 12th and 14th holes to get back to three under.

Harrington bogeyed the 14th (he hit an 8-iron over the green and missed an eight-footer for par), and it looked as if it might be Sergio's day. This was not the persecuted Garcia of Carnoustie. This Sergio was unflappable, joyful. He had been putting and playing beautifully. Then, in a bizarre echo of his last major defeat, at Carnoustie, where he hit the pin only to have the ball carom off the green, this time his 6-iron from 172 yards on the 15th flew into the hole and bounced back out. It left him a 10-footer for birdie, but he missed. Garcia followed that by hitting his 6-iron from 176 yards into the water on the 16th, which led to a bogey. Harrington bunkered his second there, caught a stone between the clubface and the ball on the explosion, rolled it well past but made the game-changing 20-footer coming back. Behind them, Curtis bogeyed the 15th after driving it into a horrible lie in the left rough.

With Harrington, Garcia and Curtis now all two under par, Harrington hit his 5-iron to 10 feet on the 238-yard, uphill par-3 17th. Garcia proceeded to stick his 5-iron inside him, leaving himself just four feet. "I knew if I holed this, I probably would win the PGA," said Harrington. "If I missed, Sergio would probably win the PGA. So it was down to that." Harrington made. Garcia lipped out.

Harrington drove it into one of the right fairway bunkers on the 18th. Garcia drove it into the right rough. Garcia ripped a 5-wood at the 18th green but came up short in the front bunker. Harrington hit his 8-iron fat out of the bunker and didn't reach the fairway, a potentially critical error. He caught a good lie in the thick rough, though, and put his 7-iron 15 feet from the pin from 142 yards. A hole behind, Curtis hit his 4-iron through the green on the 17th and bogeyed to fall two shots back. Garcia blasted out of the greenside bunker at the 18th, but when Harrington holed for par, Sergio's miss didn't matter. Only a miracle eagle at the last by Curtis could tie, but there was no chance of that. His consolation prize was a spot on the Ryder Cup team.