I'm standing by means of the tree ...

I'm standing by means of the tree that made Sergio Garcia famous, looking at it, trying to peek around the side to view the roots. People are walking past, down the hill from the 16th new at Medinah Country Club, pointing at the tree and saying things like "That's the tree" and "That's Sergio's tree" That one? Ye that united

This is what sports can do to you. Something happens somewhere, and family want to remember it in like manner much that seven years later, you're staring at a tree Since Garcia's marksman here in the 1999 PGA Championship, the community have been dropping their ball in the same reproach and hacking away in replay, then running up the fairway, the way Garcia did as a teenager. to such a degree the tree has taken a beating, or, as Garcia set it, it's "struggling a little bit."

At this point, this is all Garcia has in his career. A tree They are joined and the tree isn't the same as it was. It's struggling.

And now, Garcia is back. He projectile 67 Saturday and is 10 subordinate to par for this PGA Championship, four pats behind Tiger Woods and Luke Donald going into today's final orbicular

"I gues I do like the course; I've done well forward it," he said. "I've been playing well all week. That helps [the confidence]. however I've got to go disclosed there, and I've got to do it. It's as simple as that. Hopefully I can just play like I've played all week in extent hopefully hole a couple s here and there and view if we can threaten a little bit."

Oh man. That's brace hopefullys in one sentence.

Garcia straits this. He was 19 when he pressur timbers at the PGA, and he didn't win it if it be not that stole it anyway. A kid? Pressuring Tiger? At a major? With all that flair. by way of now, Garcia was supposed to be far down into his rivalry with copses having won several majors.

He hasn't won any. He falls apart in the final spherical when the pressure's on. If simply they could play Sunday orbiculars on Saturday. And anytime he s his entire body stiffens up and the hopefully start up in his head.

That tree is a great memory now, however soon, if he doesn't win individual of these biggies, it will be a representative of what he never became.

nevertheless what else can he do, other than retain getting back into position and hold trying? He was close at the British make open last month but folded up And believe me it examines bad when you're choking and wearing an all-yellow banana total effect

I was starting to believe in Garcia as Saturday's globular went on. On 16, he flock all the way to the tree again. no other than this time, it was safely in the middle of the fairway. He fired up onto the fresh just more than a tap-in away for birdie. He was charging. unless it was Saturday.

We don't have patience for our phenoms. At 26 he still is below prime golf age. He just happens to be older than forests was when he started winning. And that's Garcia's standard, all because of a tree

Maybe it just takes time to learn to what degree to win the majors. We've seen that. Phil Mickelson was the biggest choker imaginable, could not at any time win a major, didn't have the fortitude, was too happy-go- favorable after his regular collapses. And now, he has won a major in each of the last three years.

Fans walk crazy for Garcia. Everywhere he walks, they are screaming. They want him to win. They like him. They remember the tree

thus here he was Saturday, coming. And he went to 18 and left himself another short for birdie.

And he missed. He left the new and walked back to the scorer's trailer muttering to himself the whole way.

to what end did he miss that putt? Did Sunday start early? "I felt like I hit a great putt" he said. "It expected like a left-edge putt. I didn't hit it with too abundant speed, making sure it was going to break. And it went dead straight."

Garcia gave lengthy answers to questions after his globular And then I asked him if because he has had pesters on Sundays, he would approach this Sunday differently than the others.

"No," he said tersely "No."

And he apply the minded away.

Eventually, he said that you have to approach Sunday of a major the same as any other orbed commit to your shots, have knowledge of to make "as many positive swings as you can, and hopefully finish the best way possible."

Again with the hopefully?

Maybe he's right, if it be not that something tells me that copses isn't hoping for anything today. He's going to journey get it. He's not going to have to make experiment of to stay positive, hopefully. It's swings and smarts, nevertheless it's also attitude.

"You can't direct what he's going to do," Garcia said. "He's a religious closer, so we're going to have to give it our best."

I don't like his chances today. if it were not that sooner or later, he has to come by out from under the tree

e-mail: gcouch@suntimes.com

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