His second round 62 was his lowest round on the PGA Tour in a decade. Usually struggling with his putter, Sergio made 42/42 putts inside 8 feet up until the 14 hole of his 3rd round. Incredible.
What impressed me the most about Sergio was his attitude. It was quite unusual to see a more composed, focused and confident golfer, as opposed to the Sergio who adopts the "woe is me" attitude all too often and gets down on himself after an unlucky break.
Another positive for Sergio is that he closed out a tournament, something he has found difficult to do in the past. He led going into the fourth round of the 2009 staging of this event, only to have a disappointing final round and finish in fourth. His bunker shot on the 18th to get into the playoff came up an inch short. He has also surrendered the lead in a few majors, in particular the British Open at Carnoustie in 2007, where he entered the final round with a 3 shot lead - he also lead the 1st, 2nd and 3rd rounds - only to lose in a playoff to Padraig Harrington.
Although Sergio has had a habit of falling at the final hurdle, or not being able to finish the job, he can rise to the challenge. Last year in 2011 Sergio was just outside the world's top 50, in danger of missing out on participating at the US Open, and had used up his major exemptions from winning the 2008 Player's Championship. He just made it to the US Open and British Open through last minute qualifying, and went on to finish tied for 7th in the US Open and tied for 9th in the British Open. As of the 2012 PGA Championship, Garcia has played in 54 straight majors, the longest current streak of anyone.
It is great that El Niño is finding his "A" game just in time for the FedEx Cup Playoffs. He goes to the Barclays at Bethpage Black in 33rd position, a remarkable climb from entering Wyndham in 102nd place. He still has a bit of work to do to get inside the top 30 for the Tour Championship in Atlanta.
But I am sure his main focus was the getting into Europe's Ryder Cup team beginning on September 28. Sergio sat outside the automatic picks in the "World" points list, and this was effectively his last chance to not rely on a captain's pick from Jose Maria Olazabal. He has only missed one Ryder Cup since 1999, in 2010, where instead he played the role of vice-captain.
Sergio has an exceptional history in the Ryder Cup, with a 14-6-4 (win-loss-draw) record. His strong showing this week at a wet Sedgefield Country Club has probably done enough to convince Olazabal that he would be an asset for the European team at Medinah. Sergio loves the Ryder Cup and when getting excited, pumped up, ready to go, he will show you.
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