It's a strange old world. Europe can dominate the Ryder Cup but, come hell or high water, none of them can win a major. The stark statistic is that Paul Lawrie at the 1999 British Open was the last European winner of a major championship, and although Sergio Garcia edged his way into third place at Pinehurst, the simple fact is that he was five shots adrift of the winner.
The drought is a worrying one, although surely destined to end at some point. Still, there have been 23 majors since Lawrie was the surprise winner at Carnoustie and each one of them has evaded the clutches of a European.
Garcia, at sixth, is currently the highest ranked player in the world without a major. Yet, the 25-year-old Spaniard, who has five US Tour wins and five European Tour wins on his curriculum vitae, is convinced his time will come.
One reason is that he no longer beats himself up mentally. "I'm learning how to handle things, how to focus. A couple of things happened that kind of woke me up. I have a friend that is only 24 and he has got lung cancer, and to see those things really wakes you up.
"It makes you realise that a bogey, and I still don't want to make a bogey, isn't really all that bad. I'm happy with the way things are going, with my game. On a Sunday at the US Open, if you come off the course shooting 70 and knowing that you couldn't have shot any lower than that, that's pretty good," said Garcia after his second top-five finish in a US Open in four years.
For the three Irish players who participated at Pinehurst, it's a divergence of the ways this week: Padraig Harrington, who missed the cut but stayed around Pinehurst all weekend to practise, and Graeme McDowell play in the Barclays Classic at Westchester in New York, while Paul McGinley competes in the French Open, where he will be joined by Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane, Gary Murphy, Philip Walton and Stephen Browne.
McGinley's final round 74 for 293 at Pinehurst left him in tied-42nd place, his best finish in a US Open, and moved him to ninth on the European Tour moneylist with €712,534.
Having missed the early part of the season after knee surgery, McGinley is seeking to make up time and is in the midst of a six-week stint that will take in the French Open, the European Open, the Scottish Open, the British Open and the TPC of Europe, before a respite and a return to the States for the US PGA at Baltusrol in August.
1 Tiger Woods (USA) 14.12pts ave
2 Vijay Singh (Fij) 12.55
3 Ernie Els (Rsa) 10.34
4 Phil Mickelson (USA) 8.97
5 Retief Goosen (Rsa)7.63
6 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 7.34
7 Adam Scott (Aus) 5.96
8 David Toms (USA) 5.37
9 Chris DiMarco (USA) 5.34
10 Kenny Perry (USA) 4.90
11 Padraig Harrington (Irl) 4.82
12 Davis Love-III (USA) 4.69
13 Luke Donald (Eng) 4.66
14 Stewart Cink (USA) 4.40
15 Angel Cabrera (Arg) 4.38
16 Darren Clarke (NIrl) 4.00
17 Stuart Appleby (Aus) 3.90
18 Jim Furyk (USA) 3.78
19 Justin Leonard (USA) 3.74
20 Miguel A Jimenez (Spa) 3.71
