The Guardian's Richard Williamsexamines how the young Spaniard who thrives in the Ryder Cup failed again to close out victory in a major

Halfway down the ninth fairway, a dark-haired young woman stood against the ropes as Sergio Garcia went by. Tears welled up in her brown eyes. "Vamos!" she shouted, her voice hoarse with feeling. This was Garcia's sister, Mar, and she feared that she had just witnessed her brother's hopes of his first major championship crumbling in the mini-crisis of three bogeys in the preceding four holes.

It would get better for the Garcia family, and then much, much worse. Two hours later Sergio was one 10ft putt away from the title and from finally fulfilling his destiny. One 10ft putt on the 18th green, with a slight break.

It would have brought him home in a total of 72 for the day, eight under par for the tournament and one stroke ahead of Padraig Harrington.

Harrington, too, had held the championship in his hand before seeming to throw it away with two shots into the water on the last hole. The Dubliner appeared to have booked his place alongside the Frenchman Jean Van der Velde among the legends of Carnoustie's 18th hole.

So now Garcia, having underhit his second shot into a greenside bunker, stood over the par putt. Having sized it up, he applied the gentlest of touches and watched the ball turn in towards the left edge of the hole before catching the lip and curling out. Head hanging in disappointment, now he was in a play-off with a man who was cuddling his young son and smiling at the world as he breathed the sweet air of reprieve.

And that, surely, was the difference between these two as they fought it out over the extra holes. Relaxed and prepared to embrace his good fortune, Harrington made a swift strike that cut Garcia off at the knees. To recover from a sudden two-shot deficit, when he had already struggled to get himself back within touching distance of victory, was asking too much.

There would be further drama to come as they played the 18th hole for the second time in the day, but the Irishman made no mistake with the short putt that gave him the victory and will have observers asking, yet again, what it is that prevents Garcia from closing out a major tournament.

At the beginning of the day it had looked so simple. All Garcia had to do was pretend that this was the Ryder Cup, the competition in which he has such a wonderful record against American golfers ever since the day in 1999 when he became, at 19 years 258 days, the youngest man to appear in the tournament.

Alongside him on the first tee in yesterday's final pairing was Steve Stricker, the epitome of the kind of superior journeymen with which the US team is usually filled, and with whom the Spaniard is accustomed to having his way. The two groups ahead of him were Harrington versus Stewart Cink and Paul McGinley versus Chris DiMarco, also pairings that might have come from a Ryder Cup singles line-up. This, surely, was something Garcia knew how to cope with.

It was also his third appearance in the final Sunday pairing of a major tournament, but the first time he had taken his place as the leader going into the last day. And, perhaps crucially, it was the first time without Tiger Woods next to him on the first tee. In the 2002 US Open at Bethpage he was abused by a drunken minority of local fans and faded away to finish fourth. At Hoylake last year he started one stroke behind Woods but finished in a tie for fifth place, trailing the winner by seven shots.

Yesterday he was trying to complete a flag-to-flag victory. "I haven't been in this position in a major, so I'm looking forward to do it," he said on Saturday night. "I'm not going to do anything different. And the way I'm hitting the ball, it's right there for the taking."

The most important thing, he felt, was that he had been "playing smart", not trying too hard but recognising the need to settle for par on occasion and move on. He was also pleased with the way his adoption of the belly putter had given confidence to the other elements of his game.

Amid the redoubled pressure of the final round, however, that new solidity disintegrated. An early birdie at the fourth took him to 10 under, four shots ahead of Stricker and the rest of the field, but waywardness off the tee prefaced bogeys at the fifth, seventh and eighth. These failures coincided with the distant explosions of cheering that signalled successes for Harrington, the South African Ernie Els and Argentina's Andres Romero.

And so, yet again, Garcia failed to turn his own wonderful gifts and the wholehearted admiration and support of so many of yesterday's spectators into the hard currency of a major tournament victory.

"I guess it just wasn't meant to happen," the Spaniard said. But he will reflect that this was the closest yet.

Guardian Service