Perspective changing quickly as Garcia matures

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Sergio Garcia (right) shook off his Ryder Cup loss to Anthony Kim in a big way on Saturday. (Lecka/Getty Images)

ATLANTA -- A week ago, Sergio Garcia suffered through the worst performance of his otherwise stellar Ryder Cup career. Now he's 18 holes from wrapping up the best season of his stellar -- and still-evolving -- PGA TOUR career.

Funny how that happens. Funny how our perspective can change so quickly, how a single bad week sets off alarms and a good week sets off a celebration.

The good players -- or more to the point, the mature players -- know how to deal with those kinds of fluctuations, how to play with a steady hand, to avoid the highs and lows and maintain the kind of equilibrium needed for optimal results.

Garcia has evolved into that kind of player. At age 28, he seems to have found the kind of consistency (one weird week at Valhalla notwithstanding) needed to cement his spot as one of the game's handful of names who must be feared any time he tees it up.

Certainly, Garcia's 3-under 67 on Saturday at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola sent several messages. Not only did he wrestle the lead away from playing partner Anthony Kim, Garcia avenged (our perspective, not his) that loss to Kim in last Sunday's Ryder Cup match. And with a three-shot lead entering the final round, Garcia is primed to win his eighth TOUR title, especially since East Lake doesn't seem all that willing to yield many low rounds this week. All he needs is one more nice, consistent round.

Sergio Garcia's confidence on the greens has improved dramatically. (Condon/PGA TOUR)

Inside the Numbers

Garcia in 2008

Stat Rank Total Driving Distance 294.5 yds. 45 Driving Accuracy 59.74% 147 Greens in Regulation 66.92% 25 Putting Average 1.795 113 Sand Saves 53.21% 62 Scoring Average 69.53 2 Money Leaders $4,102,224 7

And if that happens, then not only will he claim the $1.26 million first prize, he'll win the $3 million bonus for finishing second behind Vijay Singh in FedExCup points.

Of course, if that happens, you might also look at it another way -- Garcia being one putt away from winning the FedExCup and the $10 million bonus. Had Singh not rolled in a 26-foot birdie putt on top of Garcia's 27-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole at The Barclays, then it would be Garcia entering Sunday in position to claim the silver FedExCup and the big prize. As it turns out, Singh's putt may very well be worth $7 million.

But Garcia isn't looking at it that way. He just knows that a win at THE TOUR Championship -- as well as his earlier win this season at THE PLAYERS Championship, and his near-misses at the PGA Championship and The Barclays (along with other top 5s at the Stanford St. Jude Championship and the Deutsche Bank Championship) -- would tell him two things.

He's had a great year, winning the two biggest tournaments of his career.

And he's going in the right direction.

"It doesn't mean that if I don't win tomorrow, it's going to be a disappointing year," said Garcia, who's in position to win two tournaments in a year for the third time in his career. "It's not going to turn into that. But there's no doubt that for me to hopefully go out there tomorrow, play my game and play well, believe in myself and win THE TOUR Championship, it would be a great year.

"... Even though I lost the PGA and even though Vijay beat me at the Barclays and I had a couple of other close calls, it's been a great year," Garcia said. "I'm just looking forward to keep going in the same direction."

The forward progress can be seen in his putting, thanks to his work starting in March with putting guru Stan Utley. While Garcia still isn't lights-out with the putter -- he ranks 113th on TOUR in putting average and 165th in putts per round -- he seems to be more confident on the greens. He ranks third in this week's 30-man field in both of those putting categories. It helps that the same Bermudagrass used on the East Lake greens is the same grass at TPC Sawgrass, site of his PLAYERS victory earlier this year.

And it can be seen in his maturity. He wasn't rattled early Saturday when Kim knocked home a couple of long putts. Instead, Garcia stayed within his own game, overcoming his only bogey of the day on the par-4 13th with birdies on two of his last four holes.

"I feel like not only as a player but as a person, I'm maturing," Garcia said. "I'm getting to know myself better, and it's making me a lot more comfortable on the course."

He'll get one more test on Sunday, being paired with Phil Mickelson. Although Garcia has been paired with Mickelson on 10 previous occasions, never have they played together in the final pairing of the final round.

That might mean nothing. Or it might mean something.

What would mean more, though, is for Garcia to come out, play his game, stay in control, and not panic if and when Mickelson and the other pursuers start to close in.

"We're both going to try to play hard," Garcia said, "and I'm going to try to do my thing and make sure that hopefully it's enough."

Sounds like the mature approach.