AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Golf is the most haunted sport on the planet, and nobody has seen more goblins from tee to green than Sergio Garcia. He has come up with so many conspiracy theories over the years, even Oliver Stone avoids him at cocktail parties. Garcia shouldn't be sponsored by adidas, but by Area 51.
And the helpless victim of all those conspiracy theories? Why, Sergio Garcia of course. Remember the time at the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage when he swore USGA officials would've stopped play if Tiger Woods were out there getting drenched instead of poor Sergio? (Garcia later left Woods a note of apology at his locker.) Remember the time at the 2007 Open Championship at Carnoustie when he whined about some slow bunker raking and a clinching putt that somehow went awry, inspiring him to declare he was "playing against a lot of guys out there, more than the field"? (No apology note was left in any Royal & Ancient tea room.)
How about the time five years ago when Garcia declared Augusta National an unconquerable test of golf? He actually said he was done trying to win majors, done raging against the unseen forces hell-bent on tormenting him. "I will try to be second or third [place]," he said, and if you didn't like it, that was your tough luck.
But all those swirling ghosts inside Garcia's head officially died a timely death, once and for all, when his creek-bound ball on the 13th hole somehow stuck in the grassy bank on the green side of the water, allowing the 37-year-old Spaniard to get up-and-down for birdie. The golf gods never give that kind of bounce -- or non-bounce -- to someone they're committed to punishing forevermore. In fact, Garcia's soft landing at No. 13 was such a good break, it made Fred Couples' soft landing at No. 12 a quarter century ago seem like a bad break.
"Probably it's because my mentality has kind of changed a little bit," Garcia said, "the way I'm thinking things. Particularly this week here at Augusta. But definitely had some good breaks throughout all three rounds."
Only none like that one Saturday, a 4-iron approach shot that came out soft out of the first cut of rough and might've submarined Garcia's chances to finally win his first big one. Fortunately, Sergio said, "[the grass on] that bank seems to be a tiny bit longer this year, which is nice."
Ya think? With that shot in the air, Garcia's face was a mask of dismay and disgust. But his misadventure ended with a sweet-music chip shot and a gimme putt that moved him to 5 under. He closed out this long day in the sun by draining a testy 7-footer, landing in a share of the 6-under lead with friend and Ryder Cup cohort Justin Rose.
More than anything, Garcia closed out this Masters Saturday with no more excuses left in his bag. Nobody is conspiring against him. If he doesn't finally win a major, and the most prestigious one, it will be all on him.
The good news is Garcia appears to be aware of this. He was asked after shooting his 70 about his relationship with Augusta National, the ballpark he swore off in 2012, and Garcia responded with an encouraging thought.
"I mean, it's definitely improved," he said. "There's no doubt about that. Nothing wrong with Augusta. I think that the main thing that has improved is the way I'm looking at it the last, probably, two or three years, and obviously this year. I think it's the kind of place that if you are trying to fight against it, it's going to beat you down. So you've just got to roll with it and realize that sometimes you're going to get good breaks, like has happened to me a few times this week, and sometimes you're going to get not-so-good breaks."
Yes, at long last, Garcia sure seems to have grown into a patient and mature golfer. He handled Friday's scoreboard screw-up like old pro. He handled Saturday's chaotic comings and goings as if he were confident he'd be the last man standing on Sunday. This time, for a change, the leader Garcia was playing with, Charley Hoffman, was the one to blink. He sent his tee shot at 16 into the water.
"Sergio's a lot calmer and freer," said Garcia's caddie, Glen Murray. "I think he's come a long way."
Murray was eager to talk about that putt on 18, and for good reason: Garcia asked him to read it, to stalk it, really, and the caddie responded by doing a 360 around the ball, bending here and there as he studied the green. They both realized the magnitude of the par attempt, even if Garcia would downplay it later. It was the kind of putt Tiger Woods always made and Sergio Garcia rarely did.
"It was a big putt," Murray said. "I could see he looked at the board, so he knew he needed to make that to be in the last group. History says that being in the last group here is massive."
Murray told his boss this uphill putt needed to be sent toward the right edge of the cup. "And that's what you really want for a right-hander," Murray said. Garcia listened intently, rolled his putt on his assigned line, then pumped his right fist when the ball disappeared into the hole.
"He's just playing really well," Murray said. "Today he didn't play that great, but he hung in there, and that's what you've got to do when you're not playing your best."
On his way out of Augusta National, Garcia's father, Victor, stopped for a moment to tell a reporter he shared the caddie's assessment that his son is a changed contender. "I agree totally," Victor Garcia said through an interpreter. "I feel it and I see it. Yes, Sergio is calmer now. And that means if he keeps his focus and his calm, he has a good chance to win."
It's not going to be easy. The leaderboard is overflowing with star power, Rose has already won a major, and Jordan Spieth has already won two and is very much on a mission to redeem last year's meltdown. Garcia is 0-for-73 in the majors, and it feels like he's 0-for-200. That's the price he's paid for introducing himself to the world at age 19, at the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah, when he closed his eyes behind a tree and opened ours with a shot only a crazy and talented teenager would try.
Garcia has done a lot of deferred growing up since. He's about to get married, and he concedes he'd love nothing more than winning the Masters on what would've been the 60th birthday of one of his heroes, Seve Ballesteros.
He's got 22 top-10s in the majors, and a dozen top-5s. But the golf gods told Sergio Garcia on Saturday they're ready and willing to grant him his very first top-1. The rest of it is solely up to him.