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You could palpably sense the tension and desperation. Outside of his solid performance last summer at the British Open, it became especially frightful when he was in contention and the stakes were raised. Garcia became the king of the irrelevant closing runs, like when he shot 67-66 on the weekend last year at Sawgrass to finish a backdoor second, even though he was never remotely in contention. When the pressure was on, like at Sawgrass in 2006, he shot a closing 78 after starting the final round one stroke behind eventual winner Stephen Ames.
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Two months ago at the Accenture Match Play Championship, he hired former tour player Stan Utley, who has become increasingly popular for his short-game and putting prowess. Whether the results have improved isn't borne out in his results or statistics, per se, but between the ears, Garcia seems less skittish.
That in itself is a marked change.
"When I talked to Stan, our main idea was to get back to the way I used to putt, like 10, 12 years ago when I was a good putter," said Garcia, who is ranked No. 18 in the world.
That statement speaks volumes about his state of mind. He knows his putting has been three counties south of poor, and he knows we know it, too.
"You know, I really like the way I'm striking it, or stroking it," he said after the round, sounding very much like he meant it. "I'm pretty happy with everything that's going on.
"There are days that are better than others. The good thing is that there are days that it's very good, so that's always something to look forward to."
A good round at Sawgrass had to do wonders for Garcia's confidence. Given the two closing rounds he posted on the weekend last year, he's a combined 17 under over his past 54 holes on the notoriously fickle Pete Dye layout.
Garcia feels that while his putting issues are not cured, at least it's not utterly undermining an otherwise superior effort.
"At least now I have some rounds where I come out and say I actually shot what I should have shot, and not come out and think, I should have been four or five shots better, which is always not very nice," he said.
Perhaps his lone wobble was when he three-jacked his 17th hole of the day, then birdied 18th from five feet.
Perhaps with some continued improvement, his putting will transition from pitiable to laughable. By that, I mean something Garcia can eventually laugh about. Two weeks ago, when Garcia showed up in Dallas with a goatee, CBS analyst David Feherty cracked that Garcia was hoping his "putter wouldn't recognize him."
Already in his 10th year as a pro, he remains a work in progress -- if not, in golf lingo, ground under repair.
"I guess when we started, there were a lot of things to work on," he said of his work with Utley. "Now there's a little less things to work on, because it keeps getting better every day."
