Two straight rounds of 1-under 70 have Sergio Garcia thinking about what might have been. (Lindquist/Getty Images)

Early errors loom as too much to overcome

LA JOLLA, Calif. (AP) -- Imagine where Sergio Garcia would be if he hadn't made such a mess of his first seven holes at the U.S. Open.

The tournament had barely started on Thursday and Garcia already was in danger of missing the cut. Two double bogeys put him 6 over before he'd even made his first turn.

Sergio has been surging ever since, going 3 under on his last 47 holes, including consecutive rounds of 1-under 70 on Friday and Saturday at Torrey Pines' South Course.

Garcia was tied with Mike Weir, Ernie Els and John Merrick at 3-over 216 going into Sunday's final round. That was six shots behind Tiger Woods, who had a 70 on a sore left knee on Saturday to take the lead at 3-under 210. A lot of ground to make up, for sure, especially considering Woods has never lost a major from the lead.

Recovering from his early mistakes has been nice. Garcia wishes they'd never happened.

"That definitely wasn't the plan, I can tell you that," said the Spaniard, who just flat-out missed fairways and greens in his first seven holes. "But, yeah, you know, when you're comfortable with your game, when you have confidence in your game, you know you can come back."

Garcia's only bogeys Saturday were on Nos. 6 and 8, sandwiched around the first of three birdies.

"I would love to be a couple better, just to make sure that I was a little closer," he said. "But, you know, every time you shoot under par here you shouldn't be too greedy, I guess. So it's not too bad, and that's what I did the last few days. Unfortunately I just had a bad start on Thursday. But I'm slowly coming back."

Garcia had a nice birdie on the par-5 13th, the hole where Phil Mickelson imploded with a quadruple-bogey 9 and Woods wowed the crowd with an eagle.

Garcia hit a strong drive just down the right side of the fairway, a 5-iron that landed short of the pin and ran about 25 feet beyond, then two-putted for birdie.

"It's getting there," Garcia said. "Like I said, I played very nicely yesterday. I felt very, very good yesterday. Today I felt like I hit a lot of good shots, maybe not as many as yesterday, but it's not easy. It's a U.S. Open. That's why it's a major. But I'm pretty happy and looking forward to hopefully having a good finish tomorrow."