By 25, Mickelson had finished in the top 10 of a major three times and the American, regularly tagged the best player never to have won a major, did not break that duck until the 2004 Masters which he won at the age of 33.
Already, Garcia has eight top-10 finishes in majors, and new-found form with his putter suggests he might finally make the big breakthrough come Sunday evening.
However, history is against him. No golfer has triumphed in the US Open having won on the US Tour the previous week. And no European has won America's national championship since British hero Tony Jacklin at Hazeltine in 1970.
Yet Garcia has cured the weak link in his game, his play on the greens, after Australian Adam Scott gave him a putting tip during last week's tournament.
Garcia said: "Adam was talking to my caddie Glenn Murray and Glenn was saying I was hitting the ball well but my putting was so-so.
"So Adam gave me this little tip he used - he didn't use to be a good putter but now he is one of the best. It was mainly to do with hitting short putts, those two and three footers.
"Adam said don't worry about the stroke, just worry about seeing the ball going in the hole and getting it into your head that the ball was going to go in the hole. Like 'it's going in the hole, it's going in the hole'.
"When I tried it, it didn't matter the length or the difficulty of the putt, I knew it was going in. That freed up my stroke and I started stroking it really nicely. I just couldn't miss."
The statistics confirm that claim. Over the first 10 holes of his final round on Sunday he one-putted eight consecutive greens. Of his round of 65 he putted just 24 times.
"I've kept believing in myself," said Garcia. Maybe it is time for others to believe in him, too.
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