Leap year?

Sergio Garcia was standing on the 18th green Tuesday morning at Riviera Country Club, practicing putting toward a tee he had stuck in the left, top section of the tightly mown grass.

Just then, a ball launched from the fairway landed with a thud, not more than six feet away.

Garcia looked up, startled. He saw Anthony Kim, who had hit the ball, mistakenly thinking that with the flagstick replaced, the green was cleared. Kim sought out Garcia and apologized.

But as far as nearly getting clobbered, the symbolism for Garcia was right on.

It seems like he’s always somebody’s target.

He doesn’t win enough. He doesn’t win majors. He can’t putt. He’s an underachiever. It’s quite a list, for anyone, but for a target such as Garcia, it’s a great deal to consider.

“He is the only one who can judge,” Padraig Harrington said. “Unfortunately for Sergio, he’s judged a lot.”

Now that he’s 28, Garcia really has heard it all before, a wearisome exercise in expectations that gives him little joy to recount even one more time. But he does, anyway.

“Everybody wishes they would have won more,” he said. “I still feel young at my age, and even if I never win again, I’ve had a successful career. But it’s not over, it’s still going up.

“And I’ve got a feeling something good is going to happen this year.”

What’s up with Sergio? The answers will start coming Thursday, when Garcia plays his first PGA Tour event of the year at stately Riviera, in the $6.2-million Northern Trust Open.

Seventeen of the top 20 ranked players are in the field, a statistic that includes the 12th-ranked Garcia. He feels he’s in a good place, and rushing things isn’t part of his makeup.

“I’ve got seven or eight good years easily, probably more, and I think I know where I’m heading, what direction,” he said.

In the beginning, there was no question what direction Garcia was heading.

Ever since he burst on the scene as a plucky 19-year-old, smashing a shot off a tree root and then leaping as he ran down the 16th fairway to catch sight of his ball at the 1999 PGA Championship, we’ve been waiting for him to assume a role as the most likely to challenge Tiger Woods.

There was every reason to assume it would happen. His opening 66 at Medinah Country Club made Garcia the youngest ever to lead the PGA Championship, where he finished second to Woods, but there was much more to like about Garcia.

He was the youngest Ryder Cup player ever and emerged as a stalwart on Europe’s Ryder Cup team. He was the first British Amateur champion to finish as the low amateur in the Masters. He has won 10 times worldwide and six times on the PGA Tour, and has 13 top 10s in majors.

Last year could have been his best. Garcia led the British Open after 54 holes and needed only a par on the 72nd hole at Carnoustie to finally claim his long-awaited first major title.

Instead, Garcia found a greenside bunker, his par putt missed and he wound up losing to Harrington by one shot in a four-hole playoff.

Harrington said Garcia acquitted himself well in defeat.

“You always learn more from your losses than your wins,” Harrington said. “Out here, if you don’t put yourself on the line, we could all be sitting at home watching it on TV.

“Nobody gets anywhere if you risk nothing, if you’re too afraid to lose.”

Garcia said he did learn something about himself that day at Carnoustie. “It made me tougher,” he said. “Those things can help you if you think about them the right way.”

Launching a new season at Riviera is an encouraging place to start, said Garcia, who is conducting his business a little differently on the greens for the first time this week. He’s trying a new TaylorMade Spider putter, and if it looks like he’s comfortable in his own shoes, they’re also new Adidas Tour360 Limited.

Last year, Garcia earned a career-best $3.7 million on the PGA Tour, ranked seventh with a scoring average of 69.48 and quietly improved to 11th in putting, an area that usually holds him back.

Garcia has his share of backers in his peer group, and Adam Scott is among them.

“Obviously, he was one of the most talented young players supposed to come out and challenge Tiger, and with all the expectations on him, you have to hand it to him,” Scott said. “No one’s gotten to Tiger, so you can’t blame Sergio.

“He is a big-game player, that’s what I like about him. He steps up.”

Charles Howell III said it’s wrong for anyone to decide that Garcia is an underachiever, or even worse.

“Sergio Garcia, he’s a failure. Really?” said the defending champion at Riviera. “The guy’s had a hell of a career, but in a lot of people’s eyes, he hasn’t won a major so he needs to hang it up and quit.

“In a lot of lights, he’s portrayed as a failure, or he’s portrayed as not reaching where people expect him to be, and if you pay attention to that, it can be detrimental.”

Garcia said he’s not paying attention to anything except getting off to a good start at Riviera. He is no longer interested in being a target. This time, Garcia wants to do the aiming.

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thomas.bonk@latimes.com