Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia will battle demons of blown majors past at the U.S. Open

Sport, when it is most compelling, is no different than theatre. Both require a conquering hero, the victor -- and another -- sometimes relatable, sometimes detestable -- that continually takes the most painful and heartbreaking of losses.

For the better part of the last 20 years, Tiger Woods has been and still is the game’s transcendent superstar -- a more than adequate hero. There’s a host of young stars, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, now gunning to replace him. There have been the complimentary stars -- the David Duvals, the Vijay Singhs, the Padraig Harringtons, the Phil Mickelsons -- guys with name recognition and sometimes-polarizing personas that grabbed a few majors between them, but could never sustain the dominance that the Big Cat was able to provide over the same era. If the trifecta of 20-somethings are collectively the New Tiger, Bubba Watson seems destined to fall into that group as time goes on, too.

Then there’s Sergio Garcia and Dustin Johnson -- golf’s snakebitten should-be stars.

For nearly the same period that Woods’ shadow has cast over the game, Garcia and Johnson have provided the sport with more heartbreaking what-ifs at major championships than any other duo, only to come up completely empty between the two. The Spaniard was first, bursting onto the scene in 1999 at just 19 years old in his famous PGA Championship duel with Tiger at Medinah.

This was supposed to signal the arrival of Tiger’s True Peer.

Then he lost. Then he won six times on Tour between 2001-2005, but none coming at a major championship. But that was fine, maybe expected, he was a 25-year-old with six Tour wins. That’s a better career than most Tour players will have six times over. After Phil Mickelson got off the board in 2004, he got tabbed with the Best Player Never To Win A Major title. At 25, that’s more compliment than slight. The majors were sure to come. Eventually.

Then he spit in a cup. Then he bogeyed the 72nd hole at the 2007 British Open, allowing Padraig Harrington into a playoff that he’d lose. Then he blew a back-nine lead to Harrington again at the 2008 PGA Championship. The petulant choker narrative became real, even in Garcia’s own words. Never afraid to speak candidly, he said in 2012 that he shouldn’t even bother playing for first place at majors -- just second or third -- because he didn’t have the game to win one. At the time, it was a jarring statement from a guy one could argue had been golf’s best ballstriker for a decade -- and yes, that includes that Woods guy.

Still, somehow, Garcia has managed to slide out of the starring choker role in recent years -- thanks to the spectacular collapses of one Dustin Johnson.

There was his Sunday implosion at Pebble Beach at the 2010 U.S. Open. There was the bunker-that-wasn’t-that-was on the 72nd later that year at the PGA Championship, leading to a triple bogey when a mere par would have given him the title. A tie for second at the 2011 British Open. Then, the Three Putt, last year.

But where Garcia speaks openly about his past struggles, Johnson is enigmatic. As a golf media member, there two items each week that are futile wastes of time. The first is attempting to pick a winner on any given week. The second is attempting to extract any sort of meaningful comment out of Dustin Johnson. Whether by nature or design, the big-hitter walls off most anyone outside his inner circle, as well as anyone to walk the Tour. Can he win a major championship, or major championships? Heck yes, he’s arguably the best dang driver of the golf ball in the world. Does he believe he can? I have no idea -- exactly how Dustin Johnson would like it.

For both Garcia and Johnson, there’s still plenty of time for a script to be written that justifies the talent between the two. Neither is the 20-something young gun they once were, but Garcia’s only 36 and Johnson will turn 32 next week. Each could still play golf at a high level for another decade-plus. Even if both falter this weekend, the odds that both players still end up with multiple major titles aren’t exactly long with the talent they possess.

But there might not be a better time to get the first than this week.

Sure, there are players like Jim Furyk, Louis Oosthuizen, Adam Scott, and Zach Johnson lurking on down the leaderboard with major championship pedigrees as we turn to the final two rounds at Oakmont. But with the world’s Big Three essentially all but ejected from competition, golf’s two hard-luck superstars have the opportunity to turn a messy start at the U.S. Open to a memorable one over the final two rounds.

And if they’re able to walk together on Sunday, they’ll be able to look across the fairway at a person that is oh-so-opposite -- but a career path and a pain that is all too similar.