Graeme McDowell took advantage of the Spaniard's dodgy putting and will now play Rafael Cabrera-Bello in the next round of the Volvo World Matchplay semi-finals in Spain.
Garcia three-putted from just 20 feet to hand McDowell victory at the first extra hole of their scrappy quarter-final last night.
McDowell will now play another Spaniard Rafael Cabrera-Bello, who won the Desert Classic in February, in this morning’s semi-finals.
In the second match Scotland’s Paul Lawrie will take on the big-hitting Belgian, Nicolas Colsaerts.
And there will be a lot at stake for both Lawrie and McDowell who currently lie fifth and eighth in the qualifying table for this year’s Ryder Cup.
Should either of them collect the £560,000 winner’s cheque and 34 world-ranking points, that would guarantee their place to take on the United States at Medinah near Chicago.
But where Lawrie, aiming to play for Europe for the first time since his debut at Brookline, looked impressive in thrashing double Major winner Retief Goosen 6&5, McDowell’s golf was strewn with errors.
He topped one shot with his three wood from semi-rough beside the eighth fairway, and he three -putted from off the green at the 18th hole to let Garcia take the match into ‘extra time’.
McDowell said: “The result was a good result, because it was a weird game. We handed it back and forth to each other. It was not a quality game and I feel like I dodged a bullet. But sometimes you have to win ugly to win these events.”
Earlier in the day, Ian Poulter was knocked out of the last-16 round by Alvaro Quiros in unusual circumstances. He had spent most of the night with a foot packed in ice after it had been run over by a woman in a motorised buggy on Friday night.
Pre-tournament favourite Poulter, however, took a 4&3 beating on the chin, saying: “I’m not going to use the injury as an excuse.”
Fellow favourite Justin Rose lost to Colsaerts by the same margin.
