BUICK CLASSIC MEDIA DAY

May 7, 2002

Sergio Garcia

Q. Sergio, coming back to the Buick Classic, as the defending champion, I know you want to defend your championship but how much are you using that as a tuneup for the following week?

SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I mean, we have always said it, of course, on the kind of course that we play at Westchester is a great warmup for the Open, but I wouldn't to take it as that. The Buick Classic is a great tournament. You have got to take it as that, as just a good tournament that you go out there and try to win. And then over that; plus that, it's a great tuneup for the U.S. Open. So it gets both in the same package, so it is nice.

Q. You haven't been out at Bethpage yet?

SERGIO GARCIA: No.

Q. What have you heard and what do you anticipate the USGA to do there?

SERGIO GARCIA: I heard it is a good course. I heard it is a very nice course. The greens are quite flat, I heard, so that's a little different from what we're used to in U.S. opens. But I heard that you can get a lot of long bunker shots around the green, so those are difficult always, and a good test. I am expecting a hard course to be played on as every U.S. Open and a good thrill to go there and try to do well.

Q. Any concern about wearing yourself out the week before the Open? Westchester is not an easy tournament to play; maybe not only for you, but for everybody in general?

SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I have played twice, I think and I have done well twice, so I really like the golf course, but I think that you know, it can wear you out a little because of how tough the course plays. Depending also on the weather.

JAMES CRAMER: If you can give us a few comments about your victory at Westchester Country Club last year then we'll Open it to the media here for questions.

SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I think it was great. I got in a great round after starting at this tournament, the Byron Nelson and won Colonial as you all know and almost won the U.S. Open and then went to the Buick and I won there, played some great golf. But it's really a tournament that I have always enjoyed. I have played it twice. I have done really well. I felt like last year I felt -- SORRY, two years ago I felt like I should have won that Buick Classic when I messed it up on 11 and everything that happened after that. And missed the playoff by one, I think, so -- but it's really a tournament that I have always enjoyed and I really like that kind of course. So I am looking forward to coming back and defending my title too.

JAMES CRAMER: Wonderful. Now if the media who have questions please raise your hand, we have to take it to the microphones so Sergio can hear you in Dallas.

Q. Sergio, what is your thinking about playing in an event like the Westchester right before a major as is the case this year? Does it help that the major is right nearby or do you usually --do you prefer to play in a tournament right before a major; what is your thinking on that?

SERGIO GARCIA: Usually I try not to play the week before a major just to be as fresh as I can be, but playing the Buick Classic at Westchester it is a tournament that I don't mind playing even if it's before a major, so I think it's a great tournament first of all, I am the defending champion, so that's always good, and I think it can be a good tuneup for the U.S. Open too. So it can be perfect.

Q. Earlier in the year you talked about wanting to win both money titles. As this year has gone on, how do you feel your chances are and do you back off of that at all --

SERGIO GARCIA: Not at all. That is the main goal. I started, if you guys remember, I said it too, I said that I know the goal I set to myself is a tough one, it's really difficult but I think if I set myself the biggest goal I feel like I can achieve. If I don't get to that, if I get as close as I can get, it's going to be a great year. So the highest the goal the more you ask for yourself to try to play well and win tournaments, so I think by having that goal, it helps me get my golf to the highest level I can try to get it.

Q. Are you happier being content being one of the world's 10 best players or do you feel you need to be No. 1 and if that's your goal, how far away do you think you are from being the No. 1 golfer in the world?

SERGIO GARCIA: Of course I want to become the No. 1 player in the world. Right now it's pretty tough because you know, Tiger has so many points. He's playing quite well too, but I really feel like I have been improving a lot. My game is really coming along nicely. I just got to keep working hard and just give myself that chance of becoming No. 1 in the world. I know it can take some time, but we're still young.

Q. You like the course at Westchester Country Club. What is it specifically you like about it?

SERGIO GARCIA: I like the way it plays. More than anything, when it is nice and firm like it was two years ago, I really love the way it plays because it plays nice and tough, winning score is usually high, and then you know, the greens are usually small and when they get firm it is tough to hit the greens, tough to hit the fairways and that is the kind of golf I like to play. I like to play tournaments where winning score usually is between 10-under par and even par, so and I think that those kind of tournaments are the ones that ask you for your best golf. It is not just like a putting contest or something like that.

Q. You said you want to be No. 1. Is it disappointing at all that the Buick Classic has shifted dates this year, it's the week before the U.S. Open and as it appears right now, the No. 1 player in the world won't be there to test yourself against like last year?

SERGIO GARCIA: Well it's a pity, you always want to play against him and try to beat him. It gets that much sweeter, but you know, I am going to be playing, so that's what I care about. It's just -- of course because of him not playing the field is not as good, but it can still be a great field. It is just missing one player.

Q. First-time winners this year like last week, why are we seeing so many guys breaking through? The Mickelson players like you are playing well but we're not seeing anybody dominating this year...

SERGIO GARCIA: I have always said it, I think the level is just leveling up. Everybody is getting better and newcomers and the guys who have been around for a while, they are not afraid of playing well, and winning tournaments and they know they can do it. That's the best thing that can happen for the Tour. The more competitive it is, the nicer it is for the people to watch. So I think it's getting very good at that.

Q. Sergio, your exuberance on the golf course has made you one of the most fun players to watch. But in the past year you seem maybe just a touch more reserved. Is that just a function of being out on Tour for a couple of years now or just getting older?

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, probably it is you get a little older, you know how to control your reactions, and yourself a little better and stay a little calmer. I don't get too angry when you are not doing well and don't get too happy when you are doing well. That just gets with experience and time, and I think -- but I am still the same guy. I am still having a lot of fun out there and just try to enjoy it as much as I can.

Q. Off the beaten path a little bit, wondering how you would characterize your relationship with Martina Hingis and what her support of you is and kind of where your tennis game is compare to hers as opposed to her golf game with yours?

SERGIO GARCIA: I will start with the tennis and the golf. I think that my tennis game is better than her golf game, thank God. So I am better at that. But no, I think it has been great. She's -- I think we have helped each other a lot, and we understand each other, so that's always a good thing and it's not easy to find it in a girl, myself or in a boy to herself, so -- but it has been fun and just hope it keeps working.

Q. Talking about the last year, rain played havoc with the tournament for a couple of days. You wound up winning on a Monday. How difficult or different is that?

SERGIO GARCIA: It was different, and we didn't know what was going to happen because it was supposed to come down on Monday too. We didn't know whether we were going to play or not. But I think it was my first Monday win ever, so it was good fun, but you are always, I don't know, standing there and thinking what is going to happen and are we going to play, are we not going to play, so little things that go through your head, but it just felt like a Sunday. It didn't feel like a Monday, you know, when you are on the golf course you know it's the last day and you just try to play as good as you can to give yourself to be able to win.

Q. Are you concerned about playing a course that's physically demanding the week before the Open at the Black course which is another physically demanding up-and-down golf course, do you think maybe Westchester might take a little something out of you for the Open?

SERGIO GARCIA: Strong as a bull. (Laughs). No, I think that you work out and you try as hard as you can to be fit enough, and to play around the Tour, so of course, Westchester is -- it is a demanding golf course, and it probably takes something out of you, but then you have three days to rest and get back in shape and get ready for the Open.

Q. With regard to the Open, Sergio, have you seen Bethpage yet? Have you had a chance --

SERGIO GARCIA: I have not.

Q. What have you heard about it and when do you plan to get out there?

SERGIO GARCIA: Well I plan to get out there on Monday before the tournament, if we don't have any rain delays or something like that, like last year. But I heard a lot of good things. I heard that for a change at a US Open we have flat greens so that's going to be different, but I am sure that the USGA is going to just set up the course nice and tough as they always do, probably get -- I heard you can get a lot of long bunker shots into the greens, so looking forward to see what we can do there.

Q. You talked about playing the week before the Open. I understand obviously that you are the defending champion, but in regards to the fact that people really haven't seen Bethpage you probably won't have had much practice time prior to the weekend before, are you concerned at all about missing that sort of practice time that while you are playing in the Buick you might have as much time to prepare for the Open?

SERGIO GARCIA: No, I don't think so. I think I will be in great shape for the Open. Hopefully the weather is good, you can't get a better course to prepare for the Open than Westchester. Because it can play so similar to a US Open course and it can be really good, but even if I wasn't playing the Buick Classic, I don't think I would go any earlier to Bethpage. I don't really like to practice -- I think, two or three days is enough to practice on a golf course, and you can see anything you have to see.

JAMES CRAMER: Let's thank Sergio Garcia for taking time out of his schedule to join us here at Buick Classic Media Day. Good luck down there in Dallas. See you next month.

Q. Tough schedule coming up -- (inaudible) --

SERGIO GARCIA: I have always enjoyed playing this tournament (Buick Classic) and you know, I got to defend and I am looking forward to playing next week, and I have always really liked Muirfield Village and Jack is, I don't think that you can miss Jack's tournament. It is just a great tournament to play in. It can be a little rough but after that we'll take a little rest and get ready for the British Open.

Q. When you take a rest that week during the Kemper week where do you go? You obviously don't go back to Spain for one --

SERGIO GARCIA: I don't know, I might more than anything because I just -- when I take a rest I want to take a rest from everything, not just golf, I want to take a rest from the states, I want -- because I feel like because my friends aren't here, my real friends aren't here and even if I stay in the states, I don't get out of the atmosphere, the golf atmosphere, and you know, when you take a rest I want to get out of it. So when I come back I am charged and I am looking forward to doing it. If I stay here in the states, it will feel like I won't be playing a tournament, it will feel like -- so I will go to Buick Classic thinking, well, this is my fifth week in a row. Even if it is a little trip, I will just take a nice nap on the plane and make it short.

Q. You said that even if you didn't play Buick you won't go to Bethpage and practice. Have you learned this over time that there's such a thing as overthinking a golf course?

SERGIO GARCIA: That's the thing, I -- you know, I realize that I used to when I came out I used to play Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday 18 holes every day, and I don't think you need that. I think that 36 holes you have more than enough time to see everything that you want around the golf course, and sometimes it's not -- not good to play too much because then you see things that you don't want to see. You know more than once, more than once I have played a tournament I have finished the tournament; all of a sudden I have got there the next year and I have seen a hazard, and out-of-bounds that I didn't even know was there, so if you don't know it's there, you don't have to think about it. I think two practice rounds is more than enough. If you play the course before -- I haven't played Bethpage but if you have played the course before some of the tournaments we play, you know you don't really need just -- you need one or one and a half rounds to see if there's any changes.

Q. Winning a couple of weeks ago, with success here, are people asking you about the waggle less?

SERGIO GARCIA: I think it's just gotten smaller and smaller. I don't know. I have always told you it's something that you guys cared a lot about it, and I don't think it's that big of a deal. I have worked on getting more comfortable over the ball, and because of doing it less but it's really not something that bothers me.

Q. You work with a sports psychologist at all?

SERGIO GARCIA: No. I have tried a little more than anything for my putting because I have been putting badly at the beginning of the year and then after Hawaii then I start hitting -- I was hitting bad putts and then I started putting, hitting good putts and at the Masters and worked hard at it at Hilton Head and Spanish Open, and I felt like I talked to my dad and he said I don't see anything wrong in your stroke, so if you are just not making putts it must be something else. But I don't know, we just started and we'll see how it goes and if I feel comfortable about it, I will keep going. If not, just stay by myself.

Q. It seems like starting with the Southern Hills last year every major you have kind of been around, there has been this --

SERGIO GARCIA: Not the PGA.

Q. Throw that one out.

SERGIO GARCIA: Shot a good round first round then screwed it up.

Q. Are you finding yourself not only more comfortable but more confident at each major?

SERGIO GARCIA: For sure, yeah. I think a lot of it has to do with my driving. I think my irons got a lot better. But my driving has just been extremely good, and in those kind of tournaments, if you are driving the ball well, and you are able you feel like you can hit more drives and holes that some of the guys can, it is just-- it gives you an advantage, so starting with that, you are able to build some confidence that can really help you do well in those kind of tournaments and every kind of tournament.

Q. When was the turning point with your driver?

SERGIO GARCIA: I have always drove the ball well, but I started -- when the ProV1 came out it really did more than anything because I felt like I didn't have to try to rip it every time, just tried to rip it with the draw. Now I work the ball a lot more with the driver; hit nice fades when I feel like I have to hit a fade in the hole and you know, a nice draw when I want to, but more than anything I don't feel like I have to hit driver so many times. So that takes a lot of pressure out of it. That has been a big help.

Q. Do you feel like people underestimate how straight you hit the ball with your driver, I mean, Seve and Jose, weren't known as straight drivers; people probably think that you are friends and their protege; and that you are not as straight off the tee. Do you think that's a fair assessment?

SERGIO GARCIA: I don't know. It's funny you mention it, but it is kind of like that way, people because of seeing Seve and Jose they think that Spanish plays can't drive the ball so it's funny but it is that way, I have always felt since I was very little I have always felt like I was a very good driver of the ball. It has been -- I have always said it is one of my favorite clubs, and you know when you have the driver as your friend, it always helps a lot. But yeah, sometimes they do think that I don't drive the ball as well as I do.

Q. We all know your dad was influential in your swing and everything. But talk about when -- at what age did you start realizing about course management and learning how to manage a course and what did you do to become so good at that?

SERGIO GARCIA: I think you get that with experience and with knowing the course you are playing at and knowing what kind of shot you can hit because I feel like sometimes people just want to hit a shot that they don't feel comfortable with and you know, that could be bad management, bad course management, you can realize those things of course as you get older, you learn what your best shot is and you learn what you really can hit in some holes, so I don't know, I think it's something I have worked my whole life without even noticing and it is just getting better and better.

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