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PGA TOUR MEDIA CONFERENCEApril 23, 2009Sergio GarciaCHRIS REIMER: Just want to welcome all the local media and Jacksonville media onto the Sergio Garcia conference call. We're thrilled that our 2008 defending champion could join us today. Thanks for sharing your time, Sergio. Sergio finished the 2008 season ranked No. 3 in the FedExCup standings and is currently ranked No. 3 in the official World Golf ranking. I'll start off with a couple questions to get us rolling. Sergio, if you could, just go back to maybe your memories of the playoff victory and how thrilling it was to come away victorious that day. SERGIO GARCIA: Thanks, everybody, for coming to this press conference. Well, pretty much, I mean, it was like a dream come true to be able to win THE PLAYERS tournament that I've always loved, I've always enjoyed playing. Obviously, being our championship makes it even nicer. But, you know, under the conditions, the way I played that week, the way I came through on the last round towards the end, towards the back nine, it was something special. You know, I definitely think it was the kind of week that I needed to get my year jump-started. It definitely helped me a lot throughout the next six or seven months to be able to have a season as good as I had. CHRIS REIMER: Talk about the finishing three holes at the Stadium Course and what makes 16, 17 and 18 special. SERGIO GARCIA: I think the whole course is spectacular after the renovation they did and everything. It plays exactly the way the PGA TOUR wanted it to play. I think that those three holes are obviously very exciting because they're the last three and a lot can happen there. It's the kind of finish that, if you manage to play them well, you can finish maybe with a couple birdies or maybe an eagle and a birdie or something like that. But if you're just a little bit off, you can easily finish bogey, whatever, and then probably bogey or double on the last. It's just a very, very exciting finish, probably one of the most exciting finishes we have on TOUR all year. Fortunately for me I managed to do okay on those three holes throughout the tournament last year. CHRIS REIMER: We'll open it up for questions now. Q. Sergio, your first tournament at THE PLAYERS your first year wasn't so good. I'm wondering between that time and the last few years when you played the course very well, what did you learn about playing that tournament after that initial experience? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, obviously, like you said, it's a tough course. It's a course that you need to get familiarized with, you know, get to know it a little bit, get comfortable in it. I had my good years. It's the kind of course if you're struggling a little bit with your game, it can be quite a bit of a struggle because, you know, tee shots and shots into the greens have to be very accurate. If your game is on, you know that it's the kind of course that you don't need -- it's not like some of the tournaments where you need to make every putt to be in contention. You know here if you're making pars, a birdie here or there, you're still in good shape. I guess, you know, I've always felt like those kind of courses are the ones that I seem to play the best. You know, I think there's no difference why I've done well at Sawgrass, I guess. Q. What is your confidence level right now compared to going into this tournament last year? You're struggling a little bit with your putting, I think. Does coming back to someplace where you had success do wonders for somebody's confidence? SERGIO GARCIA: I would say so. It definitely does help. At the end of the day, your head is the one that has to be on and be confident with yourself and stuff. Obviously, coming back to a golf course where I've done well, it's always a little bit of a boost in confidence and stamina, you might say. I think that, you know, I'm working hard on it. It feels like I'm, you know, doing some good work. Unfortunately, you know, we've been going through a couple things throughout the past probably two or three months outside of the golf course that obviously don't help. But, you know, we're trying to make sure to move on and make sure that I can concentrate on my game and get back to where I was last year. Q. Since the end of last season, how much have you looked forward to returning to Sawgrass? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, really, I mean, I've been looking forward to returning to Sawgrass since the Sunday afternoon after they gave us the trophy. I think that I've always enjoyed -- even though the course is very difficult and very demanding, I've always enjoyed that course. It's the kind of course that kind of suits my game, suits my eye. And I feel like if my game is at a good state, you know, I can contend at that tournament. So I'm looking forward to it. Everybody, you know, friends of mine that have gone to Sawgrass, they all tell me, Oh, you should see all the things they've done there with posters of you, the room, and everything, so it's quite exciting have a chance of being there. I'm looking forward to hopefully defending my title with a good note. Q. Winning last year, that was your first victory on TOUR since 2005, what did that victory mean for your career? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I think it meant a lot, obviously for different reasons. It meant a lot, like I said before, it's THE PLAYERS Championship, it's our championship. We all love winning that tournament. You know, with the majors, it's the one that we want to win. So that was huge. Obviously, you know, it's been a couple years without victories. Feel like I should have won a good amount of tournaments, but I didn't. To be able to come through at a big stage like the Stadium Course, under the conditions we played throughout the whole week, that was huge. So it was definitely a big boost of confidence for me. Q. I read that last year, Camilo Villegas gave you a pep talk before THE PLAYERS Championship started. What did he tell you? SERGIO GARCIA: It wasn't only Camilo. It was my caddie Glen, Camilo and I. We had a chat on the Sunday of Quail Hollow tournament. It was mainly just kind of telling each other what we thought about ourselves, what we thought we should be, the confidence we should have on each other, things like that. It was definitely something that helped. You know, I'm thankful not only to Camilo but also to Glen that we had that talk. Q. You drove it great last year. You were first in driving; first in greens. You made clutch putts on Sunday. You come back with so many positive mental images to the tournament this year. How important will that be when you're actually playing this year? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, hopefully it will be very important. You never know. Unfortunately, I can't predict the future. I wish I could tell you that I saw it and I'm winning it again this year. Unfortunately, I can't do that. But I'm looking forward to it. Like we said before, coming back to a course where you've done well and you know that you enjoy playing it, it kind of suits your eye, it's always a little bit easier to go around. So I'm looking forward to it. I hope that I can play my best game and see if I have a good shot at defending my title. Q. You did it by driving and hitting greens. Paul Goydos last year was No. 1 in putting for the week. Does this prove the point that people talk about, there's no particular style of golfer that can dominate on this course; that different golfers, as long as they excel during the week, does it tell you it's a course that doesn't set up necessarily particularly for any one type of golfer? SERGIO GARCIA: Definitely, definitely. I think that's the great thing about Sawgrass and the Stadium Course. I think that the grade of difficulty, how much the course is testing you all the time, like you said there. I drove the ball great, hit a lot of greens. Paul, on the other side, didn't hit as many greens as I did, but he chipped and putted well. We both were there with a chance of winning. You know, you can get to the spot in different ways. It's just a matter of making sure that you, like you say, excel in one of them so you can have a good chance on Sunday. Q. You're 29 years old. My sense is that a lot of golf fans look at you as one of the young guns. You've been out here for a decade. Do you still look at yourself as one of the young guns on TOUR? SERGIO GARCIA: I mean, I don't know. I think that obviously, yeah, I mean, I'm 29. I don't want to say I'm old - at least not yet. But I definitely feel like -- I don't feel like a young gun. I don't feel like a guy that just came out, I might be 29, but it's like his third year on TOUR or something like that. I feel like I've been here for a while now. I've enjoyed every bit of it. I'm just looking forward to keep doing good things and see where that will get us. Q. The crowd reaction to your victory last year, you're a very popular pick to win the Championship, do you get a sense the crowd got behind you and Paul throughout the course on Sunday afternoon? SERGIO GARCIA: Yes, definitely. It was very exciting. I felt like there was a lot of people pulling for me. Obviously there were a lot of people pulling for Paul. He's a very likable guy, fun guy. You know, I think even some of the years where I've done well and I haven't won, I feel like the support they've always given me there in Jacksonville is awesome. I'm looking forward to seeing them again. Q. You ran a promotion with TaylorMade and Golfsmith where folks would get their money back on a new driver if you won the Masters. Did you notice an increase in Sergio Garcia fans during the week at Augusta? SERGIO GARCIA: I definitely noticed a lot of guys saying, Come on, you got to win this week, I want to get my driver for free and stuff. Definitely a lot of people said that. I don't know, you know, if it increased on the fan base, but definitely I heard that phrase quite a bit. Q. As you look back on last year, what was the signature moment for you on Sunday? Was it making the bomb on 14, putting it on the green in the playoff? What is the one moment you look back to? SERGIO GARCIA: I think there were a lot of big moments. I think probably one of the huge ones was the par putt on 9 because, you know, I birdied 7, I had a good shot on the next, on 8. Unfortunately I hit too straight at it, it went in the bunker. Made bogey there. Then I felt like I played 9 well. Unfortunately, the ball kind of ran through the green and went into the back bunker. I think that par putt there kind of put me down. I said, This is the kind of putt I need to get myself going and hopefully have a good solid back nine. Obviously the putt on 14 was very big. But, you know, also was the one on 18, too, to have a chance of getting to a playoff. The biggest one I think probably was 9. It was the one that kept my round going. And then obviously 18 was huge, too. Q. You and Camilo, have you spoken about what you talked about a year ago since then? What kind of led to that conversation? What made you start talking that seriously about y'all's careers? SERGIO GARCIA: No, we haven't really talked much about it. I think that it was pretty much at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, we were talking a little bit. I was a little bit down because I felt like things weren't really happening. You know, we just sat down after dinner, him, my caddie and I, and he started telling me, I see you hit balls on the range. He says, Nobody hits the ball better than you. You should be so much better. You shouldn't be worse than No. 2 or 3 in the world. The way you hit the ball, you should be like that. So just believe that you can do it. Just believe in your ability and stuff. It definitely helped, so... I'm glad we had that talk. Q. I wanted to talk a little bit more about what you've been working on since the Masters. Are you going to stick with the belly putter for the time being? What exactly have you been encouraged about the most when you've been practicing since then? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I do have it. I'm going to travel with it. I don't know if I'm going to use it. I'm trying something that I wanted to try for a while, see how it felt. I've been putting with it for the past week and stuff and it feels pretty good. You know, it's a belly putter, but I've kind of cut it down a little bit. So it's shorter than a belly putter, but it's longer than a normal putter. Like when I grip it, it's got like probably an extra four or five inches of grip that come out. It kind of helps me load the face, yeah, like the club face of the putter. The problem I have usually, Stan and I, we've been working a lot, is that sometimes my grip kind of moves too much back and forward. So instead of kind of letting the face of the club do the work, you know, I kind of do it with the top of the putter. That's when I lose all my power and then my speed gets bad and my confidence kind of goes down a little bit. So I've been trying this, and it feels like it's been helping me a little bit. So I'm looking forward to try it in Quail Hollow and see how it works there. Q. Could you talk about your preparation, now that you're defending champion at THE PLAYERS, if it's changed over the past few years going into Quail Hollow, leading up into the week of the tournament as well? SERGIO GARCIA: No, it hasn't really changed. I think usually we play, now that it is in May, Quail Hollow the week before. It's a great golf course, you know, a great tournament to play, very enjoyable. We go there, it's always a good test. So I think that's a great preparation for THE PLAYERS. You know, that's the same thing we're doing this year and we're looking forward to hopefully make it work. CHRIS REIMER: Just wanted to follow up with one last question. We talked about the promotion at the Masters with the driver. Now we have a promotion here at THE PLAYERS Championship where we get to choose what you wear. They didn't take into consideration the clothes that I wanted to put on you. There's three good outfits, about 26,000 votes. Fans can vote online at PGA TOUR.com. I'm wondering if you have a favorite or if you are excited to see what the fans choose for you. SERGIO GARCIA: I'm just excited to see what they choose. I'm sure that if it would be up to the fans, there would be some funky outfits out there. I'm looking forward to see. All three are nice. I'm looking forward to see what actually comes around, what I have to wear on Friday. CHRIS REIMER: Congratulations again on your victory last year. I know the fans here in the Jacksonville area, as well as all the staff on the PGA TOUR, are happy to have you come back as defending champion. SERGIO GARCIA: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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