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CIMB CLASSICOctober 29, 2014Sergio GarciaKUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA CHRIS REIMER: We want to welcome and thank Sergio Garcia for joining us here they media center at the CIMB Classic. Coming back to Malaysia, talk about this event and why playing in this area of the world is important for players like yourself and the PGA TOUR. SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I think it's obviously nice to be back here in Kuala Lumpur. The course is a little bit soft, but it's in great shape again. Obviously after last year, it was a great experience. It was an easy decision to come back here. I think like you mentioned, it's nice to come around these parts of the world and get to play a little bit now at the end of the year. I've always said it; I feel like I'm a global player, and that obviously extends to Asia and all parts of the world. I try to move around as much as I can, and these next three or four weeks are going to be very interesting. Q. On the travel schedule, you seem to be a player who travels well. A lot of the guys who play on the PGA TOUR recently are coming out to event like this, it's a relatively new thing for them. Do you give them advice on how best to adjust to travel? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I think being European and playing the European Tour, that obviously moves a lot more than the PGA TOUR. You kind of get used to some of these traveling experiences, I guess. But I think at the end of the day, it's just a matter of getting used to it and trying to take it with the best attitude possible. Obviously probably the hardest thing is getting used to the jet lag and stuff like that, but when you come‑‑ when you have the possibility of coming to new countries, new places that you've never been, I think it's always a great experience, and that's the way everybody should take it. Q. Your win in Johor, which I think was last year or the year before was a great event for you, and for us it was terrific for you to be here. How do you compare the golf course in Johor with the one here and the golf courses that you've played on in Malaysia generally speaking? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I wouldn't say‑‑ I don't think it's too different, this golf course, from the one in Johor. Maybe, I don't know, I think maybe it's got a little bit more movement, this one. But the one in Johor also had some up and downs and stuff like that. I think the type of golf course, it's fairly similar, two fun courses to play. I think that they're the kind of courses that give you a lot of different options. You can be really, really aggressive if you want or a little bit more conservative and then give yourself longer shots into the greens. But they're two solid golf courses and two nice tournaments to go and play. Q. As well as travel is an issue for a lot of players these days, how much rest to give themselves. You've had a bit of a gap since the Ryder Cup, other players have been out playing. How do you make your decisions as a global player where to play and when and how much? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, like you said, obviously I travel a bit more than most guys on the PGA TOUR because I play on both Tours, so I try to pick my spots as well as I can, make sure that I go through stretches where I play but also through some stretches of maybe two, three or four weeks off like I just had, mainly because, like I said before, obviously traveling is nice, but it also takes energy out of you, and sometimes you need to disconnect a little bit and kind of recharge those batteries. I think that it's just a matter of finding what clicks for you. Everybody is different. There's some guys that like to play more, there's some guys that like to play less, but it's just a matter of finding what feels like better for you. Q. I just wanted to get your perspective on playing the majors. You came close several times before, and you're a little older now. Has your perspective or would you think that your approach would be different as you go into 2015? SERGIO GARCIA: No, I wouldn't say so. I think that my approach is still the same. It's still trying to go every week, and obviously majors are no different, trying to play the best I can, trying to put myself in a situation to have a solid chance at winning, like I've done in the past, and then try to perform as well as I can then. It sounds simpler than maybe it is, but it's pretty much that. Q. Any particular favorite holes on this course or a hole that sets up really well for you? SERGIO GARCIA: I don't know. There's some fun holes out there. I think there's a couple new tees. Obviously the 12th hole is a lot tougher now without being able to carry the bunkers. I think the 11th hole is a nice par‑3, quite difficult. But you get a nice mix of holes with water where you can make birdies or even an eagle, and if you struggle a little bit, you can easily make a bogey. You can see some big swings in some of these holes. Q. Golf is a rare sport because of the length of careers. We had Davis Love in here who at age 50 is still out competing on the PGA TOUR. It allows players to be exposed or even play alongside some of their heroes. Do you have any memories growing up of one of your golf heroes, one of your mentors kind of taking you aside or a story where you had to pinch yourself because of who you were with or where you were? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, obviously I had the pleasure of playing with Olazábal and Seve when I was growing up, just as a professional. It's great to be able to‑‑ I think that's one of the most amazing things that you get in golf. That you're 13 or 14 and you're seeing all these great players play when they're in their mid‑30s or 40s, and you can't really have a chance of doing that and being able to play when you're 20 with guys that are 45 or 50 in really any other sport. It's great to be able to have that opportunity and obviously learn from them and get some of your dreams come true by playing with them and get some nice insights and some nice advice from all those players. Q. You play on both tours, you have a home on both continents. What do you consider yourself to be, European or American or‑‑ where is your real home? SERGIO GARCIA: No, I'm definitely European. Well, I mean, my home is in Switzerland. Obviously I've been living there since 2002. There and Spain, obviously, that kind of feels a little bit like home, too, growing up there and being Spanish. But like I said before, we're obviously very fortunate to be able to travel the world and do what we love, which is playing golf and make some people happy with it, other than ourselves, and hopefully be able to do it for many more years. Q. You've come from the Ryder Cup to here and you find yourself in a group with Lee Westwood and Patrick Reed. Does it bring back some fond memories? Are you still on a high from that Ryder Cup? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I guess so. I guess there's still a lot of memories coming from four weeks ago at the Ryder Cup. It was, like always, an amazing experience. It's going to be fun to be able to play with both of them. Obviously I'm quite friendly with Lee, so it should be good fun to be able to play with both, and hopefully we'll be playing well. Q. Do you prefer match play or stroke play? SERGIO GARCIA: I guess we play stroke play pretty much all year‑round. We have three or four tournaments where we play match play. It's nice to change it up here and there. I think that at the end of the day, stroke play is probably the fairest kind of thing for all year‑round, but it's good fun to be able to play match play here and there and play with a different kind of mentality sometimes. Q. 90 percent of the world's golfers, the amateurs are always playing match play. SERGIO GARCIA: That's true. As an amateur, yeah, your tournaments, there's a lot of match play events that you play as an amateur, and also when you're back at home, too, you pretty much play match play all the time. You know, it's good fun to be able to do it once in a while, but I guess we get a taste of match play a little bit here and there. Maybe not as much as stroke play, obviously, but at the end of the day, I think stroke play is nicer for the people to be able to see everybody throughout the whole day, throughout the whole tournament, instead of just one or two rounds. Q. You've played golf a lot in Asia in the past decade or so. How much‑‑ what are the changes that you've seen that have taken place on this side of the world here? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I think you can definitely see that the people are a lot more involved into the game. You can see that the awareness level is much higher than it was maybe 15, 20 years ago, so it's nice to see that obviously all the Asians are getting into the game a lot more, and you start to see a lot more Asian players playing on both the PGA TOUR and the European Tour, and that's great. It's a great market to grow and to bring up, and hopefully we'll be able to keep our level up, because in some years, it might take over. CHRIS REIMER: Thank you, Sergio. Good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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