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ABU DHABI HSBC CHAMPIONSHIP

January 15, 2020

Sergio Garcia

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

CLARE BODEL: Sergio, welcome back to Abu Dhabi and here at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship presented by EGA. How does it feel to be back?

SERGIO GARCIA: It's been good. We got here Monday afternoon. A little bit of jet-lag, but played nine holes yesterday. Course looks nice. Obviously quite a bit of rain late last week. But other than that, it looks just a couple changes from 2014 I guess that I saw on the front nine, a couple greens here and there. Maybe a new tee here and there. Other than that, yeah, looks good, and excited to start the year hopefully the best way possible.

CLARE BODEL: This is a place you've done well. You've never finished out of the top 20, and you've won in the desert before, obviously in Qatar and Dubai, which started off a pretty special year for you. Feeling pretty confident playing here?

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I feel good..

I've been practising hard and like I said earlier, I'm excited for it. Obviously it's a very good tournament to start with, the year, and a nice run of tournaments the next couple of weeks, and then go back to the U.S.

So hopefully we can see some results, some good results on all the hard work we've been putting on and have a good year because it's a big year and we're obviously looking forward to it.

Q. Do you feel 40, and if you do, what feels different?
SERGIO GARCIA: To be totally honest, no, I don't, which is probably a good thing. But you know, I've never been -- I've never really been big on like birthday celebrations or anything like that. Obviously we do celebrate them, don't get me wrong, but you know, 40, to me, it's just one more than 39. Angela, my wife, Angela, did make me a surprise party that I totally expected, because I talked to her and she asked me about it, and I was like, no, I don't really need anything. Just dinner with a couple of friends and that's it. It was a little bit more than a couple friends, but it was a great surprise.

But yeah, I feel good. I feel like physically I feel healthy. I feel good. I'm excited to, like I said earlier, hopefully see some good results as the year goes on with all the work that we've been putting in.

Q. When you won your Masters, we thought probably you kicked the door open and the second major would follow. I'm sure you felt the same. Does it make it perhaps more urgent now as you look into your 40s and think, I need this more than ever?
SERGIO GARCIA: Not really. I think that obviously like I said before it happened, before I won the Masters, my career already I felt like was a great career before winning the Masters. Obviously after winning the Masters, it's even better, and with everything I've been able to do worldwide and Ryder Cup-wise and stuff.

So it's not -- I mean, don't get me wrong. I would love to get the second one and hopefully more. Like I said, I've been fortunate with physically I've been good throughout my whole career, so that gives me opportunities of playing a lot of majors like I have done for all these years, and hopefully I'll give myself some more good options. That's what I'm working for.

But like I said earlier, it's not like do-or-die. If we get the second or the third or whatever, it will be great, but if it doesn't, I'm happy with everything that's gone on in my life.

Q. We've seen a common thread of players who win in the desert early go on to have career-defining years, yourself, Shane last year, Tommy Fleetwood the year before.
SERGIO GARCIA: Danny Willett.

Q. Is there something about winning in January that gives a player momentum?
SERGIO GARCIA: Definitely. It's just positive. Any time you can start the year like that, it's great. It's a positive start. It gives you a lot of confidence. It kind of probably takes a little bit of pressure off knowing that you've already got a win.

But even if you don't, you know, if you have two or three good, solid weeks where you're contending, where you're playing well and you can see that what you're doing, it's going in the right direction, that's already a win.

But any time you can start with, you know, with a win around this course and good fields that we have every single week, it's obviously extra positive.

Q. Are you in a new equipment situation heading into 2020?
SERGIO GARCIA: I am, yeah. Unfortunately our relationship with Callaway didn't go any farther. So at the moment, I'm a free agent. So I'm playing whatever I feel that -- feels best for me or fits me best. That's where we are and that's what I've been working on this Christmas break.

You know, looking forward to hopefully show that we're going the right track.

Q. Is that a scenario that you wanted heading into the new year?
SERGIO GARCIA: I wouldn't particularly say that, but you know, there's things happen, and obviously many of the things that Callaway wanted me to do, I couldn't agree to them. Unfortunately we thought the best thing to do was to go our separate ways.

It's all good. There's no hard feelings by any side, and these things happen. You know, at the end of the day, what I want to do is go out there and enjoy what I do, try to do it to the best of my ability, and they are also trying to get the best equipment they can get. Unfortunately just it wasn't the fit that we thought it would be for me, and you know, we just move on from there.

Q. It would have been easy for you to not play Saudi Arabia this year after what happened last year. I just wonder, what were your reasons for going back there?
SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I think that obviously you know, I feel terrible about what happened last year. Obviously there were some outside things that got me to that point.

You know, I want to go there. I want to show my respect to them. You know, the easy thing would have been for me to hide and never come back there, but I love the people there, and I love the guys, all the people we met and the Sheikh and everyone that takes care of us during the tournament. They are amazing people, and they wanted me to go back.

So that was an easy decision, and I'm excited to go back there. Show myself, show the true Sergio, and show them my respect and try to play the best that I can, and hopefully have a great tournament.

CLARE BODEL: Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Sergio.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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