MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 9, 2024

Sergio Garcia

Quick Quotes

.

Q. How did he look out there and what do you think about his game?

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, it was good. I never met him before, but really nice kid. Obviously a good player. He hits it just like a lot of these youngsters nowadays. He hits it a long ways, but pretty consistent. Feels like mostly maybe a little bit of a fade, but (audio interruption).

Q. What did you tell him?

SERGIO GARCIA: (Audio interruption) just going on a little bit about the course and (audio interruption) nothing out of the ordinary.

Q. He won the Latin America Amateur Championship to get here. Talk about that tournament and specifically the opportunity (audio interruption).

SERGIO GARCIA: It's great. (Audio interruption) seven or eight, something like that. It's nice to see Augusta giving the possibility of really good amateurs to come and experience what a Masters is and what it represents.

I think that's something to be very proud of, and he should be very happy to have the opportunity.

Q. Can you talk about that, obviously playing here as an amateur and you went on to win the tournament. What does that experience do for a kid like Santiago to towards his quest to one day hopefully win here?

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, it's great. It's a great experience. It's something that (indiscernible) having the possibility of playing it and then obviously winning it (audio interruption). He's already achieving one of those goals, now he's just got to keep playing well, keep playing hard, keep practicing hard, get himself out here as many times as possible to he can have as many chances as possible to win it.

Q. He didn't really seem intimidated out there. Obviously he was with three very big players in your group today and he kind of fit right in. Talk about his attitude and mentality at a place like this.

SERGIO GARCIA: I think kids nowadays, they're more prepared than maybe we were in the earlier days. Also at the same time, I think the group that he was playing with today was quite easy to be around. That's the way we tried to make him feel. It's nice to see new guys, new kids coming out and playing, and hopefully he enjoyed the day with us.

Q. Jon was asked if he's nervous about this week and he says the thing he's most nervous about is that all the past champions enjoy his menu. I imagine you'll be looking forward to that menu.

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, definitely, definitely. It looks great. I think everyone is going to love it.

At the end of the day, you're putting everything you can in there, and you can't control what everybody is going to think of it.

But he's doing it the best way possible, and it looks great. I'm sure it's going to be amazing.

Q. Do you share the thoughts of a lot of people that the game needs to come together and unify, or are you kind of past the point of caring about it all?

SERGIO GARCIA: I think the game is in a perfect spot. The professional game, maybe it's a little more separated, mostly because of the media, not so much because of the players. But I think the game itself is in a great spot.

I think that we have the most amount of people playing the game, which is great, and people have to realize one thing, that the future of the game isn't us. We're not the future of the game. Neither me or Rory, no. We're not the future. We're the present of the game.

But the future of the game is those kids that are watching us play, that want to get into the game, that want to play and then maybe become professionals.

I think that's what sometimes people forget.

Q. To watch those professionals and be inspired by those professionals, does there need to be some sort of coming together? Is golf too small a sport to stay fractured?

SERGIO GARCIA: I mean, obviously the more togetherness that you get, the better it is for everyone. There's no doubt about that. But there's room for everyone. I don't think that's a problem at all.

The same way that I love watching Real Madrid and La Liga, you like to watch the premiership and whoever your team is. Everybody can support whoever they have, and there's plenty of people to support it.

Q. There's a lot of water under the bridge, but when you arrive here this week, is there still a lot of tension, or is everybody happy to see each other?

SERGIO GARCIA: I mean, you guys love these things. You keep building up these things, and there's nothing. There's nothing.

You guys love to kind of dig and just kind of try to make it sound like we get in the locker room and we're fighting each other and stuff like that. It's not like that. At the end of the day, it's golf. We're all trying to play the best way we can, and that's it.

Q. Score prediction for tonight?

SERGIO GARCIA: I don't want to say anything. Hopefully something good for Madrid.