VALERO TEXAS OPEN

September 24, 2003

Sergio Garcia

SERGIO GARCIA: Mainly just relaxing a little bit. I played the Omega in Switzerland, as you said, and then took two weeks off. It's been good, a little bit of rest, a little bit of practice, in order to get ready to start a good stretch.

SERGIO GARCIA: I heard good things about it. There's a nice theme park next to us, too. I'm a big fan of those. I heard it was a good tournament. The course is a bit hilly, but it's a nice course to play at. I'm trying to get some good finishes to make it to the Tour Championship. Hopefully a good week here will help.

SERGIO GARCIA: (In Spanish.)

SERGIO GARCIA: That's true.

SERGIO GARCIA: Well, it was a nice break. It was one of those we get once in a while and we need them. More than anything, to go back and see your friends, because before that I think I spent five or six weeks here in the States and it was nice to go back home to see my friends, play a bit of tennis, a bit of soccer, just relax a little bit, just forget about golf, more than practicing hard like we do on the tournaments.

SERGIO GARCIA: No, not at all. I mean, you don't forget how to play in two weeks. It's nice. Mentally it helps to take a bit of a rest. I've only taken two weeks off, because I played in Europe. I haven't played here, but I played in Europe.

SERGIO GARCIA: I'm going to play four in a row, this week, American Express, Las Vegas, and Greensboro, and then I'll be back in Europe to play Volvo Masters and hopefully the Tour Championship.

SERGIO GARCIA: Unfortunately, we don't have much time to hang around. We go to sleep quite early. It looks nice. The course, as I said, is nice. The views are pretty nice, too. We have a nice theme park I'm looking forward to going to this afternoon.

SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I feel pretty comfortable on it. I feel comfortable hitting my drive. That's always important. It's a course that suits my eyes, so it's good. I've never been a great putter on Bermuda greens. Hopefully I'll get something going this week and putt a little better.

SERGIO GARCIA: Not really. You practice a little bit and see how to handle it the best and then you try to play through that game plan.

SERGIO GARCIA: It's a course I've always liked. I've always done well there. I was there last week practicing a little bit, too.

SERGIO GARCIA: I'm good friends with Jamie. When I get the chance I go down there and practice. It's always in great shape.

SERGIO GARCIA: Sometimes. More than anything when we come down to the south around here, and some places around Florida, definitely. It's nice to see there is some Latin people going around there and cheering for you.

SERGIO GARCIA: It will be great. We also heard Valero renewed its contract with the Texas Open, so it's going to be nice to have him around for six or seven more years.

SERGIO GARCIA: It's good. It's coming along nicely. I don't have to think about it any more. It's just natural. It feels pretty good. I'm still trying to improve it. It's not done. I still have to get full confidence on it, but it's coming along nicely.

SERGIO GARCIA: No. My dad has, but I haven't.

SERGIO GARCIA: Dallas is the farthest south I've been.

SERGIO GARCIA: Well, it's nice to hear. No, I've never considered myself a good looking guy. I guess I'm just normal, average. It's nice to hear that, but I don't really focus too much on that.

SERGIO GARCIA: I don't know. It's funny. I don't know why. I'm sure it's not my ears.

SERGIO GARCIA: You always get marked for something, in a good way or a bad way, so I think I got marked in a good way on that. It's always going to be with me. It's something that's always going to be with me. I enjoy it. It was a great tournament. The only thing I regretted from that tournament is finishing second, but it was exciting and it was a great time. So no, I'm not -- I don't mind about it.

SERGIO GARCIA: What do I think of? I don't know. I just look at it and I think that was a pretty good shot, more than anything because of the moment. It was pretty nice.

SERGIO GARCIA: No, it's nice. As I said before, it's nice to see your fellow Latin guys supporting you and cheering for you. I've always said it's nice to have crowds following you and want to cheer you on. It makes you keep going. So for me, it's nice to see that.

SERGIO GARCIA: Last night or two nights ago, about Michelle Wie, I didn't know what she shot. But as I said before, Annika did pretty well. She played well and she was exciting. She was good, I think. Unfortunately, I didn't see much of the other two, but I don't know. I don't really mind much. I just worry about myself. That's more than enough.

SERGIO GARCIA: That's my way of being. I'm just like that. I like to get excited and I feel like that's when I play my best golf. When things are going a little bit, everything feels easy. The crowd gets into it and, as I said before, it's nice to see the crowd pulling for you. It makes you keep trying. Even if things are not going great, it makes you try a bit harder.

SERGIO GARCIA: I know what I have to do. I don't really -- to tell you the truth, I don't read about myself in the newspapers or anything like that. I've realized the best thing to do is just play your game and try to do the best you can. Just be yourself. That's what I try to do. If I play well, they're going to write nice things. If I don't, they're going to write not so many nice things. I don't really care much about it. I know what I want to do and that's the most important thing for me.

SERGIO GARCIA: It shows you how much everybody is working on his game and how much they're working on fitness and things like that. It's like the over 40s have a new life now. They feel like they can play again. There's been some unbelievable play from some guys, Jay Haas and Peter Jacobsen and Freddie, and all these guys. Vijay has been playing unbelievable. It's good to see.

SERGIO GARCIA: I don't think so. I've always said I'm my own person. I know what I want to do, and I'm trying to play the best I can every week. I'm trying to win every week if I can. It doesn't matter who is in front of me. It doesn't matter if it's Tiger, it doesn't matter whoever it is. I know that if I play my best, I can beat anybody out there. I feel I'm confident enough to do that. Unfortunately, you go through some things and some up and downs and I'm just getting over one of those little downs.

SERGIO GARCIA: Not at all, I think that's very personal. I talked to the guy who I had to talk to. That was my father and coach. We thought it was the best thing for me to do to get to the next level. We're not talking about anybody's level, we're talking about my level. We feel that was the best thing to do and we went through it. It's been coming along. Unfortunately, things are not finished yet, but when I'm hitting the ball well, it feels so much better than it felt before. It feels like the swing is solid. It feels like I know where the club is all the time, and it makes it a bit easier.

SERGIO GARCIA: That was pretty good, a little bit right, though.

SERGIO GARCIA: No, not really. I'm not superstitious. I have a silver coin that I sometimes use. This guy I play with in Dallas about two years ago, he gave me this coin. He had two silver quarters, one from 1909 and one from 1910. One from when his mother was born and one when his father was born, so he gave me the 1909 one and I've been using it for a while now. But unfortunately, I have it on my other bag in Orlando and I haven't been there, so I haven't been using it lately, unfortunately.

SERGIO GARCIA: As I said before, the course is nice. It's in very good shape. The greens are rolling very nicely and the fairways are nice. This morning, at the end I played pretty nicely. At the beginning I struggled a bit. I feel like if I get some good confidence going, if I get something going at the beginning and just work on that it should be a good tournament, so I'm looking forward to having a good week.

SERGIO GARCIA: I think it's coming along nicely. I still hit a couple of loose shots around and I have to get rid of those, but the quality of the shots are much better than what they used to be.

SERGIO GARCIA: I'm actually pretty easy with that. Usually I sleep quite a lot on the planes. I went to sleep Monday night, went to sleep probably around 10:00, 10:30 and woke up around 5:30, 6:00, and yesterday I went to sleep at 11:00 and woke up at 6:30 today. It was good.