VOLVO MASTERS ANDALUCIA

I putted very well, the greens are fantastic. If you can read them, the ball goes exactly where you hit it. Those are the best greens of the year; if you putt well, you hole it.

The course doesn't give you much, the rough and trees are very well placed and you have to play good.

I have played with a bad cold, and with the sting, but maybe that let me play with a little bit less pressure. The sting bothered me for about four holes and then I didn't even remember it. The important thing has been that I took advantage of the birdie opportunities I had and all of the ones I didn't, I left them very, very close.

This year I started leading in a few tournaments, at the K Club in Ireland, at the Heritage in Loch Lomond, and I have visited the press center in the first round a few times, but I would love to be sitting here more days.

My goal, there's no doubt, is confidence. Golf, I think, I have shown that I have a good level of it. I can have good rounds, but the most important thing is working on that confidence. It's getting better and better, but it's the toughest part of my game now. The day I better it, I think I will have a better level in golf.

Having a sponsor, Denia Marriott, is helping me a lot, because it's very complicated. If you see the schedule for next year, you see that it starts with very, very long trips and if you don't have someone supporting you, there is many people that get scared and wait for tournaments that are closer to where they live.

My first day at the Volvo Masters Andalucia, I played well, very nice, and calm. I like this course. The last time I played here was eight years ago, a match-play amateur and I beat everyone. I feel very comfortable on this course. You cannot say that you have it under control because if the wind blows, it's very complicated. But for the most, I am very comfortable.

On the practice round, I talked with Miguel Angel Jiménez and he told me a lot about how to play a few holes, but the good thing was to see how he plays the course, where he putts the ball to tee off, the clubs he plays. You see the course in a different way and I learned a lot. I just played that round, and yesterday I was very sick and could not play. I just hit some balls, but for the last three or four days, I didn't do any gymnastics because I am a little bit to the limit and I don't want to force it.

I would love to be here in the press center on Saturday. I would feel great if I tee off on the last matches. I don't think this tournament this tournament leaves a big gap among the players in the final round. I would love to finish on Saturday the same place as today, but we'll see what happens.

Now I feel very comfortable on the Tour playing with any player. Not as before that when there was a good tournament with good players and a lot of money, I was very shocked but not anymore -- well, if you put me to play a match-play with Tiger Woods...

I have played a lot with Sergio. We are very good friends, and it can affect a little bit that we are from the same community because if he was in there, maybe I would have won many tournaments, but there is also a goal to have someone like Sergio and play the same tournaments with him as you, it makes you play better, play stronger, ands a sign that you are going in the right direction.