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U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

June 16, 2005

Sergio Garcia

PINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA

Q. You've not had a lot of experience on this golf course; are you pretty happy with your round today?

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I would have loved to be a bit lower, no doubt about that. But I feel pretty good about it. This is my first tournament round on this course, so I felt like I was pretty consistent. I hit a couple of wayward drives, and it cost me a little bit. But it's a shame I didn't make a couple of putts coming in for birdie.

Q. Was there any major difference in the practice rounds?

SERGIO GARCIA: No, it's pretty similar. I think that that's probably why the scores were a little bit better than expected, because the speed of the greens wasn't extremely fast, so the putts were still pretty slow. And some balls probably stayed on the edges of the green, that if it were a bit faster, it wouldn't. That's probably the biggest thing of the first round. But I'm sure this course is going to get tougher as the week goes on. So we have to be prepared to put our work in it and just grind it out.

Q. How does it test your patience, Sergio?

SERGIO GARCIA: It does. It definitely does. And you know that every single shot you hit, it's a tough shot, and it doesn't matter, I mean you're standing and waiting and you still think you have to hit a good shot. I have no bailout, I can't miss the shot. So it's a bit hard, but it's a good test. It's fun to get around these tough conditions once in a while and see what you're made of. I felt pretty comfortable today. I was pretty happy with the way I putted, although I missed a couple of good birdie opportunities on the back nine. But I made some nice par putts that kept me up there. And I've just got to keep it going throughout the week.

Q. Some guys said they would take even par the rest of the round?

SERGIO GARCIA: I'll take even par the rest of the way. I'll take 1 over par for the tournament and sit in the clubhouse and just watch. But unfortunately I'm not going to be able to do that. So hopefully I'll do better than that.

Q. You said you've never played tournament golf on this course before. Tiger obviously has. So that even par for him today was a perfectly fine round; do you feel the same way, 1 over?

SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, you don't want to see yourself in the blue numbers or black numbers or whatever, but I think 1 over was a decent round, yeah, there's no doubt about that. As I said before, I would love to birdie 10. I was right on the front of the green and 3 putted. Or 11 or 14 or 18 I had good chances. But it's tough. It's difficult and it was a bit of a breeze up there, and it was playing around, it was switching back and forth. And it was tough to choose the right clubs. In this course, the way it's playing, it's crucial to get the right distance. And if it gets just a little gust of wind or something like that, it can cause a lot of problems. But I'm pretty happy, but I'd love it to be one or two lower.

Q. (Inaudible.) Last year at Shinnecock things got away from him.

SERGIO GARCIA: I think it can get a bit tougher. The greens can get a little bit quicker. But it's starting to get there, slowly. I think that the tournament, as the week goes on it just gets a bit tougher and a bit tougher. You can't I think we're on the right way, and I'm sure it's going to get a bit tougher as the week goes on. But we'll have to deal with it.

Q. What's your reaction, Sergio, when you see when you see Brandt Jobe and Steve Jones and Rocco Mediate high on the board, what's your reaction?

SERGIO GARCIA: Olin Browne, I think they're sometimes you guys don't give enough credit to some of the players. We can all we can all play the game of golf. Some can do it a little bit better than others, and some maybe a little bit better than others, but we can all play you shouldn't take anything away from those guys. You can't go and say, "they got lucky today." No, not at all. They played great. It's tough to shoot that round. But it was just tough. It's going to get tougher as the week goes on. It will be a matter of seeing if they can handle it and get stay up there throughout the week. But I think they played great.

End of FastScripts.

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