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ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARDMarch 15, 2007Sergio GarciaORLANDO, FLORIDA JOE CHEMCYZ: We welcome Sergio Garcia in. Sergio, 4-under par 66, pretty good day for you, 12 of 14 fairways, 15 greens today. Maybe just talk a little bit about your round, and then we'll let them ask some questions. SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, played pretty solid. Drove the ball very nicely. Hit my irons pretty good. Gave myself a lot of good looks at birdies. Made a couple here and there. Unfortunately I hit some really good putts that didn't go in. But you know, overall, pretty happy. Unfortunately just hit a couple not-so-good shots coming in; on 7, just pushed it a little with 8-iron and made bogey. Then on 8 had a bit of a mud ball and didn't commit to my second shot and I pulled it. But I made a great up-and-down. So overall, pretty good. Q. Are you surprised to get a mud ball when we haven't had any rain in days? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, but it happened to Eric, my playing partner on 6, too. I don't know, the course seemed to be quite soft. I mean, it's been quite soft the last couple of days. I was expecting it to kind of slowly firm up with this beautiful weather we've been having. But you know, the greens were quite receptive today. They were spinning nicely and some of the fairways were a little bit softer. You know, it's one of those things that happens, but what can you do. Q. You've played really well here far more often than not. You haven't won but you have had a bunch of top fives. Is there a particular reason? I know you don't play here at all during the year. SERGIO GARCIA: I don't know. I guess I like the course. I enjoy this event. I feel pretty good on this golf course. Usually it blows a little bit, so, you know, I've always enjoyed playing in the wind. I guess that kind of sums it up. I just feel pretty good around here. Q. Did you hit it in the rough at all today? SERGIO GARCIA: Twice. Q. What happened? SERGIO GARCIA: 13th, I just pulled it a little bit with a 5-wood, and I hit it just probably about three yards into the rough. I hit a good shot from there with a sand wedge to about 12, 15 feet and unfortunately didn't make it. And then on 6, I didn't hit a bad drive. It was an uncomfortable tee shot today. The wind was left-to-right. So I kind of just hang it a little bit to the right and it bounced and it just trickled into the thick rough, just, I don't know, three inches in, bad lie. Had a 6-iron and then hit a great punchy little pitching wedge from 107 yards to about two feet. Q. So you just kind of hacked it out with a 6-iron to set up a wedge for your third shot? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I didn't have much more. Q. Probably wouldn't have been able to go for the green from there anyway, would you have? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah. Q. If it would have been a good lie? SERGIO GARCIA: If I would have been on the first cut, I probably -- yeah, I probably would have been smooth 3-wood, probably just too far for a 5-wood. Unfortunately it just ran through. Q. Curious when you got to 4 or 6 either today or in the practice round, did you say to yourself, hey, this hole is a little bit shorter than it was last year, or gee, this is a tough hole? SERGIO GARCIA: I don't really know. I mean, I just go up there, and 4, I thought it gives you a chance of -- either keep it level with driver and have a shorter club in or hit it a bit more straightforward -- you think about it, really 4 makes it an easier tee shot than it was, unless it plays into the wind. But if not, you're going to be hitting driver today, for example. They were front tees and I hit 5-wood, 7-iron, so you're probably going to hit the fairway with 5-wood more often than you're going to hit with a driver. Just got to play it as a tough hole. 16 was the same thing. Managed to hit a good drive and hit 4-iron in. It was playing into the wind. It was one of those holes that, you know, you go there, you try to make 4. If you make 3, it's a bonus. If you make two 4s every day, you're pretty happy with it. Q. When the wind was into you pretty good on 16? SERGIO GARCIA: 16, yeah. Q. If it's not into you, if it's relatively calm, how much does that tee shot change given where the bunkers are? Are the bunkers still in play like they were when the tee was pushed back? SERGIO GARCIA: Probably with no wind, the far left one might be. The ones on the right, you can still carry but you really -- unless it's downwind, you still want to keep it left of the bunkers -- left of the right bunkers, because the fairway just didn't cut in much. It just kind of progressively goes along. So even if you carried those bunkers, you probably will still hit it in the rough. I mean, the line on the drive, it's still the same one as it was last year. I mean, it's just 20, 25 yards shorter. Q. Last two weeks on TOUR, guys have missed putts on the 72nd hole that obviously could have affected the outcome. As someone who has been in those pressure situations, do you feel sympathy for them or do you have any -- do you almost not want to watch that sort of thing? SERGIO GARCIA: No, I mean, I guess you feel -- of course you feel bad about it. It's never nice to see a guy miss a short putt to win a tournament or to get into a playoff. You know, if you like the guy, you feel even worse. It's one of those things. That's golf, and that's the beauty of this game. It's not over until it's over, and you've just got to keep doing the right thing and making sure that you stay in the moment and try to do it right. Q. It's the not bad watching that at the Ryder Cup, though. SERGIO GARCIA: Well, if your partner is doing it, it's not good. (Laughter). Q. Talk about the last two tournaments, Honda and Tampa, the rough was way up, guys were talking it was almost like U.S. Open setup and the courses were tough and this week the rough is very difficult. You're one of the better drivers out here, do you like this trend, and do you think if this continues this is something that's good for your game and how do you feel about it? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I do like it, of course. Anything that premiums accuracy off the tee, I think it's great. I've always said it; I enjoy the tournaments that the winning score is somewhere between 5- and 6-under and maybe 12 (-under). Those to me are the best challenges and the best -- yeah, the best challenges for us. Because you have to play well. If you hit it sideways, you're not going to get around it, and you know, it's just not a putting contest. You know, it's nice to see the courses kind of shaped this way, yeah. Q. Is there a danger everybody could get worn out if it continues for a month or two if it's every week? SERGIO GARCIA: Who cares? (Laughter) The game is not meant to be easy I guess. Q. Back to putting. Are you a guy that would experiment with a lot of different putters or do you stick with one for a long time? SERGIO GARCIA: I don't know. I guess a bit of everything. Lately I've been sticking with one, since last July, just before the British Open, Loch Lomond. If I feel -- you know, I might try once in awhile, I might try a different, to maybe have it as a backup. But usually, I always come back to my old faithful. So I guess, no, I wouldn't say -- I think I've gotten a lot better on that. I used to change a lot of putters, and now even if I don't have a good putting round or something, I try to stick with it a bit more. Q. Is there something technically that you work on? SERGIO GARCIA: No, I feel pretty good with my stroke. It feels nice. Even though I didn't manage make one putt last week, I still feel like I hit a lot of good putts. I just didn't feel that comfortable on the greens. This week, I feel pretty nice. As I told you before, I hit some good putts that went in and some others that felt like should have gone in and didn't. You know, overall, I feel pretty nice over my putts. Q. Doral is going to be next week, three weeks later than normal in Miami, THE PLAYERS Championship goes to May; and in a roundabout way, what's the hottest you've ever been playing in a golf tournament, the hottest conditions temperature-wise playing in a tournament? SERGIO GARCIA: I don't know to tell you the truth. Probably, I don't know, some of those maybe U.S. Opens. I remember, I think was it Olympia fields, that was pretty hot. But we always enjoy the hot weather better than the cold. It doesn't bother me that much I guess. Q. What was that like when you won at Congressional, and then defended at Avenal, did you go back to Avenal? SERGIO GARCIA: No, I didn't. Q. Have you ever played Avenal? SERGIO GARCIA: No, I haven't. No, that was two years ago. That's when I had some problems with my back. I had to pull out of Barclays, and then Winged Foot didn't help that much. So unfortunately I had to pull out of that one, too. I would have loved to have gone and defend there, but what can you do. Q. Any thoughts on maybe going back to Congressional this year? SERGIO GARCIA: I mean, I love this course and everybody knows that. The date is just a shocking date for me. At the moment it's not looking that great unfortunately. Q. You're in Europe then? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I will be playing probably -- I might play Scottish Open just before the British. I think this one is the week before. I mean, it would be flying all the way here for a week and then playing all the way back and the British Open right there. If I was living here, it would be different, but it doesn't look that great. Q. Do you usually play Loch Lomond? SERGIO GARCIA: I've played it probably four times through my career. I've taken maybe two or three years off but I played last year and it was nice. It's good to get a bit of momentum going into the British. Q. Byron Nelson has always meant a lot to you, obviously your first tournament as a pro and victory there and champions dinner with Byron, can you talk maybe about the relationship you developed with Byron and what kind of changes they might need to make in the future to keep that tournament popular with him gone? SERGIO GARCIA: You know, I think they do a great job there in Dallas. Of course it was a huge asset to have Byron there and be able to see him and as a past champion have a champions dinner and listen to his stories and some of the things he did when he was younger and playing and stuff like that. It was just amazing for me how sharp at 94 he was telling those stories, you know, how he could remember some of the details. It's going to be very -- I mean, he's going to be missed extremely. But that's the way life is and he lived a great life and he's done so many great things, not only for the game of golf but for the people and the charities and everything. He was always very good to me. He was always -- every time he saw me, he asked how I was doing and how I was playing and kind of telling me, "I've been checking you out" and things like that. So coming from a guy like him, you know, who has done so much for the game of golf, it's quite impressive. Q. For quite a long time there, you were probably the only top player in his 20s, or at least mid 20s of the younger set, and since then, Adam has come on quite a bit and Charlie (Howell) is starting to come on and Luke and Paul and there's a lot more of them. I don't know that you care one way or the other, but do you like to see that? Does it take any of the focus away from you and I don't want to say pressure, but people would always look at you as the only guy, but now that there's several. SERGIO GARCIA: No, I think it's great, it's great for the game of golf. That's what we are all trying to do here, we are of course trying to do the best we can but of course at the same time help the game as much as possible. It's great to see young guys like you said coming up and playing better and, you know, raising the level of the game. I think it's great. You know, I can only keep trying, keep trying to get better and doing my little part and at the end of the day, that's all I can do. There's a lot of young guys, who are playing at a very good level at the moment. Q. Did you feel extra expectations or burden as the sole focus of the young crowd, and has this helped having it spread around more often? SERGIO GARCIA: No, I wouldn't say that. Because even though I felt like, you know, I've always said it, of course I haven't won a major yet, but I still feel like I've had a pretty successful career. I've won a lot of tournaments all over the world, and won quite a good amount of tournaments here in the U.S. Still felt like, you know, it never seemed like it was good enough for you guys. But I don't know, I guess I really didn't focus that much on if the pressure was on me or not. Q. Does it change the dynamics with the other people in the group? SERGIO GARCIA: No. I can only depend on myself, and keep improving on my game. Q. Do you have to remind yourself that you're still a pretty young guy and have a long career ahead? You've been here for, what, eight years I guess. SERGIO GARCIA: Well, yeah. Q. And you're still a couple of years from 30, I just wonder how you think about that. Do you have to -- SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, sometimes, I don't know, it's quite funny, because I look back and I think, Jesus, it feels like I was 19 three years ago, and I look into it and it's like I've been out here for almost nine years now. It actually feels quite funny, because it feels like -- it feels like I've been out here for a long time but at the same time, it feels like it was just three years ago when I just started. So it's gone really quick. I mean, I was talking to Glenn today on the course about it today and was like, you know, I'm 34 already; and 27, it felt like two years ago, I was 20. End of FastScripts |
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