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PGA CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 8, 2007Sergio GarciaTULSA, OKLAHOMA KELLY ELBIN: Sergio Garcia, ladies and gentlemen, joining us at the 89th PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This will be Sergio's ninth PGA Championship appearance, his best finish a second in 1999, and you were also tied for third last year at Medinah. Sergio, welcome back to Southern Hills. Thoughts on the golf course from what you've seen. SERGIO GARCIA: Thank you. The golf course is in great shape. It's really nice. A couple of changes in comparison to 2001, but it looks very nice. Hopefully they will be able to get the greens a little firm. I know it's going to be tough for the greenskeeper and the superintendent to not lose them in this heat, but it will be nice to see the greens a little firmer. The fairways are great and rough is quite tough, although it's not too thick, bermudagrass is quite difficult. It's great and it looks ready for the tournament. KELLY ELBIN: You were also tied for 12th in the U.S. Open here when it was held here in 2001. Q. Everyone is wondering how you have managed to handle the disappointment of Carnoustie. Is it something that you've had trouble with? SERGIO GARCIA: I guess it wasn't easy the first week after, a couple of days after. But, no, you get over it. You know, I just had some fun with my friends and played some different sports and, you know, I managed to get through it. Just tried to get all of the positive things out of it, and there were a lot of positives. I had a lot of nice calls from friends and family and, you know, ready for this week and hoping that I can get myself as good of a chance as I gave myself in Carnoustie. Q. On the same theme, have you had sleepless nights going over what happened, would you have done anything differently on that last day in the playoff? SERGIO GARCIA: No -- well, yes. I would have tried to hit that putt on 18 a little bit further out. That's pretty much it. Q. But you seem quite relaxed about it. What kind of things, went out to with your friends to get away from it, did you play football or tennis? SERGIO GARCIA: I played a bit of tennis and just went to the beach a couple of times, just to have fun, just enjoy, kind of get a little away from golf. And then I started practicing, I think it was on Thursday, trying to get ready for Bridgestone last week. Q. I'm just wondering if you're staying with the belly putter that you used at Carnoustie; are you still happy with it? SERGIO GARCIA: Oh, yeah, I'm thrilled. I'm very happy. I've been playing nicely. Even though, you know, there's some rounds where I don't make as many putts as I would like to, but at least the putts I hit are good, solid putts. You know, I'm pretty happy with it; so, yeah, it is in the bag. Q. Some of the players have compared this course to Colonial. I'm wondering, do you see similarities; does it play similarly to you? SERGIO GARCIA: Definitely, yeah. It looks a lot like Colonial. It looks a lot like Valderrama. So it's a lot of similarities there; definitely you can see some of those things. Q. Do you like how that fits for your game? I know you've had success. SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I played here in 2001, and I actually had a good shot at winning on Sunday. Unfortunately I didn't play better on Sunday; but, yeah, I like the course and hopefully I can give myself another chance. Q. In '99 after Carnoustie, you turned things around when you came to the PGA and chased Tiger down. Is that something you've thought about preparing for this week, as well? SERGIO GARCIA: It's a different situation. I didn't win the British Open, you know, Padraig did, and he deserved it. He played very, very well all week. But I was the only one that had the winning putt in regulation. And to me, you know, that means a lot. I think overall it was a great experience to be up in the lead all week long. I think I learned a lot from it, and I actually had a winning putt, which I hit a great putt; unfortunately it didn't go in. The situation is different, and hopefully I can keep playing the way I've been playing. I played pretty good last week. I had a couple of bad holes here and there. But other than that, it was good. It was good to get back into competition and get back into it. Q. You said afterwards at Carnoustie that you would learn more from that experience than you would learn from maybe some successes. Looking back on it, what did you learn about yourself and your game that day at Carnoustie? SERGIO GARCIA: A lot. Not only that day; I think for the whole week. I stayed within myself throughout the whole week. I was very calm all week, very confident with myself, very confident with my game. I stuck to my game plan. I felt that was the best game plan for me. That's what got me to a winning position. So, you know, I think, as I said before, there were a lot of positives, and just got to do the same thing this week, play within myself and hopefully I'll have a shot at winning the PGA. Q. Your father's a very wise man. What did he say to you after Carnoustie? SERGIO GARCIA: He said well played. He almost had tears in his eyes, but he told me, you know, "You did all you could. You did everything right. Unfortunately it just wasn't meant to happen." The end of the day, that's all you can really do. Q. I know there's a lot of disappointment and frustration right after you lose when you had a chance all week, but when you look back, do you regret any of the comments you made when you seemed like you had to go up against a lot of bad breaks that other players don't seem to have? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I was emotional. I opened myself to you guys and I said what I felt. That's pretty much it. I didn't want to take anything out of Padraig winning the Open. I felt like I played well enough to win it and unfortunately it didn't happen. Definitely if a couple of breaks would have gone my way, it would have been a different story, but that's pretty much it. Q. Padraig was saying he's keeping his win in perspective because, of course, if your putt on the 72nd hole is an eighth of an inch further right, he's probably the biggest goat since Jean Van de Velde by that much, and sometimes that's all that really separates winning from losing. Of course, that's easy for him to say because he won. I'm wondering, are you able to look at things the same way knowing that if not for that much, you'd be answering a whole different series of questions? SERGIO GARCIA: Definitely, but that's the way -- that's the beauty of the game. That's what we play for. You know, the guy that finishes second is always the first loser, I guess, so it's hard sometimes. But you've got to move on. And as I said before, just take the positives out of it, and there were a lot of them. So I just hope that I -- I hope that I have the winning putt here again and, you know, whatever happens, at least if I'm in that position, I'll be pretty happy with it. Q. Kind of on that same note, if everything went great this week and you walked off of the 72nd hole, would you rather be ahead by five, or maybe ahead by one so that you can take that winning putt and win it that way? SERGIO GARCIA: I'd rather be ahead by eight. (Laughter). Q. But would there be anything good about being able to close one? SERGIO GARCIA: You know what, right now I would take leading the tournament by one shot on the 18th hole, I'll take it right now. Throughout the week, if the situation is different and I'm winning by six, I'm not going to say no. I'm not going to make ten on 17 to be leading by one on 18. Q. Phil Mickelson was in here yesterday talking about a lot of the questions that he had to answer for a while when he was going major-less and having a lot of success around the majors. He said the toughest thing was to come in here and speak to us about it because we had a lot of questions to ask. But at that same time he felt like in his mind and heart he always knew he was going to win one and perhaps more. Do you have that same feeling? Do you think it's eventually going to come; that you're knocking on the door? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I've always said that, and I feel like it's -- yeah, it is just a matter of time. Like I said before, to be on the lead at the Open for all four days, I think that is really going to help me in the future and be a lot more calm, be a lot more within myself when I get in that position. So I don't have a doubt that it will eventually happen. It's just a matter of giving myself chances, and I'll definitely give myself a lot of them. I feel -- I've always said it, like I should have won at least more than one by now, but it hasn't happened yet. The only thing I can do is keep putting myself in that position and it will happen sometime. Q. Paul McGinley was telling us this week that you and he had a friendly chat at Firestone last week and that he supported much of what you said about the final day and the final few holes at the Open and that the R&A should do something about the organization of the event; is that something you would agree with? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I actually don't know what he said, so -- Q. He said it was like a circus, playing those final few holes was like a circus, he was in between the two groups and there were 52 people on the fairway at one stage. SERGIO GARCIA: I really didn't see too much of that. My only point was that the extra wait on my second shot an 18, that was the only thing that bothered me all week. I don't know, I was so focused all week, I didn't really see all that. If Paul saw something, maybe that's because he was there. Q. To kind of get away from Carnoustie, how do you think Southern Hills fits your game, and what do you need to do to have a chance to win this week? SERGIO GARCIA: I like the course. You know, I feel pretty comfortable in it. I'm quite comfortable with my game at the moment, so that also helps. And I've done well here before when I played at the U.S. Open. I'm looking forward to it, and you know, I love to -- like I said before, I'd love to be in that same position I was in a couple of weeks ago and see what I can do. But if it doesn't happen, it's not a big deal. So hopefully I'll have a good chance by the end of the week. Q. Can you talk about the first three holes, the par 4 at Southern Hills, especially that new tee box back on No. 3, from 208 to 450 -- SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, because they lengthened 2, too. Three very solid holes to start with now. I remember 2001 when we played, the first hole, it's always tricky. The green is very difficult, slopes away from you. Unless you really take it on with the driver, you're going to be hitting somewhere around 6-, 7-irons, something like that. Then the second hole now, it's a little bit longer. We used to hit driver and maybe a 9-iron or a wedge at the 2001 U.S. Open, but now they lengthened it about 15, 20 yards. So we're hitting driver and probably somewhere like an 8- or 7-iron. Not an easy fairway to hit. 3 is probably the biggest difference. We used to hit 2-iron, wedge to that hole, and now you have to hit a good drive and you hit around 9-iron, wedge, something like that. But that fairway is a lot easier to hit with a 9-iron than it is with a driver. So definitely the scoring on the first three holes, if the greens are not as soft as they are at the moment, it is definitely going to be a little bit tougher than it was in 2001. Q. What effect do you think the heat will have here this week? SERGIO GARCIA: On the players? Q. Yeah. SERGIO GARCIA: I think it will affect -- it will affect definitely. It takes -- this heat takes quite a bit out of you. It might be okay early on. I think everybody's been pacing themselves on the practice rounds and playing early and not playing too much. But once you get out there on the tournament and you start playing at, you know, 1:30 when the heat is really hitting you, it's going to take a lot out of you if you don't make sure you drink a lot and make sure you take your rest when you finish your rounds and get nice and relaxed when you finish. But we'll see. I guess it will take probably more in the guys that are not as fit or as well trained as some others, but I guess time will tell us. KELLY ELBIN: Sergio García, thank you very much. End of FastScripts |
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