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COMMERCIALBANK QATAR MASTERS PRESENTED BY DOLPHIN ENERGY

January 23, 2008

Sergio Garcia

DOHA, QATAR

RODDY WILLIAMS: Thanks for coming in and joining us, and welcome back after finishing strongly last year. How do you feel coming back?
SERGIO GARCIA: Good. Unfortunately the course is not going to be, playing as hard as it's played the last couple years. The rough is a little inconsistent, that's because of the problems they had throughout the summer.
But looking forward to it. It's my first event of the year and still time to get some rhythm and I'm a little bit rusty but looking forward to hopefully getting some good momentum going and get some good feelings and some good sensation moving forward.
RODDY WILLIAMS: What have you been doing for the last few weeks, working on anything?
SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I've been practising quite hard for the last 12 days or so, trying to get ready. Just pretty much working on every part of my game. It's not where I want it to be yet.
RODDY WILLIAMS: Anything away from golf?
SERGIO GARCIA: A couple of things here and there, Switzerland, I was there for Christmas with my family and a couple other trips. Bit of tennis and football

Q. And your hopes for the year?
SERGIO GARCIA: I'm looking forward to it. I just want to keep improving, keep getting better. I saw some nice things last year, so, you know, hopefully I can get comfortable and see if we can win a major. That would be definitely great. So, that's my goal.

Q. It is easy for us to say you have been around for a long time?
SERGIO GARCIA: I have been.

Q. But you are still a young man and when you say your ambitions are to win a Major this year....?
SERGIO GARCIA: Your goal every year is to try to win as many, one, or two, or as many major as you can.
No, I guess like we talked about at The Open last year was unfortunate but it was a good experience for me. The whole week was a good learning experience for me. Just a matter of keep working on it, keep giving myself chances and I know they will come. So I just need to be very patient like I was that week and, you know, hopefully get it going the right way.

Q. So the disappointment was short term but the education long term?
SERGIO GARCIA: Definitely, yeah, I was disappointed for the first week after The Open, because you know you've had a great chance, but I know it's not going to be my last chance. I'm going to have plenty more and I'm sure I'm going to win more than one, so just going to keep working at it.

Q. Also a Ryder Cup, too?
SERGIO GARCIA: Definitely. Ryder Cup is huge, we all know that. That's why I want my game to hopefully be as good as it can be from the start to get as many points as possible and make sure I get myself onto that team.
I think there's a lot of youngsters coming up and good players, so I think it could be very interesting. I think we could have probably -- if everything goes right, we could have one of the youngest teams we've ever had with some of the players that are coming out. Justin is playing so well and some of the other youngsters coming up.
You know, I'm excited about that, and I just need to do my own work and that that I'm on the team, too.

Q. And you will be the old man then?
SERGIO GARCIA: I wouldn't say an old man. I'm not as young anymore, I guess.

Q. When you say you learned a lot from the Open, what sorts of things did you learn?
SERGIO GARCIA: A lot of things. A lot of things. I learned how to deal with the pressure of leading a major championship, an Open Championship, for four days. I enjoyed the way I felt and even more throughout the playoff. I felt calm, I felt good, even though Padraig put me behind the 8-ball a little early on. But the whole experience was a great one, and hopefully I can remember when I get back in that position.

Q. How hard was the disapointment?
SERGIO GARCIA: I guess it was hard for the first two days when I got back. Because you keep thinking about, you know, what a great chance I had, what a great chance I had.
But you know, the end of the day, you have to move on. The most important thing is knowing that I'm going to put myself in that position again, and I've just got to be stronger than I was. You know, hopefully I'll do a little better than I did and that's pretty much the only thing that you can do about it.

Q. Playing in Europe and qualifying for The Ryder Cup - do you thing the changes on the schedule next year will make you play more in Europe?
SERGIO GARCIA: I might. I probably will. I've been slowing playing more in Europe the last two or three years. You know, I enjoy playing in Europe. It's my home tour and I really enjoy it. Yeah, I'll probably play a little bit more. I can't do a full schedule like maybe 20 or 22 events because then it's too many. But definitely, you know, your goal is looking at adding maybe one here or one there.

Q. Adam Scott is playing more in Europe and if you did that would add more World Ranking points which would balance it up more. The prize money is not that much greater in some tournaments?
SERGIO GARCIA: No, because of the currencies at the moment, we have some events here in Europe that are almost bigger than some in the U.S. To me, that's still not the big element. The money is not -- when I play a tournament, I try to look for spots that I enjoy playing, spots where fields are going to be good, and that's where you're going to get the most amount of World Ranking points.
So I think some of the changes that are going to occur to The European Tour, some of the good changes that are going to happen, I think a lot more of those tournaments are going to get better fields, so it's all going to even out. So I'm looking forward to it. I think it's a new era for The European Tour and one that can be really, really exciting.

Q. With nine players from the top 25 in the world here - how do you fancy your chances?
SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I'm looking forward to it. That's what I come here for is to try to win this event. I like -- it's getting better slowly, I think it's a good week to see how you're feeling early on. I'm looking forward to it, and you know, I will give it my best shot, so we'll see by the end of the week.

Q. How does your final round here last year rate?
SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, it was a good finish last year. So I'm looking forward to hopefully keep riding that momentum on this golf course, so I just, you know, hopefully will keep going on that and we'll see. I guess it all depends a little bit on the weather, too. It can get quite windy here, so the course can change dramatically from one day to another.

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