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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 20, 2008

Sergio Garcia

TUCSON, ARIZONA

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Sergio, for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center at the Accenture Match Play Championship. Good start to the week. Looks like you played a pretty good round today against John Senden. Talk about today and maybe some turning points in the match.
SERGIO GARCIA: I guess I didn't have the best of starts. I messed up a little on the first. I made a really big putt on 3 to get back to 1-up. So it was nice. And then made a couple of other birdies here and there, got in front, and I managed to keep it up there.
I didn't make any other mistakes, other than the bogey on 14. And it was nice to finish it with a birdie on the last. So I'm pretty satisfied with that.

Q. The putting style that you had today, what was the putting style you used today?
SERGIO GARCIA: What do you mean? I just tried to hit it with the putter and in the hole.

Q. Was it the belly putter --
SERGIO GARCIA: Both.

Q. Can you just -- two part question. Tell us a little bit about your routine on the range getting ready for such a big event, and how did you find the course today?
SERGIO GARCIA: Well, the routine is pretty much the same as every week. I usually try to do pretty much the same thing every tournament, and I usually get to the range probably with between 50 minutes and an hour, do a little bit of practice, warming up.
The course is very nice. The greens, unfortunately, are a little soft. The course is in very good shape. The greens are running very nicely. The fairways are beautiful. It's a nice golf course. It's not playing too difficult at the moment, so you know that if you're playing fairly well you can make a good amount of birdies. So you've just got to believe in yourself and go out there and do it.

Q. Have you actually gone out with two putters in the bag before?
SERGIO GARCIA: Have I? I think I have, yes. I think I've done it once before, yeah.

Q. Does it not leave you in two minds, or are you strong enough to say I'm going to take them but I'm going to make a decision early on?
SERGIO GARCIA: No, I did make a decision early on and I went with it for pretty much the whole round. But then I started not feeling quite as comfortable. I hit a couple not-very-good putts. So I decided to go with the safe route the last couple of holes.
If I would have practiced it a little bit more, then I probably would have gone out with only one putter. But I was working on it yesterday with Stan Utley, and it felt good. It felt really good on the putting green. But it's different, the putting green is, than when you're out there on the heat of battle and the pressure is on. So I wanted to take just like, you can call it a safety net, just in case I didn't feel quite as comfortable.

Q. I apologize if this has been asked already, but did you have, in your head, sort of a methodology as to which putter you would use at which time?
SERGIO GARCIA: No.

Q. Or did you just kind of go with the feel on it?
SERGIO GARCIA: I went with the short one for the whole round. That was my goal. As I said before, I just had a safety net just in case I didn't feel 100 percent with the short one. At the end of the day I liked the things we worked on my putting yesterday; they feel good. But I still have a little work to do. I've still got to get a little better at it.

Q. What club did you take out?
SERGIO GARCIA: The 3-iron.

Q. I know you brought your sister out here last year. Is she out again?
SERGIO GARCIA: No, she's working.

Q. What's she up to?
SERGIO GARCIA: She's working.

Q. Working?
SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah.

Q. Where at?
SERGIO GARCIA: In Spain, where we live.

Q. Apart from the first hole, did you feel in control of the match all day, or did John give a hard time at times?
SERGIO GARCIA: Well, apart from the first hole, yeah, I felt pretty good. I guess after losing the first, to go birdie-birdie, that was very nice to be able to win those two holes. Then I made another birdie on 6, and I got up to 2-up. I was feeling pretty comfortable.
He made a good birdie on 7, which got it back to 1. And then I had a couple -- I had a good chance on the next that unfortunately I didn't make. And then one on 10 with a birdie again. And I had a couple of chances on 11 and 12 to really get in front. Unfortunately I didn't make those.
And then he managed to win the 14th and make it a little tighter. But it was nice to hit the shot I hit on 16 and finish it with a birdie.

Q. I don't have your record right in front of me. Have you felt like you've been successful at this tournament in the past or have you left mostly disappointed?
SERGIO GARCIA: No.

Q. I ask because because you've been so good at Ryder Cup and there are some similarities.
SERGIO GARCIA: I've been okay, but not great. I mean, I don't think I've ever gone through to the quarterfinals. So I feel like I should have done better. In some years I felt like I should have. But it's a funny format. You might get to the quarterfinals or some other day shoot 7-under and lose. And some other day you might shoot 3-under and win. It's just a matter of hopefully playing well and playing well at the right time so your opponent doesn't play better than you.

Q. I suppose this is probably not the adrenalin you have at a Ryder Cup or anything like that in something like this, is it?
SERGIO GARCIA: Maybe not quite as much, but there's still some. There's definitely some. We're here trying to do our best and trying to win the event. So there's still definitely a lot of adrenalin going. It's a different format, but you still are trying to do the best you can.
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Thank you, Sergio.

End of FastScripts

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