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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY MORGAN STANLEYMay 27, 2008Sergio GarciaDUBLIN, OHIO LAURA NEAL: Sergio, thank you for joining us today. Had a couple weeks away since winning your big win at the PLAYERS Championship. Maybe just catch us up on how that win's been treating you and going into this week. SERGIO GARCIA: It's been good. I went back to Spain for a couple of weeks. Of course had a couple big receptions there and just relaxed a little bit. I had a charity event that I was doing on the second week. So just pretty much just catching up with friends and family and doing a little bit of practice and trying to get ready for this big stretch of three tournaments that I have coming. So I'm looking forward to that. LAURA NEAL: We do have a national tele-conference coinciding with this so we'll take questions from the floor first and then we'll open it up to the phone lines for questions. Q. The way you've been playing lately do you feel this is perhaps your best chance to win this tournament as you're heading into it as far as momentum-wise? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I'm definitely rested. So I feel good about that. I feel like every part of my game is getting better every week. So confidence is -- it's always good to be out there. So I'm looking forward to it. I definitely feel like I should, if nothing weird happens, I should be up there. And at least I should have a chance at winning this tournament. Q. Two questions totally different. Did your victory at the PLAYERS Championship and the way you won, do you think that changed your outlook heading into a summer full of Majors? SERGIO GARCIA: My outlook? What? On myself? Q. No, expectations, what do you think that's done, if anything? SERGIO GARCIA: Definitely, it is definitely a boost of confidence. There's no doubt about that. I guess at the end of the day every tournament is different and winning the PLAYERS was great. As I said, it was a big boost of confidence. But I still got to go out there and give my -- perform at the U.S. Open and at the British Open and at the PGA and give myself a chance. The good thing about it is I know that coming down the stretch my whole game can step up to it. So that's good to have. But I still need to get myself in that position. And that's probably one of the most difficult things. Q. Secondly, the 14th hole here, have you ever tried to drive that green and do you think if the tee box were pushed forward a little bit where you were in range, that you would give it a shot? SERGIO GARCIA: Definitely. I think that if the tee -- from the back tees it's just a stupid thing to do, because unless it's downwind you're not going to get to the front of the green. And if you miss it a little bit left, if you hit it short of the green left in the rough, you almost have no shot. If you know that you can get there, pretty much on the fly, and you can get it in the bunkers, then the situation is a little bit different. You can give it a little bit of a gamble and try. But it's just a matter of seeing if they're going to give us the chance of it or not. From the back tee I thought about it a couple times, but it's never -- it never felt like a really good idea. Q. If you were running the tournament, commissioner, would you move the tee up one day? SERGIO GARCIA: I think it would be interesting to do it and see how the players react to it. I think it's a green that is very well surrounded, so it's not the kind of par-4 that you know if you hit driver and you hit it way left of the green that you're going to have an easy up-and-down. If you hit it left of the bunkers, you're struggling to make par nonetheless; forget about birdie. If you hit it in the bunkers and get a little bit lucky, you might be able to get up-and-down, and if you hit it right, it's probably going to go in the water so you're going to have to get up-and-down for par. So I think it will be something interesting to see and hopefully we'll get a chance to have seen it this week. Q. Jack says he sets this up, sets up the course like a Major Championship. How much of a penalty is it hitting in the rough here? SERGIO GARCIA: The rough is usually quite thick around here. So usually the fairways are quite -- most of them are quite wide and usually never really plays too firm. So the fairways stay quite wide, because these kind of fairways, they have a lot of movement and they're usually quite fast. If they stay firm, then the fairways don't have quite a lot of room. But if they stay wet like we usually play them, then they are good targets to hit. But you know that if you miss the fairway, it's going to be a little bit of a struggle because of that, because it is set up a little bit like a Major. The rough is quite thick. Unless you get quite lucky, it's quite difficult to get it to the green with more than a 7-iron or a 6-iron. Q. Could you just maybe talk a little bit about what you've done since the PLAYERS Championship? SERGIO GARCIA: I did. Q. Did I miss it? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah. Q. Could you talk more about what you've done the last couple weeks? It pays to be on time. Has your e-mail and phone traffic been a little more? Have you gotten a little more, I don't know, recognition or attention from people since that win? SERGIO GARCIA: A little bit. I guess every time you win you get some nice text messages and stuff. But yeah, I guess a little bit. But mainly the people that matter to me is the ones that congratulated me and that's the important thing. Q. You were asked about having your best chance to win here. I think your best chance to win here previously was when Tiger finished a mile ahead of everybody else a couple years ago? SERGIO GARCIA: Then it wasn't a very good chance then, was it? (Laughter.) It wasn't -- I was in close position but -- Q. You were second. SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I remember that year. Q. What I wanted to ask you was you thanked him at the PLAYERS Championship for not being here and I just wondered when he does come back, the way your game is now, the way you showed it is, at the PLAYERS Championship, if he ever was in your head at all, is he less in your head now because of how well you know you're playing? SERGIO GARCIA: As we all know, Tiger is an exceptional player and you can never -- you cannot go out there thinking, when he's in contention, thinking he's going to back up. So you know that you have to step up your game and play well and try to beat him at his own game. But I'm looking forward to it. We always enjoy playing against the best and when he's around it's always a little bit extra motivation. It does make it a little bit tougher to win the event, but that's what drives you into trying to become a better player. So we miss him a little bit and we'll see him in a couple weeks. Q. Do you, from the times at the PGA at Medinah to now, and even though you're under 30, do you feel like a hardened veteran out here? SERGIO GARCIA: Funny enough, yeah. I'm 28, but this is my 10th season. So I do feel like a little bit of a veteran. Kind of a veteran in a young body. If you might say that. Which is good. I've learned a lot of things. I learned a lot of good and bad experiences that you learn from. And I think all of them have helped me become a better player. Q. To follow-up, looking at your record on the PGA TOUR, I don't think you've ever won after May. Is there a particular reason for that? SERGIO GARCIA: No. Not that I can think of. Q. I don't know if it's courses or your trip going back and forth to Europe a lot or something? SERGIO GARCIA: No, I don't know. I guess I've been close to winning and unfortunately I haven't. But I don't know. I couldn't really answer that. Hopefully I'll change that this year. Q. Reflecting on what you sort of learned or reflecting on your win at the PLAYERS Championship, was there anything that maybe as you reflect now that you learned that may serve you well, not only in this tournament but at the U.S. Open and into the PGA? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I guess there's some things that I think about and hopefully will help me. I think at the end of the day it's all about believing in yourself and knowing what you are capable of doing and then trying to do it. But like I said before, every tournament's different and you got to treat it the way it is. But I'm looking forward to putting myself in that position again and know that I'm capable of standing up to the pressure. Q. Speaking of a couple of weeks, is Torrey Pines a course that you like? I know a couple years ago you played in that last group with Tiger, Pampling maybe, whoever that was, 2006. So it seems like you've had some positive experiences there -- SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, definitely. Q. -- at times. SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, definitely. I think it's a wonderful golf course. I'm looking forward to seeing how it's set up, and Torrey Pines, the only thing that has been a little bit suspicious has been the greens. But I heard that they have done a lot of work into them and the course is going to be in great shape and it's a U.S. Open. So I'm looking forward to see it. I think it's got some great finishing holes for a U.S. Open, a U.S. Open type course. So we'll see how it shapes up. But it should be a great U.S. Open. Q. When Jack was in here earlier he was asked about all the guys in their 20s that have won this year on the TOUR. And obviously you just -- you're in your 20s, but you're not your typical 20-something with all the experience you have. He said that he thought that this would be maybe a more difficult course for a player in his 20s to win on. And I wondered with all the time that you've spent here if you would agree with that and for what particular reason. SERGIO GARCIA: I don't know. I guess -- I mean, the only reason I can think of is if you're in your 20s but haven't played here much. Q. Right. Local knowledge. SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah. I've been fortunate enough to be invited hear early on and then play pretty much every year here. So I know the course pretty well. So I don't think that a guy like Adam Scott or myself or, I don't know, an Anthony Kim or Trevor Immelman, some guys like that that are playing well and that have played here before, why they shouldn't be able to come and win here. Q. We talked to Mr. Nicklaus some about Seve's comments about the Ryder Cup and I'm curious, are you familiar with the comments? SERGIO GARCIA: No. What were they? Q. Well, he said that he thought that while his heart would always be with the European team, his head may root for the Americans this year to strengthen the interest in the Cup. He's afraid people over here are going to stop caring because you guys are killing us so badly. SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I mean, I'm sure that people in Europe are definitely well into it. I can see why he would say that. I don't know. I don't think that if we win this year it will make it go down. So, or at least I hope not. But at the end of the day you got to realize that it's going to be two really hard teams playing as hard as they can and trying to win both of them. So no matter what happens, I know that the European team is not going to go out there thinking, you know, the Americans should beat us so that the Ryder Cup stays with the high interest. So it's just not that -- it's not that easy. So we'll see. Q. Make it a little closer this year. SERGIO GARCIA: I'm sure it won't be easy. Don't worry. Q. Can you tell me approximately, when you kind of redid your swing, how long it took, and if there was a moment where it all kind of came together. SERGIO GARCIA: It was 2003? Early 2003. Right after the Match Play at La Costa. And when did it change? Q. When did you get it? When did you have it all figured out? SERGIO GARCIA: I got it, I remember I played a tournament, I don't know if it was Bridgestone or it was towards the end of the summer. Q. Same year? SERGIO GARCIA: Same year. Yeah. When I played and I felt it. I felt like my swing -- I hit the ball really good and I felt like I was doing what I wanted. And from that moment on it just kept building up. But I can't really remember which tournament it was. So I couldn't tell you for sure. But it probably took about five or six months. Five months. Six months. Q. Could you explain exactly what you did to your swing and in terms that most people could understand, myself included? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah. Mainly, I mean, you can probably see it pretty well if you look at a video footage from maybe 1999 or 2000 and, 2000, probably 2007, 2008. And pretty much what I did is I used to be -- I used to stand a little bit lower, my hands were lower, my shoulders were a bit lower at address. And the start of the swing would be a little bit on the outside and then it will be -- the club will be laid off quite a bit and aiming quite a bit left on top, and then big lag to get it back in line and be able to get behind the ball. So what I did is I stood up, I got probably a little bit closer to the ball, made sure that the start of my swing, those first probably 10, 12 inches would be a bit more in line instead of going so much outside. So that would help me get the club on top a little bit more towards the target. And of course as the club gets longer, it is tougher for me to get it on line because of the length of the shaft. But with my short clubs these days you can see that the top of the back swing is pretty much where I want it. And that helps me get back down on a more similar line to where my -- the top of my -- well, in my back swing where it goes. And because of that it makes me be a little bit more consistent on my path and I don't seem to hook the ball as much as I used to. Like my ball's got a little still -- I still like to shape the ball, but it's got a little bit less shape than it used to. LAURA NEAL: At this time we'll open it up for questions on the phone. Q. There's still a little bit of question on whether Tiger will play at Torrey Pines at the U.S. Open. If you had a preference, or do you have a preference, would you rather have him in the field, and if so, why? SERGIO GARCIA: Definitely. I think that, like I said, we were talking about it before here at the press conference, Tiger is always a big boost for the tournament and for the players. We know that it makes it tougher for us to win the event, but it also drives us to play harder and become a better player. So we hope that he recovers and he makes it to Torrey Pines. Just he needs to make sure he not make too many moves so he doesn't screw up his other knee. Q. You were asked earlier about Torrey Pines and your history at the Buick, curious about your history in the U.S. Open. I know you've had two top-5s at Bethpage and Pinehurst and how do you think your game sort of matches up with the U.S. Open and compared to the other Majors? SERGIO GARCIA: I think it's -- I've always said I feel like when I'm on my game, which I feel good now, unfortunately last couple years I went to the U.S. Open driving the ball badly and that is going to cost you when you get to a U.S. Open. So I feel like nowadays I'm hitting the ball nicely, I'm driving the ball well, and when I do that, the U.S. Open is definitely one of the courses or one of the events that suits me the best. Because even though you still have to putt and chip well because you're going to miss greens and fairways, if your ball striking is good at a U.S. Open, you feel like if you can make a lot of pars you are going to be out there on the weekend. So that's probably why that tournament or that Major sets up well for me. Q. I was wondering, winning the PLAYERS Championship obviously gets your game out of bed a little more and the people are talking about favorites. Do you feel like there's pressure now when you come to tournaments with a bigger title tournament under your belt and how does that pressure affect you? SERGIO GARCIA: No, not at all. At the end of the day I know what I'm capable of doing and that to me, that's the most important thing. I know depending upon how I feel in my game, I know if I'm a favorite at winning an event or not. So that's the only thing I need to focus on. Make sure that I get to the, not only to the U.S. Open, but to this week and to next week with the best chance possible of winning the event and then be able to perform and do it. So I don't really focus about that that much. LAURA NEAL: Any more questions from the phones? All right. We can get one more in here. In the back. Q. Seems like you and Phil are both coming in hot, coming off wins. Can you just talk about trying to win here? And I know you talked a little bit about finishing second. What is it about this place that would -- this would be a valuable title to you? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I mean, how can it not be? It's Jack's event and it's definitely one of the best tournaments we play all year. A great golf course. So any tournament you win out here, it's valuable. And this big one, this big one is even more. So it's always important to at least have a chance to win this tournament. Q. One thing about this tournament that's been unique is the fact that the past three years a lot of people, when the victor has come up at 18, they're thumbing through their media guide to figure out who they were. It's been a tournament where some people have made some major breakthroughs. Why do you think that's been the case on this course? SERGIO GARCIA: I don't know. I think that everybody knows who K.J. Choi is. (Laughter.) Q. I think he means Bart Bryant and Carl Petterson for the less -- SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I mean -- yeah, you know. Q. Tiger Woods? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, what has he won? (Laughter.) No, I think that that happens everywhere. And you got to realize that everybody out here can play the game of golf. And everybody or anybody can win any given Sunday. So, no, it's just a matter of giving them credit that they deserve and I think that all the winners that have won here that they have been great champions and great players and even though if they haven't been as well known as some others, it doesn't mean that they're not very good golfers. Q. I'm sure every time you go to Spain it's a great reception, but was there any more of a sense from the people over there like encouragement like this is your time, kind of your time to shine kind of thing, any of that feeling that you got from the fans? SERGIO GARCIA: They were definitely excited, there's no doubt about that. They were just thrilled for me. They know how hard I've worked on my game. They were very excited that I got a big win under my belt. And they just -- they're just hoping and wishing for me to keep going and they're all very supportive, so it's great to see that your country looks at you. It's actually -- I was actually impressed how many people told me, you know, I can't believe I spent until 2:00 in the morning watching you play and this and that. So that's, that always makes you feel good. LAURA NEAL: Sergio, thank you so much. Have a great week. SERGIO GARCIA: Okay. Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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