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THE BARCLAYS

August 23, 2008

Sergio Garcia

PARAMUS, NEW JERSEY

STEWART MOORE: Sergio, thank you for spending time with us in the interview room here at The Barclays. Six birdies and four bogeys, you started the day trailing Steve Stricker who a lot of people thought were going to run away with this thing, and now he's come back to the field and you are in prime position going into tomorrow.
SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, obviously the good start helped. I knew that the course -- well, I mean, actually I was surprised when I was practicing on the putting green, with the good scores and everything, because yesterday, the greens were quite firm in the morning. I obviously thought the greens might have been a little bit softer today and stuff, and they were for the first two or three holes, but then all of a sudden, they changed dramatically with the heat and everything. They got extremely firm, and it became quite difficult to be able to hit the ball somehow close to the hole and in some holes, even to hit the green.
You know, overall, I think it's still a pretty good, solid round. It wasn't easy. It wasn't playing easy at all. So we have a good chance tomorrow, so looking forward to that.

Q. You've won this event before, and you also won THE PLAYERS Championship earlier this season. Can you talk about your experiences in this event and earlier this year will help you tomorrow in probably getting a chance to win this?
SERGIO GARCIA: It's a different tournament. Obviously it's nice -- it's always nice to win. That's what we work for. It always gives you a little bit of confidence. But it's a different day, it's a different golf course, a different tournament, and you've just got to go out there and believe in yourself, believe in your ability to play the game, and you know, hopefully play well enough to win.
If not, at least have a chance at it, and you know, keep learning from it.

Q. I think I counted 20 people within four shots of the lead ten minutes ago before you finished. What does that mean in terms of what it's going to take to win tomorrow? Is it going to take 64 or 65, and is that out there?
SERGIO GARCIA: For the guys at 7-under, I don't think we need a 64, 65. Even more, with the good weather predictions, the course, you also have how it changed the last 12 holes or so. So it's not going to be easy.
You've got to be patient. Obviously if you're 4-under, you might need maybe a 65. I think, like I said at the beginning of the week, I think somewhere around 10-under or maybe just below that might win. I don't think it's going to go to more than 11 the way this course is playing at the moment.

Q. Could you just talk about the quality of the names on the leaderboard, you and Vijay and Paul Casey and Mike Weir, a couple major winners and some guys who have been around the block once or twice; should be a pretty exciting finish.
SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, it's great. Very jam-packed leaderboard, and a lot of different possibilities that can come out of it, and we're looking forward to giving it a run and hopefully be one of the guys that will have a chance going into the back nine.
So we'll see how it plays, but it should be a very exciting finish to the first Playoffs tournament.

Q. Any shots today that you were particularly happy with?
SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, obviously it's always nice to start the way I did with a great drive and a lob-wedge to about a foot and a half.
There's probably two shots that stand out more than others. Obviously the birdie on 9 was great, the 9-iron I hit out of the bunker, after not hitting a great drive. That was nice, because it also put a stop to a bogey/bogey run.
And then the next birdie, the birdie on 10, not a birdie that you expect, 238 into the wind, a little bit downhill and the green really firm. I hit a great 4-iron to the middle of the green pretty much trying to make a 3 and rolled it beautifully into the hole and I was happy to kind of steal one from the rest of the field there.

Q. How much would it mean to you, after coming so close at the PGA, a nice bounce back, how much would it mean to you to win after?
SERGIO GARCIA: Winning is always great and it's always a boost of confidence. Like I said before, you know, this is what we practice for. This is where we put all of the hours. So, it's great.
But like I've always said, you know, at least being out there and giving yourself a chance; obviously you are probably going to lose more than you're going to win throughout your career if your name is not Tiger Woods. But it's all about that, you know. He does that better than anybody else. He's up there pretty much week-in, week-out, and that's what we all work for, hoping the more chances we give to ourselves, the greater the percentage we have of winning.
So it will be great, but if not, at least content and give myself a shot.

Q. How have you played the fifth hole this week? Are you pretty much banging driver up there pretty time or have you mixed it up, and in the broader picture, are you a fan of the short holes? There's a good one next week in Boston, the fourth hole, which a lot of crazy things happened there last year.
SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I remember that. No, I've gone for the green every day. Today we hit 3-wood, because it was a little bit downwind on the front, and it was a front pin, and you didn't want to be over the green and then chipping down the hill because it's really, really quick.
So I managed to finally birdie today, and the other two days -- yesterday, I had a huge horseshoe for birdie with my chip, and just made par on the first day.
You know, if I feel good, I'd like to go for it. I feel like, you know, if your shot is not terribly bad, you always have a chance of making birdie around the green. Most of the times, you're not going to make more than par.
If you lay up, and you can hit a good shot and it skips over the green, you know, you fly it two yards too far and it skips over the green or something like that and you make bogey, it feels like you kind of -- you kind of feel bad with yourself. You feel like, you know, "I haven't gone for it and I'm making bogey; what the hell am I thinking." (Laughter).
If I feel comfortable, I like to go for it, hit it up there or around the green or somewhere around it and just deal with what I get.

Q. I know you're a soccer fan where there's no real post-season; what do you make of this post-season? Does it have any particular meaning for you, versus, say, winning a tournament?
SERGIO GARCIA: Are we talking golf or soccer?

Q. Golf.
SERGIO GARCIA: I mean, obviously it means -- you mean the Playoffs?

Q. Yes.
SERGIO GARCIA: Obviously it means a lot, or I would not be here. Like I said I think two or three days ago, it's a nice way to finish the year here in the U.S. I think it's exciting, not only for us, but for the fans to get a good stretch of three or four weeks where things -- the majors and everything are gone. It's nice to see them get excited about something else before we get to THE TOUR Championship.
It's always great, and I mean, I love it. I think for me, I said it since the first day they decided to do it, I think for me it works great, because it helps me -- maybe I play a little bit more. I still play the same amount of events, but I play more closer together and then I get a little bit more time off to come back home and maybe play a little bit more in Europe and take care of The European Tour that also deserve to see me a little bit.

Q. Do you think the winner is going to have to win a tournament to win the whole Playoffs?
SERGIO GARCIA: I think the way it's set up this year, you probably don't need to win a tournament to win the whole thing. Obviously if somebody wins more than once, then you do need to win I think.
But if there's different winners, if you manage to finish Top-5, Top-3, something like that, I think you can have a chance. So you know, I'd love to obviously win a couple and make it a little bit easier on myself. But if not, the good thing I know is that there's still three weeks to go and you know, just got to keep giving yourself chances.

Q. There's a little bit of a tournament within a tournament going on with Paul Casey for the European Ryder Cup, and the Americans kind of jockeying for places. Paul said he was actually keeping a little bit of an eye on the American side; are you paying attention to Paul or to the Americans or what's happening with that?
SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, obviously Kenny is on the team, and I had the pleasure of playing with him today. Yeah, you look a little bit and see how he's doing, but you don't want to get ahead of yourself. We're here at The Barclays and that's what you want to take care of, and when the Ryder Cup comes, we'll get into it.
You don't want to get your mind thinking about or getting too far forward. So at the end of the day, you've just got to be patient and got to be committed and focused in what you're trying to achieve this week.

Q. But as far as who is going to make the team, are you keeping an eye on that?
SERGIO GARCIA: Definitely. Obviously I saw that Poulter missed the cut which is not going to help him much. Paul is up there which he's not on the team yet. A couple things are happening in Europe, too, at the Dutch Open (KLM Open). Yeah, we have tomorrow, one more week to go, and we're excited and we'll see how it all turns out.
STEWART MOORE: Sergio, thank you so much and good luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

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