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THE TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY COCA-COLASeptember 26, 2008Sergio GarciaATLANTA, GEORGIA LAURA NEAL: Sergio, thanks for coming in. Nice 30 on the front nine to get yourself back in the tournament. Just talk about how the round went today. SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah. Definitely better start than yesterday. Unfortunately not the best finish. The same thing as yesterday. But I played solid today, hit some good shots, hit some good putts, and got it going on the front nine with those four birdies in five holes. And then on the back nine I played pretty good. Probably not as well -- probably a little tougher back nine than front nine. I hit some good putts that kind of went all over the edges, and then birdied 17 and unfortunately bogeyed 18. Overall, a good, solid round, though. Q. Middle of the round yesterday you really kind of turned it around. Slow start, and it looked like you might -- SERGIO GARCIA: Slow? Slower than slow. Q. Any particular thing, maybe a hangover from last week? All of a sudden you're off and running these last 27 holes. SERGIO GARCIA: No, I don't know. Obviously I just didn't get off to a good start. The course was playing tough. The pins were a little bit tougher yesterday, so just one of those things. I didn't hit a good drive on 5. Caught a bad break with the trees and went into the bushes and lost the ball and made double. You know, after that I managed to get it back and it got me going in the right direction. Got some good momentum on my side and started rolling the ball nicely. Made a couple putts here and there. I guess it's just the way the game is, so happy about shooting 5-under today. Q. The conditions of the course, better than you expected, or were they about what you expected? SERGIO GARCIA: Today or? Q. Today. SERGIO GARCIA: The pins were a little bit easier. You could get to some of the pins today. There's no doubt that the officials saw yesterday how tough the course was, and taking away Anthony's round, with this little breeze, it gets quite tricky out there. If you miss the fairway you're pretty much done. Even from the fairway it's still tough, because the greens are so firm and so fast. But today if you played well you had a chance of getting on a roll like I did, and I'm just happy that I got it. Q. Of course everybody is going to be looking at you and Anthony in that final group tomorrow as a little bit of a rematch from last Sunday. I wonder what your thoughts are on that. Is that ancient history to you at this point? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, definitely. I think it's the Saturday of THE TOUR Championship. It's a totally different event. Tomorrow is an important day to give yourself a chance on Sunday. You're not going to win the tournament tomorrow unless you shoot 52 (laughter), so I think tomorrow is important to stay patient, like I've been these days, even if you get off to a rough start. Some bad things are going to happen to you the way the course is playing, so you've just got to stay patient and give it your best out there. Q. Are you aware of how close you and Phil are in the scoring average for the Vardon Trophy? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, actually Carlos -- Q. Could you just talk about that. SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, Carlos told me I think it was a couple days ago. I'm not thinking about it on the course, I can tell you that. But like I said before, the only thing I can do is keep playing well. If I manage to win that, that's a bonus. It would be great. But that's not my goal at the moment. Q. What would that mean to you? Where would you put that type of award? A lot of people think it's kind of the measure of a good year, almost as much as money. SERGIO GARCIA: Obviously it's -- yeah, it's -- Q. It doesn't spend like money, but... SERGIO GARCIA: It's been a good year, no doubt about that. But I think that I'd rather win this week than win -- obviously if I win this week I'm probably going to win that, too (laughter.) Q. So you don't have to choose. SERGIO GARCIA: I just want to focus on that, make sure I have a good, solid weekend, give myself a chance at winning THE TOUR Championship, which is a great event, and finish a good year in a very good manner. I'm looking forward to the challenge, and it should be fun. Q. Is this going to be your last event here in the States this year? You're not playing Fall Series or anything, are you? SERGIO GARCIA: No. I'll play a little bit in Europe. Q. What else do you have in Europe, HSBC? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, we're going to play this new event for the European Tour that is played on my home course, so I'm really looking forward to that. It's going to be one of the highlights of the year for me. And then we play Volvo Masters, Valderrama, and then obviously HSBC, and then a little rest and probably go to South Africa to Sun City. Q. What's your home course like? SERGIO GARCIA: It's great. It's the best (laughter.) Q. Could you give us an idea of what it's like for those of us who haven't been there? SERGIO GARCIA: It's not as tough as this one. But, no, it's good. It's a nice, solid course. We made a couple changes here and there. I think if we manage to get good weather, which we should, and the greens a little firm and stuff, somewhere around probably 15 or 16 under will win. But it's -- I'm really excited to have the opportunity to play. I mean, I've played tournaments there, but I haven't played any European Tour events there or anything like that. So it's going to be very exciting for me to see guys like Angel Cabrera and Henrik Stenson and maybe Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke, Thomas Björn, Paul Casey, guys like that, Justin Rose, coming to my home course and my hometown. You know, I can show them around and hopefully play my golf course and hopefully they'll enjoy it. Q. Did you do any recruiting for it at all? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I tried. The guys have been good. They've been very supportive, and I'm looking forward to it. At the moment it's looking like one of the strongest fields towards the end of the year in Europe, so we're very happy about that. Q. If somebody were to go to the course, what signs would there be that this is where you played, that this is your home course? SERGIO GARCIA: You'll see plenty of pictures and drawings on the clubhouse. No, there's no statues of myself. And then obviously when you get to the pro shop and you see my mom there (laughter), that's a little bit of a clue there, I guess. Q. What's the best round you've ever shot there? SERGIO GARCIA: 62, which is 10-under. I think we're going to play it as par 71, though. Q. How old were you? SERGIO GARCIA: Nine (laughter.) No, I think this was probably about four years ago, something like that. Q. You've been playing that since you were very, very young? SERGIO GARCIA: Since I was -- yeah, since I could walk, yeah. My whole life. Q. And the name of it is? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, the name of the course? Q. Yeah. SERGIO GARCIA: The city is obviously Castillon. The name of the course is Club de Campo del Mediterráneo. It's like the sea. End of FastScripts |
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