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WGC CA CHAMPIONSHIP

March 10, 2009

Sergio Garcia

MIAMI, FLORIDA

CHRIS REIMER: Welcome Sergio GarcÃa to the interview room here at the World Golf Championships CA Championship. Just talk about coming to Doral and how you feel about coming to this event and the state of your game right now.
SERGIO GARCIA: It's good. I feel great. It's always good fun to come back to Miami, a place with so many Latin Americans. It's always good fun to come back to this course, and looking forward to it.
I feel like the game is in good shape. Unfortunately I struggled a little bit last week with the greens. I just couldn't read them very well. But I'm looking forward to it. I feel like pretty much the whole game is in good shape, and been doing a little bit of work with my dad and Stan Utley, and should be geared up for this week.

Q. With the Masters around the corner, what advice would you give to those players playing for the first time at Augusta?
SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I think that, just try to enjoy it as much as possible. It is a very hard golf course, and it's become very, very difficult in the past, probably five or six years.
But you know, just enjoy the moment. I think not a lot of people get the chance to go there and play, so just take your chances and hopefully it will come around the right way.

Q. Not only you, Sergio, but a lot of people appeared to have trouble with the greens last week. Was there a particular thing about those greens, the layout or the speed or anything?
SERGIO GARCIA: Well, don't get me wrong, they were in very good shape. They were just very grainy. It was Bermuda grass, but they were very, very grainy. You know, the grain was going in a lot of different directions. And it was tough. Some putts, you were reading the grain and you would think it would go left-to-right, and it wouldn't.
And the next one, when it looked like it shouldn't go, then it would. It's just one of those things, one of those weeks where you can't get it right, and they were a little bit tricky.
It's a wonderful golf course. PGA National is one of the best we play all year.

Q. I wonder if you could describe your relationship with Camilo, in English, and he mentioned last week at Honda about him sort of talking to you last year at Wachovia; that you were better than this. Do you remember that conversation and what your reaction was?
SERGIO GARCIA: I do. Not only with him, but with my caddie, Glenn. We had a little chat. I was a little bit down, because I felt like I was playing better than what I was really getting to, and yeah, we kind of -- I remember perfectly. We went for dinner and we just had a little chat between us, and yeah, just kind of pushing me on a little bit and making myself believe in -- making me believe in myself a little bit. And it really helped. We were all trying to help each other, and it worked pretty good for me.

Q. Can you describe your relationship with him and how long it's gone back?
SERGIO GARCIA: Our relationship, I think, it's very good, very easy. We are good friends on TOUR. We met here on TOUR and we have hung around quite a bit. Obviously both being Spanish speakers helped.
You know, we just have been fond of each other for the past four or five years. It's been very simple to get along.

Q. Do you work out together?
SERGIO GARCIA: Sometimes, yeah.

Q. I was curious, because you obviously came very close to the Open and the PGA the last few years, but looking at your results in the Masters and the U.S. Open, they have been shockingly poor for a player of your ability for the last three years. I wonder if you thought about why that might be, the strange split in the two halves of the year.
SERGIO GARCIA: Well, that's one of the things why I'm kind of changing my scheduling a little bit for the Masters this year. I want to play the week before in Houston and see how that works, get some momentum going into the Masters.
Then U.S. Open, unfortunately, I just haven't played well the last couple of years. Last year, I played good. Unfortunately the last day, I just didn't putt well. I had a shocking start of the tournament. I was like 6-over through seven and still managed to get back with a chance of winning on Sunday, and so I thought that was a good fight back.
But other than that, it's just not being able to play as well as I usually do, and you know, that's pretty much it.
But I'm planning on trying to change that this year, and hopefully it will work out good.

Q. Since you're the older of the two, are you at all a mentor to Camilo or is it an equal kind of friendship?
SERGIO GARCIA: I wouldn't say I'm a mentor to him. You know, we are not that different in age, only like probably about 2 1/2, three years.
When he has questions or he has something that is bothering him and he wants to ask me, I'm there for him, in the same way that I know he's there for me.
I think that we all have our way of finding ourselves and finding our games. It always nice to get some help, but at the end of the day, you still have to be able to do it your own way, the way it feels. Because what might feel good for me might not feel great for him, so you still need to find your own way of doing things.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about what you want to become better at this year, if you think it's mental, physical and technical?
SERGIO GARCIA: Everything. (Laughter).
We always work at trying to get better. The beauty of this game is that you can get better at any part, anything you do, you can always be a little bit better.
I think there's no doubt that there's always big improvement on the mental side in this game. We know how much you can improve in that.
I think physically, I worked quite hard for the last two, 2 1/2 years, and I've become a lot better there.
And the game is in great shape, but you always try to improve on every single aspect of it.

Q. Do any of the younger guys come to you, the 23, 25, 26-year-old guys, do they come to you with questions? And if so, do you feel somehow older than your 29 years at times out here?
SERGIO GARCIA: I hope not. It's funny, in a way, because yeah, I am 29. I don't feel old. I have been out here for 11 years now. This is my 11th season. But it doesn't feel like I've been out here for that long. It's funny how it works, because you've been out here for quite a while, but it feels like it was only three or four years ago when you started, and I'm not ten or 11.
Well, some do. Like, for example, Alvaro Quiros, up-and-coming in Spain, won in Qatar and played his first U.S. tournament two weeks ago at the Match Play; he does kind of ask me a little bit about scheduling, which tournaments he would rather play and the kind of courses that would fit him a little better, things like that.
But like I said before, you can give a little bit of advice, but at the end of the day, everybody has got to find their own way of doing what's right for them.

Q. The No. 1 ranking in the world is actually within reach. What would it mean to you to actually become No. 1 in the world?
SERGIO GARCIA: It would be great, but you know, it's pretty much that. It would be nice to accomplish something like that, and more than anything, when Tiger is around in Tiger's around, which is even tougher, but you can't see more than that on it. That's pretty much the only thing about it.

Q. Have you been thinking about it a lot? Has this been in your mind as far as a lead goal recently to obtain the No. 1 ranking?
SERGIO GARCIA: Not that much. Obviously, it is a little bit because you have a chance. If you don't have a chance, then there's no way of thinking about it. But you do have a chance.
But no, not a lot. I think that -- I've always said this, that the only thing I can do and the only thing I can control is myself and my game. If I manage to play the way I know how to play, and perform the way I know how to perform, the rest will come with it.
Like No. 2 player in the world came at me last year just by playing well, being consistent and believing in my own ability. If I manage to do that, and that gets me to No. 1, that would be perfect. If not, that means there's someone better than me, and I can't control that.

Q. To what degree is Doral a tournament you look forward to and maybe circle on your calendar?
SERGIO GARCIA: Doral? Well, first of all, like I said, it's a World Golf Championships, which is always one of the biggest ones we play all year. And then, like I said, I like the course. I enjoy the course. I enjoy the city. It's a great city. There's a lot of Spanish speakers here, and it just makes it a little bit more special to come back here, being Spanish and everything.

Q. Which would mean more to you, to become No. 1 in the world or to win a major?
SERGIO GARCIA: Win a major.

Q. Why is that?
SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I think that being No. 1 in the world is great, but I would rather win a major. It's just the way I feel; if I had to choose between the two. I would rather take both. (Laughter).
CHRIS REIMER: Sergio, good luck in that effort and good luck this week.

End of FastScripts

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