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OMEGA DUBAI DESERT CLASSIC

February 11, 2011

Sergio Garcia

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

STEVE TODD: Thanks for joining us, Sergio. Another fine round out there, two 67s, very consistent play from yourself. Just your thoughts on how the two rounds have gone so far.
SERGIO GARCÃA: Yeah, definitely, like you said, it's been nice. I've definitely hit the ball much better than lately, and you know, it's been pretty good so far. It's been enjoyable, and I think the course is playing great. It seems like every day, it's playing a bit harder. The greens were quite firm out there. But even like that, people still managed to shoot nice scores, so it was good to be able to keep up.
STEVE TODD: No bogeys so far this week, and Top-10 finish in Qatar last week, finding a bit of consistency perhaps there, as well.
SERGIO GARCÃA: Well, it has been two good rounds, but the tournament is not over. So I'm definitely looking forward to keeping going. Hopefully like the last four days, I guess I've played.
But yeah, last week, it was nice to play well on the weekend on tough conditions, and then to be able to do it yesterday and today here, and like you said, make no bogeys, it's always special and it's always nice.
STEVE TODD: And an important par save there on 18, as well.
SERGIO GARCÃA: Well, yeah -- yes and no, I guess. It was a shame because I actually had a pretty nice distance but I just didn't trust Glen when he told me the wind was hurting a little bit on the right, and I just felt like I needed to hit it really hard to clear the water, and I kind of pulled it a little bit. Then unfortunately didn't make birdie.
But yeah, I guess made a nice par, and you know, here we go.

Q. After your break, how nice is it just to be competing again? How enjoyable is it?
SERGIO GARCÃA: It's great. It's great but it's nice to do it now. Bahrain wasn't a lot of fun for me. I felt like I wasn't hitting the ball well. I wasn't really enjoying it very much.
I guess when I drive the ball well, my game seems to work nicely. That, my good driving, seems to feed into my iron play. And unfortunately on my new R11 driver, we had the wrong shaft in Bahrain, and it was a little bit too light and I was struggling to hit it, and that was really affecting me a lot.
So we managed to change the shaft last week in Qatar, put my old shaft in, and it definitely worked beautifully. It feels like a different driver to me. And I'm very pleased to be able to hit it well and even a little bit longer.

Q. Is that the most pleasing aspect of your game, your driving? Or are there other parts, like putting, short game, mental approach?
SERGIO GARCÃA: You mean from this week or --

Q. Past two weeks.
SERGIO GARCÃA: Everything. Everything about it. I think that probably putting has been the thing I'm doing the best these three weeks, and it's nice to see my game, my long game catching up with that, like I said for the past probably four or five days.
Yeah, every single bit of it is pleasing to see it happening.

Q. Have you changed anything in your putting that it's gone this way?
SERGIO GARCÃA: Have you not watched it? Only my grip. That's about it. (Laughter).

Q. I haven't seen it up close?
SERGIO GARCÃA: You need to get out there.

Q. I was out there.
SERGIO GARCÃA: Oh, sorry. You don't follow anybody outside the Top-50 in the world, is it? (Laughter) I understand, I would do the same thing.

Q. I promise I'll watch you tomorrow?
SERGIO GARCÃA: No, don't worry, you don't need to.

Q. You had some time away; what did you do to get sort of back on an even keel so you can start enjoying yourself again away from golf? Did you do skiing or play a lot of football?
SERGIO GARCÃA: We did go to the place we have in Switzerland, and spent a beautiful Christmas, but we do that every year. But no, just mainly enjoy time with the family. Played a lot of football. Played a lot of tennis, paddle tennis. Pretty much anything but playing golf, a little bit of poker here and there. So, it was great. I enjoyed every minute of it. And now, it feels like finally my game is coming along, and I'm able to enjoy myself a little bit out there a bit more.

Q. Do you talk much with Rafael Nadal at all?
SERGIO GARCÃA: Here and there.

Q. Does he give sort of any tips or anything?
SERGIO GARCÃA: Not so much -- we don't give tips to each other. It's mainly just checking up on how he's doing or how am I doing, and then just encouragement. Like come on, I hope you have a great year and have a great week this week and things like that.

Q. You said the game seems to be coming back, but the smile is still missing from your face most of the time?
SERGIO GARCÃA: You think so? (Laughter).

Q. You are so much more serious on the golf course?
SERGIO GARCÃA: I'm 31. (Laughter) I'm not 20 anymore. (Smiling).

Q. Is it because of the frustration of the game that you had or --
SERGIO GARCÃA: I don't see it. I think that obviously you take away Bahrain and maybe the first couple of rounds of Qatar, I think after that, it's been great.
You know, I'm not just going to smile on the course because you want me to. I'm going to smile because I feel like smiling. So that's the way it is, and that's the way I've always been. So that's not going to change.

Q. And the Chris DiMarco-style of putting --
SERGIO GARCÃA: It's a Claw, but it's different, it's a totally different grip.

Q. When did you start using that?
SERGIO GARCÃA: I've been thinking about it. I've been thinking about it for a while. The thing is, you know, when I'm confident, when I'm feeling good, my normal grip works great. But if there's a little bit of doubt in my head, that's when it starts breaking down a little bit.
With this, it feels like even moments where I was out there where I was feeling the pressure and important putts that I needed to make and stuff like that, this way, I kind of -- I have no pressure at all on the right hand, and it feels likes I can just swing the putter with my left hand. And the consistency on the putts, I've always said it; you guys have asked me a million, a hundred million times, and I've always said it.
To me, the most important thing, is I'm going to miss putts, I know that. Because sometimes you read it wrong or whatever, a little gust of wind comes up or something.
But most important thing to me is to feel like I've hit a good putt as soon as I've hit the putt. If I hit a good putt and I miss it, I can deal with it. That, to me is good putting. Even if I miss it. That's still good putting.
The problem is, hitting a putt and as soon as you hit it, knowing it's not going to go in. That gets frustrating. Yeah, at the moment, it feels great and I'm loving every minute of it. Just keep going with it.

Q. Seeing your name on the leaderboards, Qatar and here, are you getting the buzz and the adrenaline rush back, and did you miss that?
SERGIO GARCÃA: The buzz and the adrenaline has always been there. The problem is when you finish 30th, it's definitely not to the amount that when you're out there trying to win a tournament or trying to finish Top-5 or something like that. It's a different feeling.

Q. It's a different buzz than where you are now and where you were in Qatar, top of the leaderboard; good feeling.
SERGIO GARCÃA: Definitely. Definitely. Always.

Q. Is there any sense of shock or embarrassment when you saw how far you had fallen in the World Ranking?
SERGIO GARCÃA: Not at all. Not at all no. I was exactly where I needed to be or what I deserved to be. No, not at all.
I wasn't -- you know, I got to a point where I didn't even know exactly where I was because I just deserved to be there. You can't expect to be No. 2 in the world or No. 5 in the world or No. 8 in the world if you can't finish inside the Top-30 in a tournament.
STEVE TODD: Many thanks for joining us.

End of FastScripts

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