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HP BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIPMay 26, 2011Sergio GarciaIRVING, TEXAS THE MODERATOR: We welcome our 2004 Champion, Sergio Garcia. Sergio T-12 at THE PLAYERS, T-16 at the Crowne Plaza, at Colonial, last two starts. Good round today. Talk about the round and the golf course and how you saw it. SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, no, it was definitely a nice round to start the week. Today was the first day I saw the course because of not being able to play Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I think it looked good after the storm. Obviously there are marks on the greens, but I was impressed how well the greens rolled. They were nice. With the good weather, and we're supposed to get that and the wind we're supposed to get, I think it's going to firm up quickly and the golf course played very nicely. THE MODERATOR: Talk about what kept you from playing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. SERGIO GARCIA: Disappointed on Monday to have to pull out of the qualifier for the British Open, which is my favorite tournament to play and just a little bit of an infection in my finger on the left hand, nail infection. It got so sore that I couldn't really grip the club properly. Well, but the good thing is that the doctors and the people here on the TOUR helped me out Monday, Tuesday and yesterday, and it definitely feels better. Just a little sore but definitely I can play without having to think about it, which is good. Q. Were there any thoughts about possibly, you know, not playing? SERGIO GARCIA: On Tuesday there was -- on Tuesday I didn't think I had a chance of playing. It was so sore I just -- I thought there was no chance. But we worked on it on Tuesday, they gave me some antibiotic cream, and I kept putting on that cream and taking the antibiotics. Yesterday it was sore. If yesterday was the first round, I probably could have forced it, but we didn't want to do it in the Pro-Am and having to pull out, and the good thing now is it felt good. Obviously I didn't need to hit any shots that hurt it and it's just -- it's not a bother, so it's good. Q. You didn't play the course yesterday, but what did you do golfwise? Were you able to swing at all yesterday? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I did a little bit. I obviously played five holes on Monday at the qualifying but couldn't really do too much. Tuesday I didn't do anything at all. We actually were shooting a photo shoot for Adidas, and I hit one shot and I said "I'm not here anymore", so we were faking every shot. Then yesterday we went to the range in the morning, I was supposed to play the Pro-Am in the morning, and I tried a little bit on the range, probably hit, I want to say, about 20, 25 balls and it was just sore enough to be concerned about it. So we decided not to play yesterday, just putted a little bit and rested it and kept cleaning it and taking care of it, and this morning, so not much at all, no, unfortunately. Q. Sergio, with all the young players out here and more coming out here all the time hard to think of you as a grizzled veteran, but what you do with your equipment? Has that changed the longer you are out here? Are you more technical now with your equipment than when you came out here as a 19 year old kid? Have you changed much on equipment? SERGIO GARCIA: No, I don't think I've changed much. I haven't changed much on the way I look at equipment. TaylorMade comes out with a new club and it's something I think I can use, I put it straightaway in the bag. For me it's about feel. If I like it, if it looks good and then when I hit it I feel like I can control what I want to do with that club and control the ball flight and everything, that's good enough for me. I trust my partners. I trust TaylorMade and Adidas as much as, whatever, we've been together for 12, 13 years, so I know everything they're bringing me is great. If when I hit it, feels good, it's going straight in the bag. Q. Is that different from when you were 19? SERGIO GARCIA: Not really. Q. Can you talk about the eagle, obviously not having had a lot of practice, to come out and eagle? SERGIO GARCIA: I guess it's funny how golf is sometimes. Yeah, rarely practice at all and then we get there and I was fortunate because I hit my driver right but I caught a good lie. I had a clear shot over some trees and it was only about 118 yards. I hit a nice shot, I thought, you know, I was thinking if I hit a good shot -- the pin was tucked right, it was a good pin but I thought if I hid a good shot with a sand wedge I could start with a birdie and, or whatever and then calm me down after everything that's been going on through the week. And I hit it and I saw guys on the green saying "in" and I thought, perfect! (Laughter.) I couldn't have started in a better way. Q. Sergio, since you missed the Pro-Am yesterday, you didn't get a chance to see the greens after the storm. How were they rolling for you? SERGIO GARCIA: Even though there are a lot of marks from the hail that came down on Tuesday night, the greens rolled very nicely. Obviously the TOUR did a great job in repairing the hail marks, and it's difficult to know what is a ball mark and what is a hail mark. But they rolled great; they were at a nice speed. Even after all the rain, they weren't -- they were softish but not very, very soft, and I think they're going to get firm quickly with the good weather we're supposed to have so I think it recovered nicely, definitely. Q. Was that a sand wedge for eagle? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah. Q. Talk about the sense of urgency, not in the British Open, the sense of urgency to get in the U.S. Open. SERGIO GARCIA: There is no urgency at all. If I get to the U.S. Open, I'll be happy as Larry; if I don't, I'll go back home. At the end of the day, it's not the end of the world if for whatever reason I happen not to qualify for the U.S. Open. I would love to be in it, but if I don't, I'm not going to go home and start crying. Hopefully there are many more years of U.S. Open to come to play. Definitely I'm going to be trying hard to get in it. Q. If you don't make top-50 will you try to qualify? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I will come back and try to qualify and probably play if we don't win and make it into the top 50. Q. Sergio, were there holes where you had to fix several divots? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah. Q. How many? SERGIO GARCIA: Every hole. 18 is probably the worst, 18 and the putting green. But there are little marks here and there, but it's fine. The good thing is by the end of the week, with all of us repairing all of these things, the course is going to look pretty good. (Laughter). Q. Sergio, you talked last week opening with a 66 and you were talking about how you needed to string four rounds together, obviously a nice start today. Do you put that in perspective in terms of, okay, let's see what happens the next three days and how you play? SERGIO GARCIA: The only thing I can do is try my best. Then hopefully I go through my rounds the way I should and thinking the right things and feeling good about the game and hopefully things happen for me. If that happens, then we will be out there, if not, we will fight. So I cannot see the future, I wish I could. I'll definitely give it my best shot. Q. Change the subject a little bit. I know that The Ryder Cup decision was way down the line when things happened four weeks ago, but were you surprised that they chose France and didn't decide to go to Spain after the death? SERGIO GARCIA: Not really. I think that if The Ryder Cup would have been next year, I think it probably would have gone to Spain. But I think, you know, being 2018, I think France was pushing hard to try to get it, France and Germany and Portugal, and I'm happy to see it go to France. I think we all deserve it in Europe. It's not -- we've had some great French players playing in the Ryder Cup, so it should be good. The course -- I think it's a great course for Ryder Cup, too. Q. I've heard different things that ball in hand is worth two shots in a round. Yet we didn't see a lot of low scores today. Was it the fact of the northwest wind? What was the reason the course played more difficult than I think a lot of guys thought it was going to? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I think that surprisingly -- there were some good pins out there. I think this course has changed from maybe five or six years ago when it was much shorter. There are holes there that are really good holes now. I think that, yeah, the little bit of wind that was coming from different direction, I think the course was drier than maybe we expected it to be, so some of the pins weren't that easy to get to. I think there were a lot of good pins out there, too. It was probably easy to make par but tough to make birdie on some of those holes. Q. How much are your thoughts with Seve, and do you think about him on the course? SERGIO GARCIA: It might come through once in a while but when you're on the course you're obviously focusing on what you're trying to do. It's unfortunate, you know, people die every day so obviously, last week a cousin of mine died, too. It's the way of life. We're all going to be there one day. You obviously care but at the end of the day you have to move on. I think that niece a better place now. We'll see him again. Q. Seve -- SERGIO GARCIA: This one is for you, Seve. (Pointing up). THE MODERATOR: Did you want to wait for him to answer that? Just put "Seve didn't answer." (Laughter). Q. I thought I heard you a couple of weeks ago you say you weren't going to do the qualifier. Have you changed your mind on that? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I was thinking that -- the hope is still that I play well enough this week that I don't have to do it. But at the same time, with what happened with the British Open qualifier and everything, I think that I'm willing to make a little bit of an effort. I was looking forward to, after playing four weeks in a row, which I usually don't do, taking a couple of weeks off but will end up only taking five or six days off and then come back and play the qualifier in Memphis. My sister is coming for the U.S. Open, so I wanted to try to make it so they can see me, both her and her boyfriend. That would be nice. I'm going to give it my best shot and like I said, if we get it, we get into the tournament, it will be great. I love playing the U.S. Open. If not, then we'll go back to Europe and just watch it on TV. Q. I know that they always say streaks are made to be broken but the fact you played every Major since '99, talk about what a large presence you've been in the game. Does that mean something to you? You don't want to give up your streak without giving it a fight? SERGIO GARCIA: No, it doesn't mean anything to me. Some people focus about records and things like that. I just -- I just want to do the best I can and I want to enjoy what I do. I want to be the best person I can be and try to help as many people as I can. It's going to be a time if not this year, there is going to be a time where I'm not going to play a Major and my streak is going to go. No, it doesn't bother me. Q. How much when you come back here do you think about that first competitive round that you played and ended up shooting 62 or something like that that first day? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, it was a while back. Obviously it was at the other course, and like we were talking about, it was a different course. This course is playing much tougher now. I mean, I remember today getting to -- into the second hole. I remember we used to hit 8-irons into that par 3 and today was a 5-iron, but 18, it's tougher now, and 15, it's always been a tough, good, challenging hole, but the 4th hole is tougher. The 8th hole has always been a tough hole; 9 is obviously tougher than it used to be. The course overall is much more challenging than it used to be. Obviously if you play well you can shoot a really good score, but there is always a bit of wind here and it makes it play a little bit tougher than if it was nice and calm. Q. Given your wins in both Dallas and Ft. Worth, is there any comfort level in coming back here? SERGIO GARCIA: Obviously, yeah, all those good vibes help. It doesn't mean that -- when you go back to a course that you've done well and won, it's always nice, it's helpful. But it doesn't -- you don't get on the first tee and you're 1 or 2-under. It might happen on the second like it did today (Laughter.) If you get lucky, but you all start even and we have to play well. Nobody gives anything away here, so it is nice but doesn't really mean anything when it comes down to the week. Q. With six of the top-10 now being European players and it seems as if all this discussion last night, Ernie's quotes about Wentworth and the changes and the BMW is becoming the big thing, is it really becoming more and more competitive between the European Tour and the PGA TOUR? Do guys talk about that stuff? SERGIO GARCIA: I don't know, I had the day off so I went and watched "Pirates of the Caribbean" so I didn't watch Golf Channel (Laughter). I think it's great to see the Europeans up there and making the European Tour stronger. I think they're great; that's why I joined both of them, and I try to play as much as I can in both of them, but which one is the best? It's hard to say. I probably think that the U.S. TOUR has been on top of the European Tour. I think in the last few years because of more ranking points and stuff you could probably say now the European Tour, but week-in-week-out the fields on the U.S. TOUR are stronger than on the European Tour. Obviously you get good fields, but week-in-week-out this is probably more consistent. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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