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OMEGA DUBAI DESERT CLASSICJanuary 30, 2013Sergio GarciaDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES SARAH GWYNN:ﾃつ Thanks for coming in, welcome to the OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic.ﾃつ You must have quite mixed feeling this is week after last week, a little bit of disappointment but a good week for you? SERGIO GARCﾃδ喉:ﾃつ No, I wouldn't say‑‑ obviously the only thing you can say you can be disappointed of is not making it to the playoff.ﾃつ But, when you get beaten like George and I did, there's nothing you can really be sad about. So I mean, if we would have maybe parred the last or even bogeyed the last, then you can be a little bit disappointed.ﾃつ He birdied the last and I birdied the last, too, and Chris came back and just made a great eagle on the last.ﾃつ You get beaten with that, there's nothing to be disappointed about. SARAH GWYNN:ﾃつ But you're in good form coming into this week.ﾃつ Is this a course you enjoy coming to? SERGIO GARCﾃδ喉:ﾃつ Yeah, I do like the course.ﾃつ I've played okay for the most part here, so yeah, I'm looking forward to it.ﾃつ Obviously coming off a good week last week, and hoping to keep those good feelings going and hopefully have another chance on the weekend like I did last week. Q.ﾃつ Your recent form reversal, has that surprised you somewhat and what has been the major reason behind you coming back into form? SERGIO GARCﾃδ喉:ﾃつ Am I surprised by my form. Q.ﾃつ Given the last couple of years you've tailed off a little bit but your most recent form has been very impressive.ﾃつ Is it something you've changed? SERGIO GARCﾃδ喉:ﾃつ Well, I don't know how far you're going back, but I think the last two years have been good.ﾃつ Obviously with two wins in 2011 on The European Tour to finish the year with, and obviously last year with a couple other wins and The Ryder Cup and everything. So no, I think that it's just, you know, you go through stretches in this game where sometimes your game feels a little bit better and sometimes your head is a little bit better.ﾃつ When that happens, usually things kind of fall into place a little bit better.ﾃつ Obviously if you're fighting demons and your own self while you're on the course, then it becomes tougher.ﾃつ Am I surprised by my form?ﾃつ No.ﾃつ I know that I can do it.ﾃつ I've done it before I've played well through a long stretch of golf through most of my career, so I've been fortunate with that.ﾃつ Just hoping to keep doing the same things. Q.ﾃつ And probably the second part of that question, I guess I was referring specifically to your comments after the third round of the Masters last year when you said you didn't feel maybe you were good enough to win a major.ﾃつ Do you still share that same opinion, or given your strong finish to last year, you sort of are believing that you can crack the major? SARAH GWYNN:ﾃつ Keep the questions to this tournament if you wouldn't mind, that would be great. SERGIO GARCﾃδ喉:ﾃつ Yeah, that was obviously a low moment where I felt like I had a good chance and unfortunately didn't play to the standard that I thought I could.ﾃつ But no, that's passed. Like I said before, we go through stretches where your head thinks a little bit better than others, and probably my head at that time wasn't thinking great.ﾃつ But you know, I really enjoy the way my game has been for the past probably eight months or so.ﾃつ I feel very comfortable with myself.ﾃつ I feel comfortable with my game, even when I had bad rounds. Don't get me wrong, it's not only‑‑ when you play well, it's very easy.ﾃつ Obviously we are going to be there giving it our best shot in every single tournament and the majors and hopefully we'll be able to win as many as possible. Q.ﾃつ Given your ability of ball‑striking and the way you shape your ball on the golf course, are you a little surprised that in five appearances over here on a golf course like this, very traditional golf course, where you need to shape your ball, you've not had a Top‑10 finish? SERGIO GARCﾃδ喉:ﾃつ Well, am I surprised?ﾃつ Maybe a little bit.ﾃつ I guess that maybe I haven't been on top form coming into this week here, coming into this tournament. Obviously two years ago, I was en route to doing that, and got a terrible break on 17 on Saturday, and that kind of backtracked me a little bit.ﾃつ No, I think it should be fine.ﾃつ Hopefully we'll change that this week. Q.ﾃつ Just watching your last round last week and just as Joy talked about, the shaping of the ball with the late birdies, how would you compare your form now?ﾃつ You said you go through periods, and you've been playing a while, for many years, how is your form compared to maybe those times when you were top two or three, and do you sense that you're ready to break into the Top‑10, again, and break that kind of major drought? SERGIO GARCﾃδ喉:ﾃつ Well, has my form‑‑ I feel pretty good about it.ﾃつ Do I feel like it's the best I've played my career?ﾃつ Probably not.ﾃつ But I feel fairly good for the most part. About breaking into the Top‑10, it would be great.ﾃつ It's not something that bothers me at all.ﾃつ It has not bothered me for a while.ﾃつ I've always said it; if I play well, those things will come into play, so I won't have to worry about it.ﾃつ But it's not something that I have in my head thinking, I need to do, that I need to do that.ﾃつ If it happens, great.ﾃつ If not, I'll keep working on it. And then the last question, we'll see.ﾃつ I wish I could tell you the future, but unfortunately, I didn't bring my cards (laughter) but hopefully. Q.ﾃつ How beneficial has your eye surgery been?ﾃつ You had your eyes done, didn't you?ﾃつ How beneficial has that been for your golf, and in what particular areas of the game has it helped you most? SERGIO GARCﾃδ喉:ﾃつ I think it's obviously helped.ﾃつ But how much, I couldn't really tell you.ﾃつ It's not like, I didn't have a lot.ﾃつ My astigmatism wasn't too big. The thing is, I thought I had really good eyesight, which wasn't too bad.ﾃつ Then when I went to the eye doctor and he did the test and I put the contacts on, or glasses, I realized how much better I could see. Once that happens, it's difficult, because I had‑‑ with the contacts, I had a hard time on the golf course.ﾃつ I didn't feel comfortable.ﾃつ My eyes hurt a little bit, but once that happens that you can realise how much better you can see, it's difficult to go back. So I thought, even though I don't have much, I would like to kind of get it sorted so I can see as well as possible.ﾃつ It's obviously helped me; I don't know if I read the greens better or not.ﾃつ I've always felt like I've been a good green reader.ﾃつ It does help me focus on small points or small spots easier than before. So when I'm aiming, it does help me a little bit better to aim because sometimes I used to lose the spot a little bit.ﾃつ It would get a little blurry and then I would lose it.ﾃつ Now I can see a little bit sharper, so it makes it a little bit easier, but I don't know exactly how much it does help.ﾃつ But it obviously helped. Q.ﾃつ Are you one of those players who sits down at the start of each season and sets goals for himself? SERGIO GARCﾃδ喉:ﾃつ Not really. Q.ﾃつ Okay.ﾃつ And‑‑ SERGIO GARCﾃδ喉:ﾃつ So disregard that question then (laughs). Q.ﾃつ Your levels of excitement going into this season, how would they compare to previous seasons? SERGIO GARCﾃδ喉:ﾃつ Excited, like we just talked about, it's been two good years.ﾃつ But more than anything, I'm excited because I know how I'm feeling.ﾃつ I know how my attitude is on the course.ﾃつ I know how my will is to try to do things to get better.ﾃつ So that's very exciting for me. And we had a good start of the season, which is always nice.ﾃつ So I just want to make sure that everything stays the same.ﾃつ Because I'm going to have bad weeks, but if I can manage to stay with the right attitude, even on the bad weeks, it's going to make the year go so easy and so much better. Q.ﾃつ Most excited in quite a while? SERGIO GARCﾃδ喉:ﾃつ I mean, I'm obviously quite excited.ﾃつ I don't know if most excited for a while.ﾃつ But like I said before, I've been very fortunate.ﾃつ I've had a good career and a lot of good years, so I've been excited for a long time, which is good. Q.ﾃつ I know you just got nipped on a par 5 finishing hole but all three holes here in The Desert Swing end on par 5s and wondering, do you like that because it certainly creates the potential for someone like Chris Wood or yourself to hit a hero shot; or you hit it in the water and lose it, it seems like it brings all kind of things into play. SERGIO GARCﾃδ喉:ﾃつ Definitely.ﾃつ I think it's very exciting.ﾃつ You just saw it last week how exciting it can get with George birdieing the last, I birdie the last, and then Chris obviously hits a great drive and has the possibility of eagling the hole to win it outright. So the tournament only will get as exciting as we can make it, but if you have the possibility of, you know, a two‑ or three‑shot swing on the last with an eagle and a par or an eagle and a bogey, something like, that it's obviously the percentages is greater than it would be on a par 4 and a par 3 where most of the times, you might make a birdie, but most of the times, it's going to be a par, maybe a bogey. Yeah, I don't mind it at all.ﾃつ And you know, even though I was on the wrong side of it, sometimes you're on the right; sometimes you're on the wrong side, but I thought it was great for the tournament. Q.ﾃつ Chris Wood was here a brief while back and he mentioned something that he said he would be too embarrassed to tell you, so let me do the honors.ﾃつ He said that he had a notebook when he was in his junior days, and he used to keep all the notes of what his coaches used to tell him, and on one side of the notebook, he had a picture of Tiger Woods stuck, and on the other side of the notebook, he had a picture of you stuck, and he was very happy that he managed to beat you in Doha. SERGIO GARCﾃδ喉:ﾃつ I'm sure he was.ﾃつ (Laughter). Q.ﾃつ What I wanted to ask you, when this kind of thing happens and you know that young players have got a target mark on your back, how does it motivate you to do better?ﾃつ What kind of feelings does it evoke in you? SERGIO GARCﾃδ喉:ﾃつ I think for me, it's great to know that obviously he kind of looked up to me a little bit when he was younger.ﾃつ At the end of the day, we both work hard at what we do and we try to do it the best way possible. For me, it was nice to see him not only eagle the last, but come back after missing out on winning several times.ﾃつ To be able to come back after the double bogey on 3 and be able to win, I think for me that was maybe more impressive than the eagle on the last.ﾃつ Because it's easy to start thinking, oh, here we go again; I'm leading and now I've doubled the third and now everybody is right on my back.ﾃつ That was good to see obviously. I was happy for him.ﾃつ He's a nice guy and he deserves it; he probably deserves a win before last week, but you know, it's okay. Q.ﾃつ When you look back at the two years that you've been playing, is there any aspect of the game, maybe the putting, that's been the big difference?ﾃつ And do you ever think back to the dark days of 2009 and 2010 when you were slumping and falling in the rankings?ﾃつ Did that serve as a reminder of where things could get or would you like to just put that in the dustbin and forget about it and move on? SERGIO GARCﾃδ喉:ﾃつ I've always said that the bad days and things like that or the bad losses, if you take them the right way, they are very good, because you can learn a lot from those days.ﾃつ I think that obviously putting is improved.ﾃつ It's got a lot more consistent.ﾃつ Chipping is improved.ﾃつ Probably my long game is obviously better than it was before. But more than anything, we know how mental this game is.ﾃつ So when your head is thinking properly for most of the part, it does help a lot.ﾃつ I'm happy where I am and you know, always learning from those days and you know, kind of keep moving forward. SARAH GWYNN:ﾃつ Sergio, thanks very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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