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ABU DHABI HSBC GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPJanuary 15, 2014Sergio GarciaABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES SCOTT CROCKETT: Thank you, as always, for joining us. Sergio, welcome back to Abu Dhabi. Looking at your record there, your five appearances here, never outside the Top 15, it's obviously a venue you enjoying playing. SERGIO GARCIA: Thanks, Scott, happy new year to everyone. Yeah, like you said, it is a course where I've done fairly well through the past. So I'm excited to start the year here this new season, and then hopefully we can keep on the same track and do nicely and start the year the way you always wish to start it. SCOTT CROCKETT: You finished well with the victory in Thailand; did that give you the impetus to come out fighting almost in the new year? SERGIO GARCIA: Yes, but I wouldn't say only the victory. I think that last season was a very consistent, solid season for me, a lot of good finishes, probably we ended up winning in Thailand but we probably had at least three or four really good chances of winning other than Thailand. So yeah, it was nice to do, and you know, excited to keep going in the same direction. We all know, Ryder Cup here, so how important it is for all of us here, so it would be nice to get going like we did last year and kind of make sure you get your nose way into that Ryder Cup Team. SCOTT CROCKETT: And you played nine holes yesterday, you said, just your thoughts on the golf course, looking great. SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, I think it looks the best I've seen it any other year. I think the rough is thicker than it's been. It's very, very consistent. Fairways and greens are looking very, very nice. The greens are rolling very nicely, and the weather is like it usually is here, quite nice. So it looks like everything is ready for a great venue. Q. How pleasing was that form at the end of last year, and is there anything you can put your finger on that really clicked it into top gear for you? SERGIO GARCIA: I think like I said, the whole year was good. If you take away probably about three months in the middle of the season where we all know what happened, but other than that, I think that I started the year very nicely last year with a lot of good, high finishes, with three good chances of winning, and then I finished the year quite strongly again. That was nice to see. I think it was just the combination of confidence, feeling good, feeling good about myself, feeling good on the golf course and just let things happen a little bit. So you know, we've just got to try to keep doing similar things. Q. Early season, is it hard to gauge how you're hitting the ball or your game at the moment and perhaps manage your expectations, and how confident are you going into this week, and if you were able to lift the trophy on Sunday, what would that do in terms of confidence for the rest of the season? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, winning here and starting the year with a win would be great. It would be a dream come true obviously. But yeah, it is difficult to gauge exactly how well you're feeling. I guess as the week goes on and as I'm out there hitting the shots, I'll see how comfortable or how uncomfortable I feel in some of the situations. There's obviously going to be a little bit of rust, there's no doubt about that, but hopefully we can kind of scrape that off quickly and get going the way we played last season. So, we'll see. Q. You missed out on the last Ryder Cup on this side of the Atlantic at Wales; how tough was that at the time and how important is it to be at Gleneagles in September for you? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, it was tough, Martin, I think that like I said before, we all know how much we care about The Ryder Cup and especially me and‑‑ but at that time, it was the right thing. I guess that I needed to see things from a different perspective to realise what was going on. And it was nice to at least be a part of it in a different way, but at least be a part of it, be there, and feel the warmth of the people and the energy of The Ryder Cup. You know, I'm excited. I'm excited to play well. I'm excited to make that Ryder Cup Team for Scotland, and you know, it's in my plans, so hopefully we'll be there. Q. You're one of the few stars who had a little bit of issues with the Final Series last year, and you decided not to play the DP World Tour Championship. Have you had a word with the Tour about this year's format and can you say at this moment you will be playing the DP World Tour Championship? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, it's difficult to say or know what's going to happen in ten months or so. Obviously I did talk to George and Keith and the rest of the group. We tried to figure out the best way possible. I think they realised that for players like me that play on both tours, it's difficult to put ourselves in so much pressure of playing a lot of tournaments in a row, because our season is so compact in the U.S. that we play a lot of tournaments, and for me, that's what happened last year. I played eight out of nine weeks during the summer, or eight out of ten weeks, something like that, and it was just a lot of golf. I needed to rest a little bit, and that was towards the end of the year was when I could take a couple‑‑ when I was able to take a couple breaks. And if I wanted to, I mean, I wanted to play Dubai, but for me to qualify for it, I needed to play another pretty much six out of seven weeks or something like that. So it was just too much for me, thinking‑‑ not about last year, but thinking about this season, but how I would start the season, maybe only having four weeks off in December, December and January, and coming from playing so much late in the season. It was disappointing. I would loved to be in Dubai and play there, but it's one of those things that happened, and I'm sure that we will fix it and we can all move forward and do the right things. Q. A few years ago, it looked as if you were falling out of love with the game but you're back in the Top‑10 of the World Rankings now. Was there one moment when you sort of rekindled your appetite, or was it in that Ryder Cup being cheerleader? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, that definitely helped, The Ryder Cup in Wales for sure helped. I think kind of disconnecting a little bit from the game, not for that much, but for that month, month and a half, that I took off, obviously helped me to calm down a little bit, think about everything that was going on in my life, and kind of tried to refocus it. You know, after that, I started the year, I started the next year, with good attitude, with good energy, with some good feelings going on and kind of helped me get going a little bit. And then it's been better and better every year I guess. Q. As you referred to, things turned sour for awhile last year after Wentworth; when did you emerge from that, and again, how satisfying was it to end in the Top‑10 having put that behind you? SERGIO GARCIA: I don't know exactly how long, but it was probably a tough, I would say, three months at least. But like I said, it was a good learning experience. I thought that, you know, we learned a lot from it, and you know, I think that it made us even stronger. You know, it's been nice to kind of play a little bit, maybe not think so much about it, and then just kind of get your game in shape, your head on the right way. Just kind of play the game. Q. In an ideal world, an ideal world‑‑ SERGIO GARCIA: Unfortunately we don't have it at the moment (laughing). Q. If you had your way, would you play before a major championship, or not, the week before? SERGIO GARCIA: It's hard to say. I think that for me, just kind of depends a little bit on the schedule. There are some weeks where I like to take off before a major and some others. I don't know exactly‑‑ I think that playing maybe one or two weeks before, it's not too bad. What is probably not ideal is to play three or four and then having to play the major; being the major like the fourth or the fifth week in a row, because Majors take so much, not only physically but mentally, and if you're coming into a major a little bit on the empty side of the tank there, then it's going to be a really hard week. So I think that sometimes if you play nicely and you play your way into it, maybe one or two weeks before, it's nice. But some of the time it's also nice to go there without playing the week before and feel really, really fresh and kind of get going a little bit while you're there. Q. So you don't really mind? SERGIO GARCIA: No, it doesn't really bother me either. As long as not too many before that. I guess everybody's different on that aspect. There are some that like to and some others that don't. Q. Not playing Dubai cost you some Ryder Cup points. Are you going to change your schedule at all this year towards qualifying? SERGIO GARCIA: No. No, I wouldn't say so. I think that fortunately, I made that up in South Africa, and then Thailand. But no, I think that with the schedule that I have, if I play the way I've been playing, I should be fine. I can see myself playing myself into that team. If I don't play well, then obviously I'm going to struggle no matter if I play 15 or 25 events. So I've always felt that, you know, it's nice to ask yourself to perform to get into The Ryder Cup and not kind of play your way into by playing a lot. Because I like to, myself, I like to, when I get to The Ryder Cup, like to be as fresh as possible, because we all know how much that week takes and you know how high the highs are and how down the downs are. So if you get to a Ryder Cup where you are feeling a little bit tired or where you're lacking energy‑‑ I mean, that happened to me in 2008 unfortunately when I got sick the week before, and it's not a nice week to feel a little low on energy, because you feel like you need it. You need that energy. You need it not only for yourself but for your teammates and everything. And if you don't have it, then you're not bringing so much to the team. So, you know, hopefully I won't need to change anything. Q. And did 2012, being part of that team, did that sort of make you think, yes, I was wrong to ever even consider being away from the game? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I mean, being away from the game‑‑ we need a rest here and there. There are obviously I think a lot of people, or most of the people, have gone through patches where they struggle and they know how they can play the game and they are not able to do it, and they get frustrated by it and they think about kind of throw in the towel and saying, oh, you know, what else can I do. But then you think about it and you say, what else can I do better than this. We are very, how do you say it, lucky, to have something like the game of golf and to be able to travel around and do what we love and get to see different places and always being outside and maybe not being in an office which sometimes might be a little bit tougher. But at the end of the day, you kind of think about it twice and you realise that you can't really complain too much about it. Q. You came up with a winning combination in Thailand with your girlfriend on the bag. Was that a one‑off or can we see that now and again in 2014? SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I wanted to keep going but she fired me (laughter). No, it was something Katharina wanted to do since we started dating. She told me she wanted to caddie for me in a tournament and I thought that that would be a good week, being the end of the year and maybe a little bit more relaxed and stuff. I think it turned out pretty good. But I don't know, I think we'll leave it as‑‑ she has a good winning percentage at the moment, so we'll leave it at that. (Laughter). Q. I personally thought after all the unfortunate incidents of last year, you showed great resilience and mental toughness to go back to the States and face the fans and also win them over. How did you tackle‑‑ or what did you tell yourself before going back to the States during that year and how did you prepare yourself for what you were going to face? SERGIO GARCIA: I don't know. I don't know if I was prepared for it. I mean, it wasn't certain to know what was going to happen more than anything at the U.S. Open after everything that happened, my first week back there. And it was rough; it was difficult. Only by a minority, but they kind of made themselves be heard. But the good thing is that the majority of the people knew me and what happened and so they accepted my apologies and they could see that it was truthful. So that's what kind of helped me to keep going. You know, it wasn't easy, because I guess that minority are always the loudest and they made themselves heard, and it's never nice to be reminded of something that you don't like and you don't enjoy. I guess the only thing you can do is kind of keep going and do what you love to do and try to show everybody what you are and how you are and hopefully that's good enough for them to like it. Q. The European Tour are reporting a new regulation at the end of last year that for membership you need to play 13 events, if you play your home Open, 15 if you don't. Get your views on that, and I presume you would want to support the Spanish Open anyway. What do you think of that as an idea, that they obviously want the big players to support their home? SERGIO GARCIA: Yeah, that was fine. We talked about that last year, I think it was already at the beginning of last year. That's fine by me. I think that I love to play in my country every time I can, so I'll be playing the Spanish Open later in May and I'll be excited to be back there. Yeah, I won't have to play 15. Q. Just to check, have you spoken to Tiger at all since the U.S. Open? I know up till then you had tried and had not been successful. SERGIO GARCIA: I mean, we've seen each other in tournaments, yeah. Q. I know you tried to apologise in person and that had not been available‑‑ SERGIO GARCIA: I can't apologise if I more. I've apologised and re‑apologised, so I think it's all over. SCOTT CROCKETT: I think we're all done, Sergio. Thanks for your time today. Good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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