Spanish star Sergio Garcia talks about the European Tour’s ongoing desert swing, his 2017 Masters win and more … including a possible foray into golf course design
You are in the middle of a three-event run in the desert swing at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club. How important is it to get off to a quick start?
Every year it is important to get off to a good start. The front end of the season is now more heavily loaded. You might say obviously it is important to get going well there because, from March til July, you have really big tournaments pretty much every month, so it is important to get going there. If you can have a good start to the year, you can carry that with you on throughout the whole year.
How would you rate last season, which included a win at the KLM Open on the European Tour?
Well I think my season was decent. There have been a couple of up and downs here and there but overall its been fairly good. I started the year pretty well with a lot of good top 10s and then obviously calmed down a little bit. But I got the win in Holland. To play there for the first time as a professional and win was a dream come true and a couple other good tournaments around there.
Was winning the Green Jacket in 2017 a release of pressure of sorts?
Well I don’t know if it released pressure or not. Obviously, it’s something I wanted to do for a really long time. You know, for my whole career and it’s always nice to have that up your sleeve or however you want to call it, but it still doesn’t mean everything is over. We are competitors and you still want to keep getting better. You still want to be playing well and having chances at winning many other tournaments, so hopefully we will be able to do that for many years.
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How has the change of the Major schedule taken a toll on you as professional sportsmen? Do you have to change your training schedule because of that?
No, it doesn’t really change that much. I think that you just got to realise that you have to try and peak a little earlier than before, but it doesn’t really change much with the way you practise or get ready for your season.
There were a few high-profile moments that didn’t quite particularly paint you in the best of light in 2019; the incident in Saudi Arabia. What are your thoughts on what you learned from that incident?
I think at the end of the day those things unfortunately happened. We are not robots, you know. We are humans and sometimes we lose our temper here and there. I think, at the end of the day, the most important thing is to learn from those things and to make sure all the good things you do outweigh the bad ones. It just shows that we are human.
Do you think it was blown out of proportion?
No, it’s fine, it is what it is. I think some of those things happen and some people think they are a big deal and some other people think they are not that big of a deal. The only thing you can do is deal with it in the best way possible and learn from it.
You must be looking forward to getting back there and putting on a good show for the new event?
Yes, that would be nice. I did enjoy the country itself and the people there so hopefully we can go there, play nicely, have a good week and leave with our head held up high with a nice week behind us.
How special was it winning the Omega Dubai Desert Classic two years ago?
Winning the Omega Dubai Desert Classic was obviously a great treat and was at the beginning of a really amazing year in 2017. Obviously winning The Masters after that and all the things I did throughout that year, it was a perfect start of the year. The Omega Dubai Desert Classic, it’s an unbelievable event. You just have to look at the type of players that have won there; to be part of that group, it’s an honour.
Why do golfers seem to get so excited about their week at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic?
It’s very simple because it’s a great tournament and simply because of the calibre of tournament that the Omega Dubai Desert Classic is, throughout all these years. The quality of the field, the quality of the golf course, the quality of the past winners. At the end of the day, you have good weather, you have great golf course with good players and a great week, so it’s very easy to go and enjoy it.
As a previous winner at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, what’s it like to walk up the 18th hole for the final time?
It’s a really amazing feeling for several reasons. I think that the atmosphere on the 18th hole is amazing. You know you have the 9th hole there on the right side and massive hospitality tents and the grandstand on the left. It’s very unique and you can feel, you can almost feel the breath of the people because they are so close to the green. It definitely makes it extra special and if you walk there with a chance of winning or with a couple of shots lead or something like that, knowing that you are going to do it, it is really amazing.
Does young talent today have a better chance than you did to succeed when you started off?
I think the young people now definitely have a better chance than when I started. I’m not saying that I didn’t have a good chance, obviously I did with my dad being a professional golfer and me living next to a golf course so that obviously helped, but I think nowadays it’s a little bit easier to join different clubs, to be able to go and play and all of those things help you to level-up your game.
The Sergio Garcia Foundation has donated funds to the Madrid Hospital. Tell us about the foundation and the work that it does.
Yes, we are very proud with the work that we have done with all three foundations we have in Spain, Switzerland and the US. We’ve done a whole bunch of different things throughout the last 17 years trying to help handicapped golf and handicapped people get into the game of golf. We’ve invested in research for cancer in children, in young people obviously. We’ve invested in an x-ray room in a hospital in Madrid. So, we are always trying to help as many people as possible and mainly focus on children.
Post your career in golf you have mentioned golf course design. Do you have anything else on your mind?
Well we’ll see. Obviously, golf course design is something that I would love to do as my career goes along but we will see. It depends, you kind of go with whatever feels right at that moment. I think that I don’t know where I will be in 10 or 12 years. I don’t know if I will be playing on the Champions Tour or maybe spending time with the family, or looking for new hobbies, so it’s difficult to say.
SERGIO GARCIA IS AN OMEGA AMBASSADOR AND WAS SPEAKING AT THE DUBAI INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL CENTRE (DIFC) AHEAD OF THE OMEGA DUBAI DESERT CLASSIC.
