Golfer Sergio Garcia chats

SPORTS

Golf
Thursday, 08 October 2009 04:10
Written by Phil Boyle

With the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai on Nov 5-8, last year’s champion Sergio Garcia chats to Urbanatomy

All the latest news and information from the WGC-HSBC Champions right here in the Newswire at Urbanatomy.

How does last year’s victory rank in your opinion among the titles of your career?

It is a very important title to me as the HSBC Champions has such a strong field, so to come out on top was very exciting. I value all my titles for different reasons but it is right up there as one of my best wins.

Having never successfully defended a title on the Tour, do you feel pressure coming into Shanghai?

Actually, I feel more excited than anything else. I will be the defending champion on a course I really enjoy – I’d love this to be the first title I defend, of course! I really enjoy playing in China so I’m looking forward to returning to Shanghai very much. I think it will be an amazing week and the field is shaping up to be fantastic.

Do you think there’ll be a lot more golf tournaments heading to the Far East over the next few years?

I think the pattern will continue that way, yes – since I came on the tour the number of events in Asia has really increased, which is fantastic for global golf. I think a few of the top players who haven’t played in Asia before will be coming to Shanghai and I am sure they will enjoy it as much as I have, so perhaps that will encourage them to enter other events around Asia.

How long do you think it will be until we see a Chinese golfer actually challenging on either the European or US Tours?

There already are a number of Chinese golfers who have done well out on Tour – Liang Wenchong and Zhang Lianwei have both won. I don’t think it will be too long before there are a greater number of Chinese players

What the other big guns think about the HSBC Champions

Tiger Woods

World Number 1

“There are now even more tournaments in China than there are in Great Britain… it is a wonderful market for us to go to and it’s certainly booming… I can’t wait to get back there and play.”

Yang Yong-Eun

Asia’s first Major winner and 2007 HSBC Champion

“Even now I still can’t believe I won the event among such a world-class field. The fact I beat Tiger must be due to having better luck!”

Padraig Harrington

2008 Open Champion

“The golf course is great, the hotel is great, the event is first-class. It’s a tough and interesting golf course. You certainly have got to play well to win on it.”

Phil Mickelson

World number 2

“To be able to move a World Golf Championship to China is terrific as it will hopefully increase the interest and increase the exposure of the game of golf throughout the country. We need to get the young kids in China interested in the game.”

out there winning titles – it is great for the Chinese juniors to be seeing all the best players playing in China and hopefully they will draw inspiration from watching us compete.

The Tiger factor. What do you make of the crowd’s reaction to him?

I like to compete against the best players in the world so I’m delighted that Tiger will be there again this year. I am very lucky that my job as a professional golfer allows me to travel around the world and certainly China…

(interrupting) But what about Tiger? Surely he annoys you the way that he always wins?

Mr. Yang might disagree as well as the other Major winners this year – Cabrera, Glover and Cink!

True. And Tiger Woods has never won in Shanghai, so does this give you an advantage?

Anytime you play a tournament on a course where you have won before, you hope to have a bit of an edge. But there are some great former champions in the field such as Yang and Mickelson who will be feeling the same as me so, along with Tiger, there are any number of us who could claim the title.

Don’t you get tired of people thinking that you never reached your potential?

Not at all. Getting better and achieving my potential is what motivates me and what makes the next stage of my career so exciting. As long as I keep putting myself into position on the Sunday and give myself the chance I believe I will win a Major.

We have two pairs of tickets for the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions on both the Thursday and Friday to give away. Simply answer the following question:

What is Sergio Garcia’s nickname?

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