Press conference - Sergio Garcia

JULIUS MASON: Ladies and gentlemen, Sergio Garcia with us at the 82nd PGA Championship.

Sergio, some thoughts on being in Louisville, at Valhalla Golf Club, please.

SERGIO GARCIA: It is a great place. It is a little hot, but I never sweated as much as I have been sweating these couple of days in my whole life.

But the course is in very good shape and greens are pretty tough very slopey. If they get really firm and fast, it is -- going to be attack some pins. And you are going to have some times you are going to have some really difficult putts. So, you got to realize that and be patient and try to do your best.

JULIUS MASON: Questions for last year's runner-up in the PGA championship, folks?

Q. Sergio, I recently a quote from Seve talking about 1976 at Birkdale when he came in second. And then in hindsight, he is glad that he did not win because of -- it would have been too much too soon. Do you think that applies to your situation at all last year, not that you are glad you didn't win, but would it have been too much?

SERGIO GARCIA: I don't know if it would have been too much. It would have been great to me, I will tell you that. It is always great to win a major championship. It might have been too much, I don't know, maybe second was not enough.

But I really I played really well. And that is what God wanted me to do. He wanted me to finish second, and that is what we took, and hopefully this year, I will be able to finish one better, or at least have a great week as last year.

Q. Kind of talk about your last year, obviously second place was your best -- since then what have you felt you have done well, some ups and downs --

SERGIO GARCIA: I have had up-and-downs, but since last PGA, I won one tournament and we won the Dunhill Cup and I had like two or three runner-ups.

And I have been playing well, but I will say that the biggest down I had has been probably the first three or four months of this year. I wasn't happy. I wasn't playing very well and I had a rough time.

But after that, since The Masters, I have been playing a lot better. Putter has been not very well, but, you know, we have been improving. And we have been doing a lot better on the last, I think, on the last two or three months, I have been in contention in almost every tournament I have played. So we have been up there, and we just have to hold it there and that will be fine.

Q. Do you sense that the fans here know you from last year and your performance in the PGA?

SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I tell you for sure that the guys in Chicago know me better. (Laughs) I think they do. I have seen a lot of people cheering at me and they do know me. I am very happy because of that; hopefully they will cheer me up and they will help me making birdies out there because it is going to be tough with the heat and everything. It is going to be tough to maintain the concentration and to keep focused.

Q. Tiger has worked for two years diligently on changing and tightening up his swing. Are you working towards some goal on your own swing, and could that possibly be the reason that you haven't won this year?

SERGIO GARCIA: No.

Q. Are you still putting cross-handed and can you talk about --

SERGIO GARCIA: No. Well, I changed it last week, putting cross-handed helped me a lot with my shoulders alignment, and I felt pretty comfortable putting left-handed, but the only trouble I had was with the distance control a little.

But now that I have my shoulders a lot better, I am putting conventional again and I have been putting pretty well. I putted for the first time at the Canadian Skins games last week and I putted pretty well, and I have been putting these last two weeks, and I felt very comfortable and I can feel, too, that my shoulders are better and I have better distance control.

Q. Is it your intention to be a member of both Tours next season? And also, what do you think about the fact that you could win this week and not play in next week's World Championship?

SERGIO GARCIA: Well, it is really a great thing, you know. Of course, I will be a member of both Tours, you know, Ryder Cup is coming next year and I have to be -- and you know, what I don't like of all the stuff about the NEC is not that I am not going to play. It is that I cannot believe that the last chance that, you know, Jesper and Van de Velde and Lawrie and me, we had to get into a team that is a PGA; they took it out of the Money List.

So, I mean, even if we win, we are not going to be able to play NEC. That is what I don't really like, you know, because guys like us, we have only played seven or eight tournaments, and you have to do really well playing seven or eight tournaments to get into the Top 12 and get into the NEC. But taking the PGA out of there doesn't feel like it is right.

Q. Do you think people maybe forget that you are only 20 years old and maybe they expect too much sometimes?

SERGIO GARCIA: Maybe they do. But I do, myself, too. That is probably one of the problems I have this year and, I have been expecting so much of myself that, you know, I threw some tournaments because, you know, I was probably laying 6th or something like that and I saw that I didn't have a chance of winning the tournament, and just threw it away because, obviously, if I am not going to win, you lay down yourself.

But, you know, I have been improving that a lot and well, you have to realize that you've got to take it easy. Sometimes it is not all about winning, and, you know, you have to be consistent, too, and that is what I have been trying to do, you know, just try not to throw it away and keep in contention.

And one of these days, if you keep in contention, you are going to win.

Q. How has your life changed since the U.S. press has grabbed you maybe as a rival of Tiger Woods.

SERGIO GARCIA: Well, I don't think probably there is a little extra pressure, because trying to be the rival of Tiger Woods and the media saying all that stuff, and also the people.

So it's probably just a little bit extra pressure, but I don't think that it is something that -- really focusing your game, it doesn't show in your game, because I think if you are strong mentally and you believe in yourself, you don't have to have any trouble with that.

Q. What do you think about the Latin guys going out and more and more players from Spain and Latin America getting into the Tour and playing good golf?

SERGIO GARCIA: It is always great to see all those -- there has always been players, but I think we all have Spanish and Latin Americans -- we all have -- we usually have a lot of a lot of talent, because we don't have as much chances as Americans, for example, because you have better possibilities here in America. I mean, almost everybody plays golf.

It is getting a lot better in Spain and Latin America, but I think that it is a lot tougher to start playing golf in these countries. And it is really good to see that more and more Spanish players and Latin Americans are coming out and playing well.

Q. In the last year, what would be the three or four best things that you can think of from your year and maybe the three or four worst things?

SERGIO GARCIA: In the last year, you mean from the PGA on?

Q. Yes.

SERGIO GARCIA: I don't know, there has been a lot of great things. I have learned a lot and had a couple of wins after the PGA, and I met a lot of people, and there has been a lot of great things.

Bad things there have been a couple or two, tough year at the beginning, and a couple things that maybe shouldn't happen. But those things are going to happen sometimes and you are going to realize that.

But I will say there has been a lot more things good than bad, so, they kind of go on top of the bad things and you can't really remember.

Q. Who do you think has the best chance the way they are playing of beating Tiger?

SERGIO GARCIA: I don't know. I think there is a lot of great players. I hope I will do well, and, you know, I think Colin is playing pretty well too. So hopefully he will do well and -- but there is a lot of great players around. Ernie is doing really well.

I think, you know, we all have our chances and we just have to believe in ourselves. You know, don't be thinking about Tiger; just be thinking about your own game and try to shoot as many under pars as you can. You know, if he does better than you, what can you do, just congratulate him.

But I don't think you have to go out and be thinking, "let's see what Tiger is doing," and "I am one behind or two up front," because I don't think -- I don't think you focus as much as you should if you go that way. I think you have to go out and play as well as you can.

Q. Just to follow up, how difficult is that to do?

SERGIO GARCIA: I don't think -- when he is on top, it is a little tougher. But, you know, it depends on the player, too. Once you are out there, you are by your own and you are trying to be as much confidence -- as much confident as you can, and, you know, you just got to make like a little bubble and be in your own bubble and try to play your best game, you know, to win.

So, it is tough sometimes, but it is something that you have to do. You have to be strong enough mentally to go over that, and, well, to try to beat him.

Q. By the same token, how much did you enjoy going down the stretch with Tiger last year? And although you were trying to play your own game, wasn't it a bit of a Match-Play, a one-on-one, even though you were a hole ahead of him, that sort of thing?

SERGIO GARCIA: Of course it was, because I was behind, I wanted to see how he was doing.

But, you know, it was a lot of fun. It was really a great experience. But I hope this year I will be a lot better and it will be the other way around.

But, no, it was something special, and for being my first year as a pro, it was something I couldn't imagine. To have the feeling and to be up there battling against Tiger for a major championship, it was something really good.

Q. Was that something that motivated you? Would it have been different if it was somebody else who you were chasing?

SERGIO GARCIA: I don't think so. I think you are always motivated in a champ -- in a major championship, and it can motivate a little more with some players, but I think that after all, you are thinking about the tournament, and if it is a major, it motivates you a lot more than a normal tournament.

Q. I was wanting to know if you think the golf course measures up to what a major championship golf course should be? Is it better, worse than what you thought it would be?

SERGIO GARCIA: No, the course is it in really good shape. It is not a long course, but the greens are tough, and as soon as they get hard, it is going to be really tough to keep the balls on the green. And even hitting great shots, you are going to go in some places where you are going to have really tough shots.

So you have got realize that, and, I don't know, I mean, the problem is -- it is tough to choose a course for the PGA. After playing Augusta, Pebble Beach and St. Andrews, it is really tough to match up. But I think this course is really good and, you know, you have to have respect for the course, and I think it is going to be up to the standards.

JULIUS MASON: Sergio Garcia, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.

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