GOLF EUROPEAN TOUR:SERGIO GARCIA is working towards winning a first major but will not mind if he ends his career without one, the Spaniard was quoted as saying yesterday.
Garcia (29), had a chance to rise above Tiger Woods to the top of the world rankings earlier this season, but he has had a winless year so far in 21 events and has not even managed a top-three finish.
“It doesn’t worry me,” he told Spain’s As newspaper when asked about his failure to win a major.
“I am working and training to win at a major,” he added. “I would like to do it, but if I end my career and I haven’t managed one I won’t be any less happy.”
Garcia, who is competing at the Madrid Masters starting today, said this season had been his most difficult so far.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t want to play, but I wasn’t focused on golf and that affected my desire and concentration and I lost confidence,” he told As.
“Little by little I have improved,” he said. “But it has been my most difficult year on a mental level.”
Garcia said he did not feel under pressure when he had the chance to top the rankings, in which he was since slipped back to eighth.
“I said that despite my own game, good or bad, it all depended on when and how Woods returned,” he said.
“If I played well I had a chance, which would have been a really nice thing, but it depended on him and he came back and won like always.”
Garcia is paired with Luke Donald who, having missed one big opportunity to win again at St Andrews on Monday, will try again at Centro Nacional over the next four days.
One ahead with a round to go at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Donald dropped to seventh with a desperately disappointing 73.
Only three of the other 69 players scored higher on the day, and what made it worse was the Ryder Cup player, whose last victory came more than three-and-a-half years ago, had sparkled with a 65 on the Old Course only three days earlier and had followed that up with a 64 at Kingsbarns.
Rory McIlroy, who finished joint second, three shots behind winner Simon Dyson at the Dunhill Masters, takes a break this week before a hectic attempt to top the European money list.
In his absence, there will be eight Irish competitors teeing off in Madrid: Paul McGinley, Darren Clarke, Damien McGrane, Peter Lawrie, Shane Lowry, Michael Hoey, Gary Murphy and Gareth Maybin.
Also in the field is Scotland’s ex-US Amateur champion Richie Ramsay, whose fourth-place at the home of golf secured his European Tour card for next season.
It could have been even better – Ramsay three-putted from the Valley of Sin on the last hole when a par would have left him second with McIlroy and Oliver Wilson.
But the Aberdeen golfer was determined to look at the positives, especially as he was only in the field because of Paul Casey’s injury.
“I think you have to look at the whole package – I played great down the stretch and keeping my card is huge.”
MADRID MASTERS
Course:Centro Nacional de Golf, Madrid.
Prize money: €1.5 million, €250,000 to the winner.
Defending champion:South African Charl Schwartzel won the inaugural Madrid Masters 12 months ago. He claimed the 2007 Open de España at the Centro Nacional de Golf, this week's venue.
Irish in action: Eight from a total of 120 competitors: Darren Clarke, Michael Hoey, Peter Lawrie, Shane Lowry, Gareth Maybin, Paul McGinley, Damien McGrane, and Gary Murphy.
On TV:Sky Sports from 11.30 am today.
