SIX Slam is chance of a lifetime for Irish
Defence is child’s play for Garcia
THRILLED: Garcias have baby girl SERGIO GARCIA will be dressing his baby daughter in Masters green for the defence of his title next month after the reigning champion became a father yesterday.
Garcia’s wife Angela was due to give birth to the couple’s first child on Sunday but her waters broke ahead of schedule.
That left the Spaniard conducting a prearranged teleconference from the maternity suite at a hospital in Austin, Texas, as he awaited the new arrival.
“She’s a girl, so we do have some cute little dresses from Augusta that they sent us and we’re very excited for her to wear them. I’m sure that we’ll put them on the week of the Masters,” said Garcia.
“It’s been unbelievable, everything that has been going on. I’ve been fortunate to have an amazing career and an amazing life, and now it’s getting even better with winning Augusta, getting married to my best friend and an amazing woman like Angela, and now having our first child. We can’t wait for what the future is going to bring us.”
A second Green Jacket is the 38-year-old’s immediate professional target.
Garcia’s practice – and sleep – schedule is about to be turned upside down but the upheaval did 2016 champion Danny Willett no harm, when the Brit won the Masters just 12 days after becoming a dad.
“It’s just a matter of going back there, being confident again, enjoying what I’m doing and trying to do it the best way possible so I can give myself a great chance at defending my title,” said Garcia.
“I know what I’m capable of and I know how I’m playing. I feel like my game is in good shape – I’m really happy with all my new equipment, I’ve had a couple of good weeks. So I’m excited to go back there and defend my title as well as I can.”
Tiger Woods, Garcia’s old nemesis, will again be on the prowl at Augusta after his successful comeback on the PGA Tour, but the Spaniard warns it will be different at a Major.
“He’s had a couple of very solid weeks,” Garcia said. “I’m sure he’s excited to come back to Augusta and it’s a place where he’s done well.
“It’s been a while since he’s been there and he will probably be a little bit nervous, too, which is normal. He’s just got to deal with all those feelings again.” REPORTS Irishman like Afrikaner Stander, there is an appreciation of what that scenario will look like. He had a taste of it last weekend.
“I went for a walk around Dublin just to get out of the hotel and you could see people had celebrated well. It looked like St Patrick’s Day had happened a week before,” he said.
The new champions have a concern over full-back Rob Kearney but although he missed training yesterday with an ankle knock he is expected to be fit.
Kearney and captain Rory Best represent the link back to the last Ireland side to complete the Slam in 2009. Johnny Sexton was an unused squad member when they squeezed home against Wales in the last game.
England away is a tough final hurdle this time. Even with home advantage Ireland came a spectacular cropper the last time they played them for a Grand Slam in 2003, going down 42-6. But that was an England side flying towards the World Cup; this is one which has, over the past three weeks, had the air sucked out of them.
Stander expects a response from England but he also sees weaknesses that Ireland can target.
“They’ll be angry with themselves at how they left it out there. It’s going to be 23 angry Englishmen for sure,” he said. They’ve got a lot of great players and maybe some small things have just crept in, like at the breakdown, which has slowed down their game.
“They’re still managing the game well and ending the game well, but other teams have managed to compete well against them at the breakdown.
“We’ve looked already at what they are doing. We know a lot of their players from the Lions tour and we’ve watched what they’ve been doing in the championship. We know what we want to do against them.”
Time for England to sound the breakdown warning klaxon again.