Garcia: It’s time to ‘move on'

TEXAS: Masters champ keen to put ‘emotional’ Augusta triumph behind him

Sergio Garcia believes he needs to move on from the “overwhelming” aftermath of winning his first major title as he seeks a third victory in the AT&T Byron Nelson.

Five weeks after slipping on a green jacket at Augusta National, Garcia returned to action in the Players Championship and admitted he struggled to fully focus on his game.

The world no 5 recovered from playing his first six holes in four over par, with the help of a hole-in-one on the iconic 17th, to record an opening 73 and went into the final round just four shots off the lead.

However, a closing 78 meant the 37-year-old stumbled to a tie for 30th and brought home the fact that he needs to concentrate on reproducing the sort of golf which saw him beat Ryder Cup team-mate Justin Rose in a play-off at Augusta.

“At The Players I had a couple nice rounds and a couple not so nice rounds, but it’s been very overwhelming. I’m not going to lie,” defending champion Garcia told a pre-tournament press conference.

“It’s been amazing to see the reaction from the people and the players and everyone. It’s obviously been something amazing to go through but, at the same time, you know, I have to kind of move on.

“As nice as it is to be the Masters champion, I need to keep doing things, I need to keep improving on every aspect of my game and focus on the week that we are right now, because it’s easy to start thinking about what happened a month ago.

“I did some really good things last week, but I also did some things that weren’t that great. I need to make sure I clean that up and have a solid, solid stretch here in Texas.”

Garcia has won twice before at TPC Four Seasons and would love to complete a hat-trick before the tournament moves to Trinity Forest next year.

“I’m going to be sad to leave here, not only because I won twice here and I’ve done well, but it’s where I started my PGA Tour career as a professional [in 1999],” added Garcia, who will partner Jason Day and Patrick Reed in the first two rounds.

Ryder Cup star Ian Poulter, who finished second at Sawgrass last week, is also in Texas and has been paired with Jason Dufner and Brooks Koepka.

Getty. Sergio Garcia is keen to move on from his emotional Augusta triumph.