‘I think I’ve proved myself over and over at Ryder Cups’
Garcia vows to justify his place after a poor year, writes Paul Hayward at Le Golf National Garcia’s standout statistics
Sergio Garcia spends so much time being Europe’s pressure valve, you might not notice the heat building on him. Fortunate to be in Paris as a captain’s pick, the player Thomas Bjorn calls “my Seve” knows he needs to bring more than “fun” to this Ryder Cup.
Rory Mcilroy’s face lights up at the very mention of Garcia. “Yeah, I just think everyone loves Sergio,” he says. “At least in our team room.” But with the 2017 Masters champion missing the cut at all four majors in 2018, the time has arrived to repay the support Garcia has always offered his comrades. His form this season leaves him vulnerable to the charge that Bjorn picked him for his off-field influence and was too loyal.
If Garcia has helped carry Europe, Europe are now giving him a lift.
Mcilroy says: “He’s been the heartbeat of our team for a while, and he’s been a constant, and I think, with a lot of these Ryder Cup teams, it’s about continuity and bringing the same mindset to each one.
“He’s great. He’s fun-loving. He never lets the environment or the atmosphere get too serious, and I think that’s one of the big things about European Ryder Cups over the past few years. We’ve basically left any sort of egos at the door and no one’s allowed to have any ego.”
Head of Motivation, though, is not a post any team can afford to have in a 12-man unit threatened by an America side bristling with major championship winners, including Tiger Woods, who, appropriately, returned to a Renaissance hotel on Sunday after winning his first tournament for five years. Garcia knows he can relieve the stress in the camp and calm the nerves of younger team-mates. But he has his own proud playing record to protect.
“I think I’ve proved myself over and over, and the only thing I can do out there is when I get called upon is just do my best, do what I do, do what I’ve always done at Ryder Cups, and that’s everything,” Garcia says.
But the secondary role as entertainment officer did give him an edge over other potential wild cards. He says he is here “not only for what I can bring on the golf course, but what I can bring outside” and promises: “What I’m going to do is just do what I do best and try to make sure everyone feels good, comfortable, happy, enjoying themselves. If we can do that, then it’s much easier for everyone to play their best game.”
In a sport of lone hunters, Garcia finds team play an escape from the loneliness of the tour: a safety in numbers more individualistic players have to be persuaded to accept. Like Ian Poulter, Garcia finds comfort in the group. “I like to have someone around me,” he says. “That’s one of the reasons I’ve enjoyed foursomes and fourballs, because I feel like it’s nice to have someone around that you can put your arm around and kind of cheer yourself on.
“Golf is such a lonely game throughout the whole year. Sometimes it’s nice to have a friend next to you that is cheering for you, and not only one, but another 10 behind that are doing the same thing. I feel it probably helps me a little bit.”
Garcia, 38, is Ryder Cup royalty. His win-loss-halved record over eight tournaments from 1999-2016 is 19-11-7. In 2006 at the K Club he earned all four available points in the foursomes and fourballs and his career haul is a dazzling 22½ points. Bjorn also calls him “the heartbeat of the team” but was criticised for ignoring Garcia’s downturn this year. Anticipating this, Garcia pulled himself round to finish tied-seventh in the Portugal Masters.
“I obviously talked to Thomas and told him that if he decided to pick me I would play Portugal to make sure I didn’t come into the Ryder Cup without playing four or five weeks,” Garcia says. “As soon as he called me, then obviously it was a done deal. I hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens. Felt like I putted nicely. Probably didn’t hole-out as much as I would like to, and that’s why I didn’t have a realistic shot at winning.”
Garcia’s bond with the Ryder Cup stretches back 23 years, to Oak Hill, where he was a Junior Ryder Cup player. “That kind of made me really fall in love head over heels with it,” he says. “I remember seeing the atmosphere. I think I was only 15, I went to the International Pavilion and seeing people singing – and the energy that was around was amazing.”
If perspective was needed on Garcia missing cuts at the majors, it could be found in the yellow ribbon pinned to his chest. Europe are honouring another Spanish golfer, Celia Barquin Arozamena, the 22-year-old European junior amateur champion murdered in a random knife attack on a golf course in Iowa.
Garcia, who knew her, heard the news in Portugal while trying to recover his touch in time for Paris, and says the ribbons would at least let her family know she is part of this Ryder Cup. “It’s all we can do,” he said, the fun side of it, for a moment, no longer relevant. Sergio Garcia’s number of Ryder Cup appearances, having made his debut in 1999 Total number of points that Garcia has won across eight tournaments