Sergio García played his first British Open as a youngster, in 1996, at Royal Lytham. He had won the European amateur in El Prat the previous year and that victory gave him an automatic place for the following year’s edition.
This will be his 25th The Open, and fifth in Saint Andrews, a Grand Slam in which he has clearly come close to winning twice (2007 and 2014) and where he has garnered ten top tens in 26 years, highlighting the playoff he lost at Carnoustie to Padraig Harrington in 2007 and second place to an intractable Rory McIlroy at Royal Liverpool (Hoylake) in 2014.
He played another edition as an amateur, in 1998, at Royal Birkdale, after winning the British Amateur at Muirfield two months earlier. In Saint Andrews he made his debut in 2000. “In the end I have found a way to have fun on this course, pure golf history.
But I have always said that my favorite links are Carnoustie and Muirfiel,” he said this Wednesday after playing a practice round with Adrian Arnaus and Patrick Reed.
Sergio García, statements
“It’s a special week, I feel quite well, although later when the tournament starts is when you have to be at your best.
I’ve trained quite well and the field, with this wind and how hard it is, is playing quite firmly and now I What I have to do is go out and give everything to have a great week,” he said in the mixed zone . The one from Borriol assures that “the weight of history counts when you set foot on this pitch.
In the end we all want to play well, do a good job and even if he is a veteran, there is undoubtedly a little pressure. Obviously experience helps, but there is always nervous at first,” he said. “I’ve always said that the wind is the determining factor on this course,” he adds.
For example, on the 11th hole, one of the two par 3s of the ‘loop’ that the Old Course has in the farthest part of the clubhouse, “I have come to play, depending on the direction of the wind at that moment, from a pitching wedge to the 4 iron.
On the four occasions he has played The Open at the Old Course, Sergio has been tied for 36th in 2000, tied for 5th in 2005, tied for 14th in 2010 and tied for 6th in 2015. “There is a little more motivation for this edition, but it is Coming to play for the British is enough motivation for me.
It is true that this is the 150th and also in St. Andrews it gives it one more point”, he concluded. It should be noted, eye to the data, that the Castellón native, right now out of the top 50 in the world ranking and with no sign of playing tournaments on the European circuit this year due to the dispute that the DP World Tour maintains with the dissident players of the Arab Super League , could be playing his last British, unless he finally entered the qualifiers.
It remains to be seen if the LIV Golf tournaments finally score for the world ranking and the Spaniard wins the exemption for Hoylake next year through the world ranking.