Defending champion Sergio Garcia has promised to put the Ryder Cup in the rear-view mirror as he joins Seamus Power for the pair’s season-opening PGA Tour event at the Sanderson Farms Championship.
Garcia was one of few bright points in a dismal week for team Europe at Whistling Straits where Steve Stricker’s USA team inflicted a record-breaking 19-9 defeat on Padraig Harrington’s men. The Spaniard admits that the after-party ran long into the night at Wisconsin but after some R&R back home in Austin, the 41-year believes he’s ready to go again, back at Jackson Country Club where he won on debut last year.
“I feel good,” said Garcia. “I’m not going to lie, obviously didn’t get much sleep on Sunday night. But Monday and Tuesday it’s been good, I was able to rest a little bit in Austin with the family, got here last night and I feel pretty good at the moment.
“Obviously you all know how much I love the Ryder Cup and even though, yes, there’s a lot of energy involved in it and that you put on it and stuff, I still love it every time I play it. So at the moment I feel quite good, I don’t think it has hit me yet and hopefully it won’t hit me until I get back to Austin next week so I can have a good solid week here.
“I’m obviously 41 now and I’ve been fortunate to play many Ryder Cups and win many and also loss some so, we just got out played, it’s as simple as that, they played better than us and we gave it everything we had. So we can’t really ask ourselves for more.
“Obviously we would have loved to do a little bit better and probably be a little bit sharper on those key moments where they were sharp and we were just a little bit off and they took advantage of that. So but other than that it’s fine. I think the way I look at it there were so many positive things coming out of it, even though we lost, that you just got to look at those things.”
West Waterford professional Power returns to the PGA Tour fresh and a fully-fledged member off the back of his most successful season in the top tier of pro golf. Playing off a winning category after tasting victory at the Barbasol, Power has enjoyed an extended spell back home for perhaps the first time in his career but will be eager to hit the ground running and ease the pressure ahead of another long season Stateside.
Power will hope to avoid a repeat of his 2020 showing here having raced out of the blocks with a scorching 65 before slumping to a 79 in round two to miss the cut. Only recovering from elbow surgery back then and still in search of his golf swing, Power is a different animal this time around and he’s excited to see what else he can do on some of the biggest stages in golf this term.
“I said to Simon [Keelan – caddie] at one stage during the Barbasol after a good stretch, that at that current time, there weren’t many players in the world hitting it better than I was,” Power remembered.
“I went through one tournament where I only made one bogey. I was making very few mistakes. Finally getting everything where I wanted it. It’s the first time I’ve ever known what I’m actually doing in terms of my own swing and all that kind of stuff so it’s very exciting to be honest.”
Power tees off in the company of KH Lee and Richy Werenski at 13.38pm Irish time today.
- Full scoring HERE
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