Garcia optimistic of winning elusive Race to Dubai title

Sergio Garcia at the media briefing.

In his teens, Sergio Garcia was seen as the next best golfer to come after Tiger Woods and the two even had fierce rivalry for some years. Since then Garcia has added 14 European titles and 10 PGA wins to his name but the Race to Dubai crown has eluded the Spaniard.

This year, Garcia technically stands a chance to win his maiden Race to Dubai title but he is not so optimistic about putting his hands on the Harry Vardon Trophy.

He, however, promised to give everything during the DP World Tour Championship that starts at the Jumeirah Golf Estate's The Earth course from Thursday.

"Obviously excited about this week and get to, hopefully, give it a run. Obviously it's very difficult to become the Race to Dubai winner, but it doesn't mean that we're not going to give everything we have this week and see where we end up," he said while talking to reporters at the media centre on Tuesday.

When Garcia won the Omega Dubai Desert Classic last February at the Emirates Golf Course, with a three-stroke win over Henrik Stenson, he had said: "Hopefully it will be the beginning of a great year."

And, it did turn out to be a good year so far for the Spaniard. He added two more titles on the tour this year and is looking forward to add the fourth one. "It's been a wonderful year. Excited for these last few weeks of the year," he enthused.

Garcia, who in his first season as a pro, finished runners up to Tiger Woods in the US PGA championship and made the Europe's Ryder Cup team, has neither won the DP World Tour Championship in his previous six attempts nor the Race to Dubai title. "Not at all, not at all," he shot back when asked if he regretted not winning the Race to Dubai crown.

"Winning the Race to Dubai is great but I'm not going to change my whole life for it. I had some important things that I needed to take care of, and you know, that's not going to change. I'm happy finishing second, third or fourth or whatever I finish at the end of the week (Sunday)."

Garcia practiced at the Earth on Tuesday and felt that the course had improved compared to the previous years. "Yeah, the course is looking good. A couple of the fairways are looking better than the last few years. The greens are nice. They are rolling nicely. They are not too firm at the moment but the course, a couple new lines. I think they have narrowed a lot of the fairways from last year.

"So a couple of the spots where you used to be in the fairway, now it's rough. So you have to be careful with that because it's easy to forget. But other than that, it's good," he said about the 7,675-yard Greg Norman layout.

On the three-way race for the Race to Dubai title, Garcia pleaded ignorance about the possibilities. "You know, I don't even know. It doesn't really bother me. What I'm going to do, I'm not going to change the way I go out there."

"To play the best I can play and give myself the best option of winning this week. I can't control what the other people do. Obviously, both Tommy (Fleetwood) and Justin (Rose) are playing really well," he pointed out.

The Spaniard said that he sees only two per cent chance of him winning Race to Dubai. "I'm not expecting them (Fleetwood and Rose) to finish 40th or 50th but I'm fine with it. I can live with it. It's been a great year, and that's not going to change."

"It would be amazing," he said when asked if both Fleetwood and Rose fare very badly and he wins the DP World Tour Championship.

sunilvaidya@khaleejtimes.com