Sergio Garcia optimistic about winning elusive Race to Dubai title

DUBAI -- 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.

This article is written by Sunil K. Vaidya from Khaleej Times and was legally licensed via the Tribune Content Agency through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.