Sergio García: the Ryder Cup will be a strange place without Luke Donald

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/sep/22/sergio-garcia-ryder-cup-luke-donald

Version 0 of 1.

In Sergio García, Luke Donald has a golfing ally and contemporary who knows what it’s like to look in at a Ryder Cup party. Arguably, García suffered even more than Donald will do this week.

The last time the United States visited Britain, in 2010, García was handed a vice-captaincy role on the grounds of little more than compassion. The Spaniard was in the midst of a self-imposed break from competitive golf, which could genuinely have become permanent amid struggles with emotion and form.

García has admitted his Celtic Manor experience was “one of the hardest things I had to experience on the golf course”. Such close proximity to the action was the cause for that, albeit the 34-year-old was ultimately grateful to Europe’s captain, Colin Montgomerie, for reaching out the hand of competitive friendship.

Donald will be the notable absentee at Gleneagles when the Ryder Cup gets under way there on Friday. The Englishman discovered at the start of this month that four into three didn’t go as Stephen Gallacher, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood earned Paul McGinley’s captain’s picks.

“Yes, it will be,” acknowledges García when asked if this Ryder Cup will be a strange place minus Donald. “But I missed it in 2010, as well, and am back here now.

“It would have been great for Luke to make it, obviously being a good friend of mine and a former playing partner of mine. But at the same time, there are a lot of good players, a lot of guys who have been playing really well, and you cannot pick them all. We can only have 12.

“I have talked to Luke a little bit and it was hard for him, but he knows that if he had played a little bit better, from probably the [WGC] Bridgestone [Invitational] onwards, he would have been on the team. Unfortunately he just wasn’t able to do it. It is not the end of the world. He will be back, he will be fine.”

One man who will be present is García’s compatriot, José María Olazábal, who has been coaxed back to the Ryder Cup as a vice-captain after leading Europe’s stunning Medinah victory. “Anybody that can bring something to the team, something positive to the team, is always welcome,” García says. “It is obvious that Olazábal brings a lot of good things to the team so I think we are all thrilled that we are going to have him there again.”

García has so often been the necessary recipient of pep talks that this role reversal in regards to Donald seems curious. Yet one of the most talented golfers of his generation is back in a happy place, ranked No3 in the world and in Scotland having banked close to $5m in prize money in the PGA Tour season just closed.

His strokeplay scoring average was a close second to Rory McIlroy. García’s putting, so often a problem, has improved markedly. He had the second best scrambling percentage on tour in 2014, in which he signed off with a 66 at the Tour Championship.

“East Lake was a little bit of a struggle,” García concedes. “Energy-wise I wasn’t at my maximum, but I finished off nicely, with a good score. Then it was about getting back to Europe and relaxing a little bit.”

A concerted spell of rest, García adds, will follow the Ryder Cup, with his visit to Gleneagles representing his maiden taste of the PGA Centenary Course. “That’s not a problem,” he said. “We will get two or three looks and I’m sure we’ll be ready.”

Gleneagles debut or not, García is sure of strong support this week. For reasons that have never been entirely clear, he has routinely been taken as one of their own by the golfing galleries here. “I have always said it, I feel very fortunate the way the British people have always treated me,” he says. “But the Ryder Cup is slightly different anyway, it is a scenario where everybody is pulling for everybody anyway so I’m sure it will be amazing at Gleneagles just as it always is. I’m excited about it. It should be good fun.

“I just love it. It’s like the Open, I love that tournament. And I have been fortunate to do well in that tournament for a while, as well. It is just as simple as that; I love the event, I love the team experience, I love the atmosphere of it. It is different.”

This marks García’s seventh Ryder Cup appearance. In 28 matches, he has lost only eight times and won double that number. His 18-point tally marks him out as a key member of the Europe team, and one to whom others look to for guidance. “I think that [team role] is obviously different to what it was, say, eight years ago,” García says. “But I don’t think it is different to what it was, say, four years ago.

“I think that now it is a case of needing to be there to make sure the team chemistry is as good as possible, that everybody is comfortable as possible. That is what I will try to do.”