The Andalucía Valderrama Masters – Sergio García Foundation, to be held from October 18 to 21 at the Real Club Valderrama, will serve as the stage for the reunion between Sergio García, the European Tour and the Real Club Valderrama just a few weeks after the player from Borriol became the all-time record holder in Ryder Cup points.
This feat, however, transcends the numbers, just as Sergio’s involvement in the Spanish tournament goes far beyond his mere presence in it.
It is often said that statistics do not reflect the whole truth, that they are sometimes a mere cross-section of reality and that they offer only a blurred snapshot of a given moment.
However, the fact that Sergio Garcia became, in the last Ryder Cup, the golfer who has scored the most points in the history of the competition since its foundation in 1927 is the logical consequence of almost two decades of triumphs in a tournament that rewards character and collective work.
Even so, the player from Castellón is aware of the relative value of individual achievements in a tournament in which the team takes precedence, and that is why he played down the importance of the possible achievement of his record at the beginning of the week.
“I don’t think about breaking records, I don’t even think about it. If I manage to break it and we lose the Ryder Cup, it would be useless and would have no value for me. The important thing is to score points for the team and that together we recover the Cup for Europe. We are a team and that is what matters.
García arrived as the personal choice of the captain, Thomas Björn, and with his ninth appearance he surpassed his childhood hero, Seve Ballesteros, as the Spaniard with the most participations in the tournament (in 2010 he was vice-captain). In the distance, the relay took place again, as both of them did two years after the Cantabrian ace captained the European team in Valderrama.
In Brookline, in 1999, Garcia made his debut (breaking the Ryder Cup record for earliness) and the Europeans suffered a heavy defeat, but the Spaniard already exhibited that combination of talent and heart that has made him the soul of the European team.
If the emergence of Ballesteros, who together with Antonio Garrido opened the doors in the selection of continental golfers for the Ryder Cup, changed the course of the competition, the presence of Sergio García has been essential to consolidate the European dominance during the last two decades.
In addition to showing his face in the individual crossings, Garcia has been able to complement his teammates and to lift them up, infecting them with his enthusiasm to carry them on his shoulders. There are many who have benefited from the “Garcia effect”, from Lee Westwood or Luke Donald to Rory McIlroy or Alex Noren, his partners in this last edition.
The 25.5 points that appear on his list of winners are the perfect summary of his importance in the Ryder Cup. Even so, once the victory was achieved, Sergio continued to put the collective triumph first and thanked Thomas Björn again for giving him the opportunity to play in Paris.
“It was unbelievable, I never thought I would get it, but as I have said many times, the record would have been useless if we had not won. To be the top scorer is a great satisfaction and a source of pride, but I am much prouder and happier to have helped the team win the Ryder Cup. I don’t usually cry, but I couldn’t help it. A lot of moments came to my mind, a lot of feelings. It has been a tough year. I will always be grateful to Thomas for trusting me and I’m glad I didn’t let him down.”
At Real Club Valderrama, his favorite course, and in the tournament sponsored by his Foundation, Garcia will try to make the most of the emotional fuel he brings from the Ryder Cup to fight this time for an individual title, his third at the Andalucia Valderrama Masters.
Tickets for the Andalucia Valderrama Masters-Sergio Garcia Foundation available HERE. The Andalucía Valderrama Masters, tournament valid for the Race to Dubai, has the support of the Ministry of Tourism and Sport of the Andalusian Government, through the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union; the Diputación de Cádiz, the City of San Roque and the Royal Andalusian Golf Federation complete the institutional support. It also has the support of La Reserva de Sotogrande, Rolex, Heineken, Dubai Duty Free, Santander Private Banking, Shell, Exterior Plus and Samsic Iberia. Only Water, Grupo Hospitalario Quirónsalud, Coca-Cola, Varma and Korporate Technologies Group are official suppliers.
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