<\/p>\n
Sergio Garcia says he is excited to be returning to his favourite golf course for Real Club Valderrama Open de Espa\u00f1a, hosted by the Sergio Garcia Foundation.<\/p>\n
The Ryder Cup star has outlined his charitable initiatives for his national Open, as he takes on the role of tournament host for the first time at Real Club Valderrama in San Roque, Andaluc\u00eda.<\/p>\n
The Spaniard has also announced his Ryder Cup teammate and two-time Major Champion, Martin Kaymer, will join him in the field for the \u20ac2million event, which takes place from April 14-17.<\/p>\n
Garcia left with the trophy the last time the European Tour visited Real Club Valderrama five years ago for the 2011 Andalucia Valderrama Masters, and he is looking forward to returning one of Europe\u2019s most iconic venues, which also hosted the 1997 Ryder Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cValderrama is an extremely special place for me,\u201d said Garcia. \u201cIt is my favourite golf course in the world and it is one of the best courses we have in the world, definitely in Spain and around Europe. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a shame we haven\u2019t played there for five years since the last Andaluc\u00eda Masters was there in 2011, so I\u2019m very excited to be going back. The golf course, I heard, is looking great as always and everyone at Valderrama is extremely excited to have us there again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia is also relishing the chance to take on the role of tournament host and through his Foundation, which was set up in 2002, he will raise money and awareness for the Asociaci\u00f3n Espa\u00f1ola Contra el C\u00e1ncer (AECC), the largest cancer charity based in Spain. Funds raised at the tournament will provide accommodations for families whilst their children are undergoing cancer treatment. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is going to be busier than usual for me at the Spanish Open but it is going to be worth it, every bit of it,\u201d he said. \u201cAnytime I can get my Foundation involved in anything like this, I love doing it. I am going to give it my best shot and hope it comes out as well as possible. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am very excited about it. I talked to Keith Pelley (European Tour Chief Executive) at the end of last year about the possibility of doing it and I didn\u2019t know if it would be this year, but the situation came around and now I\u2019m very excited about it and I hope to do it for many more years. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy whole team is working on ensuring everything is done the best way possible and to arrange where the money for the foundation will go. We are all excited about the things we can achieve. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy foundation does several things. We have done golf schools for professionals to teach disabled people to get into the game, both on the mental and physical side, and we give money to other charities. This year, at the Spanish Open we are going to be giving the money to the Asociaci\u00f3n Espanola Contra el C\u00e1ncer, which is a cancer foundation in Spain. They rent some apartments for the families of cancer patients who can\u2019t afford them and it allows these families to be together. <\/p>\n
\u201cAny time you can do something like this and help people who need it, it\u2019s great. I couldn\u2019t be more proud of it and it makes you feel good to be able to help. It\u2019s important for us as players to do something like this and not only play golf but do some extra things. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very fortunate to be able to do what we do and do it well, which means we get paid nicely. So it\u2019s nice to be able to help people who need it the most. Rory McIlroy is doing it with his tournament, the Irish Open, and I\u2019m doing it with the Spanish Open, which is amazing for me, and the more people we can help, the better it is for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to his Foundation\u2019s involvement, Garcia has used his role as tournament host to recruit former US PGA and US Open champion Kaymer, who returns to the tournament for the first time since his rookie campaign in 2007.<\/p>\n
The pair have forged a strong friendship during their time together on The European Tour, having also featured on the same European Team in the last two Ryder Cups, and Kaymer is looking forward to supporting the Spaniard\u2019s efforts as tournament host.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a great idea to have players hosting tournaments,\u201d said the German. \u201cIt is important we as players get more involved. It is good for the game, for the European Tour and for the foundations we have which not many people know about. Therefore we need to support each other in these events, and it is important that we talk about it and show real interest.\u201d <\/p>\n
Like Garc\u00eda, Kaymer has previous experience of Real Club Valderrama, having finished tied sixth in the 2007 Volvo Masters and inside the top 25 at both the 2010 and 2011 Andaluc\u00eda Masters, and he also shares his host\u2019s affinity for the venue.<\/p>\n
\u201cValderrama is one of the most iconic golf courses in Europe,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it is one of the courses the European Tour should go back to every year. It is very challenging from the tee. You need to hit all kinds of tee shots: fades, draws, low, high and even when you hit the fairway you can be blocked by trees. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo you need to have a good strategy for the golf course. The greens are very small so it is all about ball striking \u2013 it is never going to be a putting competition. Any day, if you shoot something around par it is a very good score, but shooting a round of 68 or 75 can be very close together, so that is the exciting part about Valderrama. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important that have a tournament in Spain and at an amazing golf course. We went there in my first season in 2007 and it was our season finale. Hopefully for the next few years we can go back there and play an event. There are a lot of Germans around there so I get a lot of support and it is a very nice spot in Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n
A full range of tickets for the tournament are available to buy now from http:\/\/tickets.europeantour.com including Any One Day Tickets from Thursday to Sunday which cost \u20ac15.00 per day if purchased before the week of the event and \u20ac20 per day if purchased during the tournament week.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
About the Sergio Garc\u00eda Foundation<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Sergio Garc\u00eda Foundation is focused on the social integration of disadvantaged children and young people through social assistance and extracurricular activities associated with sports, promoting, developing and funding golf clinics for disabled kids and young adults. The Sergio Garc\u00eda Foundation was established in February 2002 and is headed by Sergio Garc\u00eda. Since its inception, The Foundation promotes, develops and funds \u201cGolf Adapted\u201d courses throughout Spanish territory, aimed at young people with disabilities. More than 1,100 students have already attended these courses. The Foundation also provides training courses run by the American professional Peter Longo, specialist in \u201cGolf Adapted\u201d, with the aim of teaching to Spanish golf professionals, the techniques that can allow handicapped children enjoy playing golf. Up until now, more than 400 Spanish professionals already have this capacity thanks to the Foundation courses. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sergio Garcia says he is excited to be returning to his favourite golf course for Real Club Valderrama Open de Espa\u00f1a, hosted by the Sergio Garcia Foundation. The Ryder Cup star has outlined his charitable initiatives for his national Open, as he takes on the role of tournament host for the first time at Real […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}