{"id":21857,"date":"2018-10-18T07:59:17","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T07:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/garcia-ready-for-another-special-week-in-valderrama\/"},"modified":"2018-10-18T07:59:17","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T07:59:17","slug":"garcia-ready-for-another-special-week-in-valderrama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/garcia-ready-for-another-special-week-in-valderrama\/","title":{"rendered":"Garc\u00eda ready for another special week in Valderrama"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Defending champion Sergio Garcia is looking ahead to another special week in a place that he loves, as he returns to Real Club Valderrama just three weeks after becoming Europe\u2019s all-time Ryder Cup points scorer.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

He is aiming for a third Andalucia Valderrama Masters title, after also winning here in 2011, but it is a week that is about more than just golf for the 2017 Masters Tournament champion, as the event is hosted by the Sergio Garcia Foundation for the second successive year.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a distinct Ryder Cup feel at Real Club Valderrama as Garcia is joined in the field by <\/span>Thomas Bj\u00f8rn<\/span>, the man who led Europe to a 17.5-10.5 win over the United States in the week that the Spaniard overtook Sir Nick Faldo at the top of the points list.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bj\u00f8rn\u2019s own Ryder Cup journey comes full circle this week as he returns to the venue where he made his debut in 1997 as part of the team \u2013 captained by the late, great Seve Ballesteros \u2013 which won the first of the biennial events to be held in continental Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n

The theme continues with three of the Dane\u2019s Vice-Captains \u2013 Padraig Harrington, Robert Karlsson and Lee Westwood \u2013 all in the field, alongside 2012 winning Captain Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Olaz\u00e1bal. Two of the Spaniard\u2019s \u2018Miracle of Medinah\u2019 stars, Nicolas Colsaerts and Peter Hanson, are also joined by Stephen Gallacher and Edoardo Molinari, who both featured in winning sides in 2014 and 2010 respectively. <\/span><\/p>\n

Valderrama will also be the battleground for the players who are seeking to maintain their playing privileges for the 2019 season, with players within the top 116 players at the end of this week (taking into account the six Affiliate Members currently inside the top 110) retaining their European Tour cards. Players who are on the bubble going into the week include four-time European Tour winners David Horsey of England and Italian Matteo Manassero, and Scottish pair Richie Ramsay and Marc Warren, who each have three European Tour titles. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Player quotes<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Sergio Garcia<\/b>: \u201cIt\u2019s always great to come to Valderrama, and hopefully I can keep up the good work of the last six weeks so I can give myself a chance to defend the title.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI love the way this course plays, I love how tough it is even though it\u2019s not a long golf course. It\u2019s just testing you and every part of your game, which is always good fun. The course condition is spectacular and the greens are rolling incredibly fast and true. Valderrama should be really proud. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBeing the record points scorer in the Ryder Cup is not something that I had in my mind, but it\u2019s very nice to be on top of that list in front of all those amazing players and it means a lot. I know how much it means and I hope that everybody realises how difficult it is, so I\u2019m very proud of that. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have played nine Ryder Cups, which is an achievement in itself, and I have played effectively, but I must give credit to my partners that helped me get the points, because I had great four ball and foursomes\u2019 partners. But the main goal is helping the team.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Thomas Bj\u00f8rn<\/b>: \u201cIt\u2019s always nice to come back here. It was such a special week that one, in the sense of Seve and the way the week unfolded. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had to choose a moment in the 1997 Ryder Cup, for me it was moment when I walked into that team room for the first time and I saw who was actually in that room. When you realize that you are playing in a team with Faldo and Monty, Langer and Woosie, Ollie and then Seve as a Captain, you realize that your career is going in a direction pretty fast where you are going to places you never thought you\u2019d be, and that moment is quite big for any young player. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe practice I\u2019ve done over the last six months doesn\u2019t really allow me to look at this tournament in a competitive way. I wanted to be here for Sergio, I wanted to be here for his Foundation and for all the things he\u2019s done for golf and for me. It was a pretty unique situation for Sergio to become the all-time scorer and that\u2019s something pretty cool to be part of.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Andaluc\u00eda Valderrama Masters hosted by the Sergio Garc\u00eda Foundation<\/b> is sponsored by the Council of Tourism and Sport of the Junta de Andaluc\u00eda through the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union, with the added institutional support of the Diputaci\u00f3n de C\u00e1diz, the San Roque City Council, the Royal Andalusian Golf Federation and the Marbella City Council. It also enjoys 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 Quir\u00f3nsalud, Coca-Cola, Varma, Korporate Technologies Group and Volvo are official suppliers. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defending champion Sergio Garcia is looking ahead to another special week in a place that he loves, as he returns to Real Club Valderrama just three weeks after becoming Europe\u2019s all-time Ryder Cup points scorer. He is aiming for a third Andalucia Valderrama Masters title, after also winning here in 2011, but it is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21857","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\/21857","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=21857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andaluciagolf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}