Sergio Garcia, just two days removed from winning his first PGA Tour event since 2008 and doing it without a professional caddie, said yesterday he plans to continue winging it with a new caddie every week for the rest of the year.
Garcia, who on Monday won the rain-delayed Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C., with local country-club caddie David Faircloth on his bag, is using Wayne Richardson, a CBS-TV spotter and a friend of Garcia’s this week for The Barclays Championship at Bethpage Black.
“He’s not a professional caddie, but I don’t feel like I need that at the moment,’’ Garcia said yesterday. “I’m probably just going to do my own thing until the end of the year, and then at the end of the year I’ll decide what’s best for me.’’
Garcia said the key for him is “how I’m feeling.’’
“At the end of the day, I’m the one that’s hitting the shots, so if I’m comfortable with what I’m doing, I should be fine,’’ he said.
Garcia feels more than fine after his win secured his place on the European Ryder Cup side, a place that was anything but a lock for him before the win.
He said one of the first congratulatory calls he got after the win was from European captain and fellow Spaniard Jose Maria Olazabal.
“He was very happy for me making his job a little bit easier,’’ Garcia said. “He’s excited to have me in the team.’’
As for Garcia and Bethpage Black, where he had some issues with fans doing a count-down mocking his once-constant pre-shot waggling, Garcia opted for selective memory.
“What do you mean? They’ve been great,’’ Garcia said when asked about the fan-heckling in 2002.
Garcia, seeming more upbeat than in recent months, sounded nothing like he did when he lamented after the Masters in April that he was “not good enough’’ to win a major.
“Well, I think that you go through spots and through times in your career where obviously you have ups and downs, and when you go on those downs obviously it’s not much fun,’’ he said. “But you kind of try to get through them. I guess that’s why we love the game so much. It’s a hard game, but it’s also — when you can do a couple things right — it gives a lot back to you.’’
Rory McIlroy, who has watched Garcia develop from afar, said he’s happy to see Garcia back in form.
“I remember watching Sergio win the Irish Open in ’99, and then I remember staying up late on that Sunday night when he was battling Tiger down the stretch at Medinah [in the PGA] and hitting the shot from the tree and running up the fairway,’’ McIlroy said. “I’ve spent a lot of time with Sergio over the past few years.
“It was great to see him win last week and great to have him on our Ryder Cup team. I think he’ll be a very important member for us.’’