Sergio Garcia withdraws from Deutsche Bank Championship in a bid to prepare for the Ryder Cup
After winning the Wyndham Championship and following it with a tied third position at The Barclays, Sergio Garcia announced his withdrawal from this week’s Deutsche Bank Championship – the second of the four US PGA Tour Playoffs event.
Garcia recently made it to the European Ryder Cup team and wants to remain fit and healthy when the team event starts next month. The event will be held at the Medinah Country Club.
For that purpose, he decided to take a week off rather than playing continuously for the next four weeks. The Playoffs will mark their end at the Tour Championship, to be held from September 20 to 23, 2012.
“I have to think that I have a chance at getting to the Tour Championship,” Garcia said, “so having to play six weeks in a row and then one week off and then the Tour Championship and the Ryder Cup is just too much”.
Garcia admitted that his decision may hurt his chances for the overall Playoffs championship. However, he will accept the loss if that helps him perform better at the Ryder Cup, scheduled from September 28 to 30, 2012.
He represented the European Ryder Cup team five times – in 1999, 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008 - and holds an impressive track record of 14–6–4. Among his three appearances, his team came out of the field victorious three times.
“Everybody knows how important the Ryder Cup is for me, and I want to be fully fit there.” He added, “I need to take a week off somewhere, and unfortunately, that’s the only one that I can think of”.
According to him, he could have planned his season differently if he had not missed the cut at this year’s PGA Championship.
He told that he planned to skip the Wyndham Championship early in the season. However, he changed his plans later after performing poorly at the final major golf championship of the year.
“If for some reason I had done things differently,” Garcia said, “if I would have played better at the PGA, maybe, then I would have been able to take some other week off”.
He also stated the he was happy to end the Wyndham Championship on a high note and confirmed his berth in the biennial event.
However, playing in Greensboro forced him to take another week off. Unfortunately, he had to make his decision for this week’s Deutsche Bank Championship.
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