Garcia sees future Ryder Cup captaincy
Spain's Sergio Garcia is happy to be considered as a future Ryder Cup captain, although he hopes the honour comes much later in his career.
By Marcus Chhan
He shot to fame as a precocious 19-year-old who famously went head-to-head with Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship in 1999. The Spaniard eventually finished one-stroke behind the champion Woods, and since then Garcia's career has not quite unfolded in the way many were predicting.
He is now 32-years-old and yet to win a major despite coming close on several occasions, but the talented golfer has had plenty of highlights - including several Ryder Cup moments to savour from a European point of view.
Garcia holds an impressive Ryder Cup record of 16-8-4 spanning six different European teams since 1999. At this year's event, he showed tremendous mettle to win a point on the final day against American Jim Furyk in the final hole of their singles' match - it put Europe 13-12 up against the United States as they went on to complete ‘The Miracle at Medinah' (Trailing 10-4 at one stage, Europe won with 14.5 points to America's 13.5 points).
And with Europe looking for their next line of European captains to continue their recent dominance of the competition through to the next decade, Garcia's name is one that inevitably will pop up.
Although considered one of the honours in golf, the captaincy is typically handed to a senior figure in the sport whose golfing game may no longer be as good as his leadership qualities.
"It's interesting," Garcia told ESPNSTAR.com.
"I love playing the Ryder Cup, I can see how exciting but difficult it [the captaincy] is at the same time.
"In the future, if everything goes right, it's probably something that will happen but it's hopefully still a lot of years away until I do that."
Garcia added that he would not trade any of his Ryder Cup success for an elusive win at one of golf's four majors.
"If I am meant to win a major, I will win it," he said.
The former world number two is set to play at the European Tour's season-ending Dubai World Championship next week before heading to the Asian Tour in December to compete in the Thailand Golf Championship and the Iskandar Johor Open in Malaysia.
"I am very excited; this will be my first time playing in Malaysia so I am very excited about it," he said.
"I know players who have played in the tournament before, like Retief Goosen, so I have been told great things about it so I am excited about it, excited to see the golf course, Horizon Hills, and enjoy my week there. It should be a great way to end the year for me."
He added: "The goals are simple, I am going to go there and hopefully I am feeling good that week and I can fight for the victory."
"It would be great to finish the year strongly in Malaysia. With a win it will be amazing but if I can play nicely and have a good chance it will be a good way to end the year."