Noise has surrounded Sergio García from the moment his wildcard pick for this Ryder Cup was confirmed. Attention, it is claimed, will be focused on García more than any other member of the European team desperate to reclaim the trophy they lost at Hazeltine two years ago. From the man himself, when such matters were put to him, there was a shrug.
“I don’t think so,” said García on Wednesday when asked whether he had arrived in France with a point to prove. “The captain’s picks, they are not easy for captains and vice-captains, but they have their way of doing it and they know what they want to choose that can bring something extra to the team.
“I think that I have proved myself over and over. The only thing I can do out there is when I get called upon playing, just do my best, do what I do, do what I’ve always done here at Ryder Cups and that’s everything.”
That Thomas Bjørn turned to García raised eyebrows on the basis of form, an issue that may have been overplayed. The 2017 Masters champion has missed five major cuts in a row but this year García has at least posted three top 10s in the United States and two in Europe. One of those came at this venue, Le Golf National, at the French Open in July. And yet, more notable than the 38-year-old’s birdies and bogeys has been a recurring sense of joylessness on the golf course.
García was candid enough to admit there were times when he felt this, an eighth Ryder Cup appearance, might be beyond him. “For sure,” he said. “When things don’t go exactly as you plan or as you want it and you are playing a lot in the summer and you keep missing cuts by one it feels like it’s kind of getting a little farther away.
“You still kind of see it but it starts to get too far away, and you want it to come back. There were thoughts, but at the same time I talked to Thomas and I told him: ‘I want to be a part of the team. But if you guys decide to not pick me, I’m going to be at home cheering as hard as if I was there.’ So it’s not like I was going: ‘Oh, he didn’t pick me, I don’t even want to watch it or I don’t care.’ That doesn’t change for me and that will never change. But I’m definitely glad to be here and to be a part of it.”
When naming García, Bjørn pointed heavily towards the Spaniard’s role in bolstering team camaraderie, a point backed up by other members of the home team. “I think just everyone loves Sergio, at least in our team room,” said Rory McIlroy. “He has been the heartbeat of our team for a while and he has been a constant. I think with a lot of these Ryder Cup teams, it’s about continuity and about bringing the same mindset to each one.
“He’s great. He’s fun-loving. He never lets the environment or the atmosphere get too serious and I think that’s one of the big things about European Ryder Cups over the past few years. We’ve basically left any sort of egos at the door and no one’s allowed to have an ego.
“I think the more you can keep that atmosphere in the team room, the better. Sergio is great at bringing that atmosphere into the team room and just bringing that dynamic to everyone else.”
Quite rightly, Spain’s influence in the biennial meeting of Europe and the USA is the stuff of legend. Seve Ballesteros and José María Olazábal were the trailblazers for a scene enhanced by García and, now, Jon Rahm. The 23-year-old qualified automatically for his maiden Ryder Cup. He too found time to sing García’s praises and there is a live chance of Rahm and García playing as partners at some stage over the three days.
“I’ve gotten to know Sergio pretty well outside the Ryder Cup and he loves the event,” said Rahm. “He knows what it is like, he knows how well he performs in this event, and he does act in a great way. His demeanour, his energy is so positive and so energetic, it’s very contagious.
“It’s so much fun to be around people like him at an event like this just because he gets everybody very energetic and very, very much the same way he is. It helps everybody get together and bring everybody together. I mean, he is a special man.”
High praise. Yet should García not deliver on the course, fury will inevitably head his – and Bjørn’s – way once more.
