Garcia joy as big two join

Kim and Villegas confirm plans to join Euro Tour next season

Last updated: 29th October 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Garcia joy as big two join

Kim (L) and Villegas: joining European Tour in 2009

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Sergio Garcia has spoken of his delight at the fact that both Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas have agreed to join the European Tour next season.

Kim and Villegas have now confirmed their intentions to play on both sides of the Atlantic by paying their European Tour joining fees.

Garcia revealed he had played a part in convincing the duo to take up their membership and feels they will prove to be huge assets.

"It's great," said Garcia ahead of the Volvo Masters where he will be looking to add to his triumph at the Castello Masters last week - an event at which Villegas made his European debut.

"I think any time you can get players of the calibre of Camilo and Anthony into the Tour, it's great.

"It's an asset and it's good for golf. It's good for the European Tour and it's nice to see those guys move around a little bit and not only play in the US.

"We'll welcome them with open arms and we hope they can enjoy it as much as we do."

Relaxed

The Spaniard offered the US-based duo an insight into life on the European Tour adding: "They asked me a couple of things and I told them how the Tour is. Everything seems to be a little bit more relaxed in Europe.

"Don't get me wrong, when we go out there we are all trying our hardest and we are all trying to win. But outside of that everything seems to be a bit more relaxed.

"I think it's a little bit looser here. You get along and have dinners and all of those kind of things.

"I think that's probably one of the things that they enjoyed and obviously The Race to Dubai is a big asset too."

Garcia went on to concede that some lower-ranked European players might not share his delight at the prospect of two stars, both in the world's top ten, joining.

Profile

However, he insisted the move was for the good of the profile of the Tour as a whole and would carry benefits in the long term.

"There's no doubt that the more good players you get here, some guys are going to feel it," the 28-year-old continued.

"But it happens everywhere, so you can't have both. If you want the Tour to get better and to grow and get to the level that it deserves, there's no doubt that you need those big players.

"Obviously if you're taking four or five spots there's going to be four or five guys that are going to struggle, but it's the way of life. You can't please everybody unfortunately."

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