Golf: Sergio Garcia is the latest high profile player to confirm his entry for next month's HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai, the inaugural event in the lucrative Race to Dubai series.
The Race to Dubai replaces the traditional European Tour Order of Merit and takes in no less than 53 tournaments in 26 different destinations around the globe culminating with The Dubai World Championship on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai in November 2009.
Garcia joins a number of top level star such as world number two Phil Mickelson, this year's two-time major winner and world number four Pádraig Harrington. This year's US Master champion Trevor Immelman and current European number one Robert Karlsson are also in the HSBC field which gets underway Sheshan International Golf Club from November 6-9, one week after the 2008 season-ending Volvo Masters at Valderrama.
"Shanghai is a truly great city and it is always fun to come back to," said Garcia. "Last year I thought it was a great tournament and I really enjoyed the visit. I love to play around the world and I am really looking forward to returning to China to play in this world-class event and keeping my good play of the 2008 season going."
Garcia also suggested there is great interest in the Race to Dubai concept among his peers.
"Everybody I have talked to on both sides of the Atlantic is very positive about this development," he said. "The Race to Dubai is great and will take The European Tour and European golf to a new level and where it is supposed to be. We are all very excited and looking forward to seeing how it goes."
Seve Ballesteros is the only Spaniard to have won the European order of merit. The five-time major winner won it on six occasions (1976, 1977, 1978, 1986, 1988 and 1991). And Garcia said he would love to follow in Seve's footsteps.
"It is something that all European players aspire to and it is incredible to think that of all the great players who have come out of Spain over the past 30 to 40 years that only Seve has done it," he said.
"It is something that I would love to do before my career is over - indeed I would love to win both The Race to Dubai and the FedEx Cup in the USA. It would be exciting to achieve that and I am looking forward to trying to achieve that. However, to win the first Race to Dubai would really be something."
This week Garcia will tee it up in this week's Castelló Masters Costa Azahar at his home club, the Club de Campo del Mediterráneo in Castellón.
"I am so thrilled about my tournament; it is one of the highlights of my year," added the 28-year-old. "To be able to play a European Tour event at my home course and to have some good players coming there too, I think it is going to be awesome. It is going to be a new experience for me and I am really thrilled and looking forward to it.
"Of course looking ahead, my tournament in 2009 is going to be right in there towards the end of The Race to Dubai and doing well there might give a lot of guys the possibility of making it into The Dubai World Championship at the end of the year. It should be very exciting."
