Press was “just waiting” for Woods mistake says Sergio Garcia

Tiger Woods doesn’t have many friends these days but he has found a kindred spirit in Sergio Garcia.

The Spaniard, who will celebrate his 30th birthday on 9 January, preferred to concentrate on the press coverage of the Tiger Woods fiasco than the behaviour that has led to millions of column inches.

Summing up the “toughest” year of his career because of problems off the course [his girlfriend dumped him], Garcia revealed that he is worried about his injured right wrist and plans to see a specialist.

But he also touched on the Woods scandal and explained that as far he was concerned, the media had jumped at the chance to criticise the 14-time major winner.

“It seems that the press was just lurking, waiting for him to do something wrong and then attack him,” Garcia said in the Spanish sports daily Marca. He added that he believed that Woods would "be back soon" because "the game needs him.”

As for his ailing game and injured right wrist, Garcia is hoping that he will have everything sorted out in time to tee it up in the Abu Dhabi Championship from January 21-24.

After slipping from second to 11th in the world in 2009, he described last season as the “toughest” of his career, insisting that his poor results were caused by “everything that has happened off the course.”

His presence in Abu Dhabi looks doubtful considering his slow recovery from the sprained wrist he picked up in the third round of the Dubai World Championship on 21 November.

"The hand is not well," Garcia said. "I haven't played for three weeks and I still feel pain, it's not healing as fast as we thought it would. What's clear is that even with the rest it's not better"

Garcia explained that he played “with just one hand” in the World Cup in China, where Spain finished 27th of the 28 nations competing.

"I would have pulled out after the first round had it been an individual competition. But we were representing Spain,” he said of his partnership with Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño.