The young master of Castellon thrives

CADDIES ROLE:Club Mediterraneo is a real family affair, from father Victor down to youngest daughter Mar, writes Colin Byrne

THERE WAS something very different about the European Tour event which was held on the Costa Azahar, about 60 kilometres north of Valencia last week. It had become known familiarly as Sergio's event, not because he was the eventual winner, but because it was held in his front garden, outside the small town of Borriol in the province of Castello, in eastern Spain.

You climb inland high above the coastal town of Castellon and into a volcanic plateau to find Club Mediterraneo. It is a typical Spanish country club with a golf course, tennis and paddle tennis courts, football pitches and a swimming pool. A family-oriented scene where golf is simply part of a bigger social scene formed around sport.

To enter the clubhouse you have to sidestep an elephant-sized sculpture of a reclining, portly woman adorned with artistic distortions. You quickly realise that art is a fundamental part of Club Mediterraneo, as there are many more sculptures around the clubhouse.

It is the work of a local artist Juan Ripolles, who can be seen in the vicinity dressed in anything but golf gear.

This is the home of Sergio Garcia, the Boy Wonder from Spain who became a phenomenon as a teenager, earning his playing rights on the US Tour while he was still in school. There is a shrine-like photograph of the young Garcia positioned in the café area of the club holding a trophy. The young Sergio, or El Nino, is fresh-faced, and his image is surrounded by plaques with his achievements indelibly carved into the Mediterraneo history books.

El Nino's wall space is discreet, unlike the huge charisma that he exudes when you meet him. He is a warm and engaging Spaniard whose face lights up when he greets you. He plays golf, frequently with a running commentary about his shot as the ball is in mid-air. In true Spanish fashion he is animated, and he speaks mainly in English, so you always know what he thinks of his shot.

It's not just Sergio who has a presence in the club. His father, Victor, is still the professional there and his mother, Consuelo, runs the pro shop. The club is very much a Garcia family affair, Victor rambling about the place with a traditional club under his arm like he always does when he follows his son about the course anywhere else in the world.

Sergio's elder brother, Victor, and his younger sister, Mar, were wandering around the club last week like they usually would I suppose, just last week there were more people than normal with whom to engage in idle banter.

The Garcia children took part in all the sports programmes that were run in the club. They were given a chance to figure out which sports they preferred. Sergio is a natural sportsman who is adept in all the sports he played as a kid. Golf was not forced upon him. To pursue it as a profession was, of course, an easy choice.

Naturally because of Sergio's association with the club, the Castellon Masters attracted a relatively star-studded field. I am not insinuating that there were not some sort of sweeteners to get such players as Angel Cabrera, Justin Rose and Paul Casey to compete. Sergio's good friend from the US Tour, the Colombian Camilo Villegas, played because of his friendship with Sergio.

It would restore my faith in human nature if it really were as a gesture of camaraderie that these players showed up in a remote part of Spain for an obscure European Tour event which in the past has been nothing more than the lifeline for tour players trying to secure their rights for next year, as it is the final full-field event of the year.

Another mini-event within the tournament was for those around the top 60 in the Order of Merit trying to secure a spot in the Volvo Masters this week.

The course is the complete opposite both in style and nature to the majority of courses that Sergio plays in the US and around the world. Mediterraneo is very much a "members" course.

Despite its long par threes, if it had not rained heavily during the week the course would have been a drive and a flick for the modern, big-hitting pro.

It was easy to see what shaped such a world-class player as Sergio. The course winds its crooked path through olive and palm trees and small terraced stone walls. The holes demand different shaped tee-shots, most of them to narrowing landing areas, which means that accuracy is paramount.

Garcia is probably the best driver of the ball in the world, certainly among the top players. If you compare his driving accuracy to Woods et al, Sergio comes out well ahead.

The difference last week was that the event really had the Garcia stamp on it; delicately balancing the high profile of Sergio with the modest, low-key family approach.

Naturally the Kid from Castellon had a lot going for him last week; unbounded talent, acute local knowledge, huge local and familial support, the passion still to perform in a relatively small event and the killer instinct to add the Castellon Masters plaque to his photo in the clubhouse, which is already enveloped in accolades.