Garcia on the up

Jose Maria Olazabal has said he expects Sergio Garcia to be in his Ryder Cup team next year – and he has now seen for himself that Swede Alex Noren might well be in Chicago as well.

Twice a winner already this season, the 29-year-old from Stockholm had a 63 playing with Olazabal in the Castello Masters yesterday.

Europe’s captain missed the halfway cut, but was presumably keen to see the outcome of the third-round clash today between Noren and Garcia, who led by two after he too shot 63.

The former world number two has gone almost three years without a victory, but this week’s tournament is at his home club Mediterraneo in Castellon and on a course where he first won the club championship when he was 12.

Garcia, much more like his old self this season after a slump that took him outside the sport’s top 75, resumed on 12 under par, with Noren 10 under and then Scot Gary Orr, England’s Ross McGowan and Australian Marcus Fraser two further back.

Still to win his first major, of course, Garcia finished in the top 12 of the last three, but is not yet prepared to say he is back to his best.

His putting appears to be massively improved using a claw grip, however, and he said of his overall game: “It’s getting there.

“It’s not quite there yet – sometimes I have a little bit of a hard time hitting a draw, but when my little fade works out I can keep it in play.”

Noren won the Wales Open in June and then a month later took his home Scandinavian Masters by seven – despite a closing 77.