Garcia hopeful of partnering Parnevik at The Belfry

Thomastown, Ireland (Reuters): Sergio Garcia hopes he and Jesper Parnevik can resume their successful Ryder Cup combination at The Belfry next week, even though the Swede has struggled for form for much of this season.

Spaniard Garcia, who became the youngest European Ryder Cup player in history at Brookline in 1999, won 3-1/2 points out of four with Parnevik in that year's four-balls and foursomes against the U.S. and believes the duo can repeat that success.

"Jesper is a good friend of mine and I think we make a good team together," Garcia said on Wednesday as he prepared for the opening round of this week's WGC-American Express Championship at Mount Juliet.

"We'll see how everything feels next week, but I hope so (that he and Parnevik play together)."

Although the Swede has earned US$953,404 from 24 events on this season's US PGA Tour, he has missed seven cuts and has not finished higher than joint-17th since the US Masters in April.

"It's something we'll have to look at next week — see how Jesper is feeling, see how I'm feeling and see what (European captain) Sam (Torrance) thinks,"said the 22-year-old.

"I haven't talked to him (Parnevik) lately. I saw him at the British Open, then at the PGA and that's pretty much it.

"But the Ryder Cup is a different tournament. It's match-play and so many different things can happen that week.

"You get yourself motivated for the week and you always strive harder than before.

"I'm expecting him and all the other guys to play well at The Belfry."

World number five Garcia added that he was not necessarily expecting to be one of the senior players at the Ryder Cup, even though he was the highest ranked European in the team.

"There are guys out there that have more experience than me — like Colin (Montgomerie) and Darren (Clarke)," he said.

"So they (other players) are going to be looking at them and maybe some of them will be looking at me.

"I think it's always been that the European team makes a good package — we'll be good next week. I think that's one of the most important things."

Garcia said he was not too concerned about the on-off back trouble suffered by seven-times European number one Colin Montgomerie for much of this year.