Garcia 'slowly getting better' after return from wrist injury

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PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. -- Sergio Garcia doesn't know quite what to expect this week as he makes his 2010 PGA TOUR debut at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Sergio Garcia

He had strained a tendon in his right wrist during the third round of the Dubai World Championship last November. Garcia was hitting a shot on the 17th hole when he recalled that the "club kind of got a little bit stuck in the ground and pulled my hand back, and I felt it right away."

Garcia, who tied for seventh in Dubai, ended up going seven weeks without touching a club. Doctors told him the injury actually might have healed more quickly had he not represented Spain in the OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup the week after he was injured.

Garcia, who turned 30 last month, only practiced four or five days before heading to the Middle East for the first two events on the European Tour, where he tied for 13th and 24th.

"So these first couple of months for me is kind of like my offseason, trying to get back into it," Garcia said. "I feel like I'm slowly getting better at it. I feel like I'm swinging the club better. I'm working hard on my chipping and putting, and it's going to take a little bit of time.

"Every time you're working on new things, they don't come easily. You know, it usually takes two or three, four months to settle in. But we are working on it. I know what I'm doing. It feels good. So it's just a matter of keep hard at it, and you know, hopefully get back to that level that we played middle to end of 2008."

Garcia is playing at Pebble Beach this week for the first time since 2001 when he tied for 59th. He said he came for two reasons -- to get an advance look at the course that will host the U.S. Open in June and to get ready for the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship next week.

"I didn't want to just fly to play the Match Play," Garcia said. "I wanted to come and maybe get a little bit of rhythm going into the Match Play. So it was good to be here and take a good look at Pebble and then kind of get going for next week, too."

Garcia will be partnered with actor Josh Duhamel, best known for his roles in the "Transformers" movie and "Las Vegas" TV series ... or perhaps better known as husband to Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas.

Garcia and Duhamel have never met but have a mutual friend. Duhamel was keen to play with the Spaniard.

"I like him as an actor," Garcia said. "... He's got a great singer as a wife. Nothing wrong with that."

And will she be in their gallery this week? Garcia simply grinned, "I don't know. It's not my call."