Garcia looks to World Cup to redeem disappointing year

SHENZHEN (Reuters) - Sergio Garcia hopes to steer Spain to a first World Cup win in a quarter of a century at Mission Hills this week so he can at least take home one trophy from a disappointing 2009.

Garcia finished last season on a high, taking the HSBC Champions title and world number two spot from Phil Mickelson in Shanghai and talking about finally ending his hunt for a first major.

The 29-year-old failed to add to his 19 career title wins this year, however, so a first World Cup win for Spain since Jose Maria Canizares and Jose Rivero lifted the trophy in 1984 would be a welcome boost.

"It would be a nice way to finish the year," the world number eight, who chose Gonzalo Fernandez Castano as his partner for the $5.5 million tournament, told reporters on Wednesday.

"It has been a hard year overall, but at the same time I think it's been very positive. I think that it's made me grow a lot, not only as a player, but as a person.

"Obviously looking at the results, it has not been a very good year. But I feel like my game in the past probably in the past 3 months has been improving, and that's a positive for next year."

Spain are top seeds for the 55th version of the World Cup, which will take place on the Mission Hills course designed by Garcia's compatriot Jose Maria Olazabal for a third consecutive year.

"It's just a typical Jose Maria course, where obviously the premium is accuracy at some point, and then making sure that the shots to the green have to be very well struck to be able to hit it close," said Garcia.

Thursday's opening round will be played in a fourball format, while Friday will feature foursomes action and the same pattern will be repeated for the last two rounds over the weekend.

"It just a matter of being able to go out there and roll some putts in, put some good scores in there," said Garcia. "Foursomes are always important to make sure that you do fairly well there."

Garcia highlighted defending champions Sweden, England, Ireland, Germany and Italy as strong challengers for the title among the 28 teams, but was confident he and Fernandez Castano would hold their own.

"There's a lot of good teams out there," said Garcia. "But we also have a good team. We should be very proud of that. So if we manage to use our talent, and the capabilities that we have, I think that we should be contenders for the title."

(Editing by Peter Rutherford)