SERGIO GARCIA hopes to extend the summer of Spanish sporting success by winning this week’s Open championship at Royal Birkdale. With Jon Rahm having won the recent Irish Open and Rafael Cabrero-Bello triumphing on Sunday at the Scottish Open at Dundonald, Garcia hopes he can follow in the footsteps of his countrymen by lifting the Claret Jug this weekend. Added to Rafael Nadal winning the French Open and Garbine Muguruza winning the ladies’ singles at Wimbledon, the Masters champion felt this had been a great period for Spanish sport.

He said: “It would be amazing if I could follow those guys by winning here this week. It’s been so great to have not only that but also Muguruza winning at Wimbledon and Rafa winning at Roland Garros, too.

“So it's been a fun year for Spanish sports and for Spanish golf it's been great. I want to say it's probably the best year we've had in Spanish golf. So it's very exciting to see that, to see guys that you're friendly with winning and fellow countrymen doing great things. So we're going to try to keep it as much as possible.

“There's no doubt that pretty much in every part of Spain you can play throughout the year, which is not as easy to do in many other countries. So that obviously helps. But I think the success is down to the combination of the talent, the charisma and the passion that we have.”

On the back of his victory at Augusta earlier this year, the Spaniard admits he has never felt more relaxed going into a major championship and he hopes that approach will stand him in good stead when he tees it up for his first round on Thursday.

He added: “Everybody knows how much I love The Open. So I am excited to be back here for a third time at Birkdale. I’m hoping that my game feels good and that I can have a great week and a shot at another major, for sure.

“It’s difficult to say whether this would mean more than winning the Masters. I think they're both amazing. At the moment the Green Jacket means more because I have it, but everybody knows how much I love The Open Championship. And I would love to at least have one of them before I hang up the boots. So definitely it's something that I would like to achieve. And we're going to give it a shot this week. But that's like saying, who do you love more, your dad or your mum? So it's a difficult question to answer.

“I grew up dreaming of winning all of them. But the European is the one you relate to because I remember in Spain as a kid we couldn't see the Masters on TV. They didn’t show it. The British Open, you could see it here and there, and also it was during the day. And when you're 10 years old, your parents don't allow you to stay up until 11 or 12 at night watching TV.”

Garica marries fiancée Angela Akins next week but insists it won’t be on his mind as he walks the fairways this week.

He laughed: “No, my mind is only on The Open, don't worry. It's going to be where it has to be this week. Angela has been doing a great job of getting everything ready for the wedding. And obviously we're really excited for next week. But we have something that we're also extremely excited about this week and we want to be here giving everything we have.”