The proprietress peered out of the restaurant window and down the street. “Il arrive, the big chief,” she said excitedly. There, indeed, ambling towards the restaurant, was Sergio García, who had just come out of an apartment building named Augusta, near one called The Belfry and another called Turnberry. As he crossed the road the clouds parted to bathe the alpine town in gentle winter sunlight and cause the snow on the mountains across the valley to twinkle like icing sugar.

García was in Crans-sur-Sierre, Switzerland, spending Christmas with his family and friends in his top-floor flat little more than a wedge away from the golf course. He was on holiday at the end of a long year and enjoying himself, watching his sister and brother snowboard and joining them in noisy and probably argumentative family card games at night. “I want to win, but it is not only me,” he said. “All of us do.” He was grinning as if at the memory of a noisy game of Spanish guiñote with his brother, his sister, a friend and his parents.

Not allowed in this week-long break was the sport for which many come regularly to Crans-sur-Sierre. García has forbidden himself from skiing. “I love speed but I don’t trust myself,” he said, with another grin. “Everyone says, ‘Oh, you can go real slow,’ but I know that as soon as I feel comfortable on the slopes I’ll be off down the hill at speed and I won’t be able to control myself.”

Three days before Christmas, 4,500ft above sea level and tucked in a warm, quiet corner of a homely restaurant, García, 28, was able to reflect on the best year of his life as a professional. He won The Players Championship and finished second in the US PGA Championship. He was part of Europe’s defeat by the United States in the Ryder Cup, where he said that he felt his energy levels were too low. But against that, he had won in China, finished second twice in the series of play-off events for the FedEx Cup in the US and had the lowest stroke average on the PGA Tour in that country, too.

All this sent him up the world rankings until on Monday, November 10, he reached No 2, as near as he has been to the summit. He had been twelfth at the end of 2007. His route to the top was and remains blocked by Tiger Woods. The American, who has not played since June, has lost more points than he has won this year — so has Phil Mickelson — but García, who has won more than he has lost, closed on Woods and pulled more than one clear point ahead of Mickelson.

García stared out of the restaurant window as shoppers bustled by on the icy pavement. “I hate shopping,” he said, slightly darkly. “I am the world’s worst shopper.” Then he brightened. He had done all his shopping. The misery was over.

“What I love about this place is you can come here, spend a week or so and nobody bothers you,” he said. A television in the background suddenly crackled to life. “It’s the winner of the lottery,” he said.

Most years, the Garcías exchange their presents on Christmas Eve but this year they did so on December 20, at the start of their break. “Not much point if you gave someone a snowboard just a couple of days before we all return home,” he said. “They’d get only a couple of days’ use of it.”

Born in Spain, with a house in Florida, a chalet in Switzerland and a travelling schedule to rival anyone, García is a man of the world, multilingual in speech and multinational by nature. When he travels, he listens to music but not Spanish music. “I prefer songs in English,” he said. “I like James Blunt, Madonna. There is a Spanish group that sings in English that is pretty good. They are called Dover.”

When he is away from his home country he is not one of those Spaniards who always seek out food from home. “I try not to eat in a restaurant that is not from the country I am in,” he said. “I will never try and eat paella anywhere than in Spain or around Valencia.

“I am probably having the best paella ever in my whole life at home and why should I try to have it where they do not know exactly how it is made?

“I love Spanish ham, good seafood, paella. These are the things I miss when I am in the US, these and the friends I grew up with. On the other hand, I love their golf courses, the way they treat us, the opportunities there are for us.”

Accustomed to seeing him going about his business on a golf course with his caddie beside him and a golf club in his hand, or as a fleeting figure around a clubhouse, you realise that there are significant differences when he sits across a table for the best part of two hours, talking.

The first is the vivacity of his face. It is never still. One minute it is in repose, open and friendly, the next, his brow furrows. A moment after that, all is swept away by a broad smile that could light up a darkened room. He hunches forward as he talks, nibbles at a fingernail, twiddles first with one of his long fingers and then with the chain that he has around his neck to ward off arthritis. He is impeccably polite but he is clearly restless in this environment.

He is not a man to curl up for half a day in front of a fire with a book. “I could,” he said slowly. “But it would not be my first choice. In Spain, I am very active. Here, it is more restful. I get up later.”

What also strikes you is his English. Far better than that of Severiano Ballesteros, and spoken more loudly and confidently than that of José María Olazábal, he stumbles only occasionally. He referred to a “toin coss” when he meant a coin toss. At other times, he used the very English word “miles” when asked how much he had improved this year. Describing the wife of Carlos Rodríguez, his manager, he called her “Carlos’s missus”. Then it is time for him to leave. He checks that his guest has enough material, bids goodbye to the proprietress, favouring her with a kiss on each cheek. He talks earnestly to her for a moment before leaving the restaurant. It turned out that he was arranging to pay the bill.

Spain's golden generation

It has been a golden sporting year for Spain. Here are some of its achievements in 2008:

- Spain won their first significant football title for 44 years, beating Germany 1-0 in the final of Euro 2008.

- Rafael Nadal became the world No 1 in tennis and won the French Open, Wimbledon (for the first time, beating Roger Federer in an epic final) and the Olympic gold medal. The Majorcan also won three Masters Series events.

- Playing without the injured Nadal, David Ferrer, Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano López won the Davis Cup for Spain in November, beating Argentina in the final.

- Three different Spaniards have won the past three Tours de France. This year, Carlos Sastre took the yellow jersey after the seventeenth stage and held on to it to win by less than a minute.

- Spain won 18 medals at the Beijing Olympics, including five golds in cycling, tennis, canoeing and sailing.

- Fernando Alonso, the former Formula One champion, came only fifth in the drivers’ championship but he was the best driver in the latter part of the season, coming first twice, second once and fourth three times in the final six races.

- As well as Sergio García winning three titles, coming second in the US PGA and rising to No 2 in the world, Spain also provided the European Tour’s Rookie of the Year (Pablo Larrazábal) and six different winners of European Tour titles.