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THE COMMERCIAL BANK QATAR MASTERSJanuary 25, 2007Retief GoosenDOHA, QATAR RODDY WILLIAMS: Okay, Retief, thanks for joining us. Leader after the first round, fantastic 65 in very difficult conditions out there. What pleased you most about that opening round? RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, it's always great getting off to a good start. Last week I did, too, and then didn't really do much after that, so hopefully this week I can keep it going. Conditions obviously were a lot easier out there today than the Pro-Am on Tuesday. Some of the holes felt like they were playing easy compared to the practise rounds. The course is in great shape. I got away with it today. I didn't drive it all that well. I missed seven fairways I think. So I got it on to the greens particularly well. RODDY WILLIAMS: You were saying outside you didn't play particularly well in the Pro-Am, are you surprised with how well you've started? RETIEF GOOSEN: The Pro-Am, you know, it's a Pro-Am. You know, working on a few things, and today, I hit a lot of better iron shots out there for a change. I've been struggling with my irons, and today was better, although I didn't drive it great, but when I hit some good ones, I hit some good ones. Q. Seven fairways is a lot. RETIEF GOOSEN: That's 50 per cent, yeah. Q. That's unlike you. RETIEF GOOSEN: That's true, yeah. Normally I miss more than that. (Laughter). Q. In simple terms, is it something that was off with timing or what? RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, I mean, a lot of them were in the semi-rough, so it wasn't that they were way off-line, besides 18 was probably the worst one I hit. But I think three of them were in the semi-rough so I only missed it by a yard. You know, you want to be on the fairways here. These greens are difficult to come into out of the rough, but I putted well today. Chipped in once on 11, just hit it over the back of the green in two and chipped in. So that helps the round. Q. What did you do on 16? What club did you play from the tee? RETIEF GOOSEN: 16 I hit 3-wood, a very good 3-wood and landed obviously just short of the green there. Went about 25 feet past the hole. Q. So you were putting for your second? RETIEF GOOSEN: Yes. Q. What did you play for your second shot on 15? RETIEF GOOSEN: I hit 7-iron, I should have hit 6. We thought that the wind was actually more left-to-right but it came up a bit short. Q. From the fairway? RETIEF GOOSEN: Yes. Q. Are you getting back the swing -- RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, I would say I'm a long way from 100%, but you know, it's tough there under pressure to commit yourself to what you're trying to do when you are working on a few things. But it's slowly getting more and more comfortable. So hopefully as the week goes on, I will stay that way and get a bit more comfortable and keep putting well. Q. You didn't really have a good year according to your status last year, are you happy with the way your game is right now? RETIEF GOOSEN: Yes, I'm fairly happy with the way things are going at the moment. Last year wasn't that great, especially the last sort of seven months or so wasn't great at all. You know, I'm getting some good rounds under the belt now which is a good sign, so that means you're hitting a lot of good shots. Hopefully I can keep that up. Q. What are the changes you've made in your swing? RETIEF GOOSEN: It's minor little things, really. It's more a posture thing and a little thing on the backswing. It will take some time to change. I will see him again in about two weeks' time or so when I'm back in America. Q. This is a little bit of a silly question. How close did you get to driving that BMW off the lot; you had a 65 today, the course record gets you a BMW. RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, I think 63 is the course record. So I needed a 62. Q. And that's with two new tees. RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, it was sort of in my mind. After I birdied I think it was the par 3, 13 or something, I was 7-under, 6-under, so I thought, well, pretty good chance of getting myself to 10-under here and maybe driving home, but it's a long way to drive. Yeah, but I think after I got a birdie on 14 and 15, just tried to get a good score in. Disappointing 18. 18 was probably the shortest of the par 5 today. If I hit a good drive, I probably could have got home in a 3-iron, but hit a poor drive and didn't make birdie. You know, still have three rounds left. Hopefully I can get a low one in then. Q. Just a follow-up, if you were I won't say a name but you just dropped out of the Top-50 in world golf, and you were struggling, I would appreciate the things you're saying about your game and how you're trying to get it back and so on, but you're one of the top golfers in the world and you just shot a 65. I mean, is it a sort of psychic thing that you want to say that you're trying to get it back? RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, I think technically -- Q. Do you feel like your game is not quite as good as it ought to be? RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, my game is not quite as good as it should be. Hopefully this year I can start getting some good tournaments under the belt again and get myself back into that Top 3 or so in the World Rankings. So you know, I still have a lot of golf left in me so I want to go through a few changes now since the end of last year. I feel by the time I start the Florida swing in a few weeks or a month's time or so, I feel like hopefully my game will be sort of -- the things I'm working on will be grooved in a little bit more and concentrate on just playing golf and not thinking too much about the swing. Q. Are you working hard during the break on your game or were you having some fun? RETIEF GOOSEN: No, I had a month break. I played three rounds of golf in that month, so definitely wasn't standing on the practise tee, no. You know, you want to get out there and you want to work on the things you're working on, but you have to give yourself that break, and that's what I did. I didn't -- I don't practise except I practised a little bit before last week when I came out to Abu Dhabi. Sort of in your mind you're thinking about the swing changes and the things you're trying to do. So I'm more trying to think about it instead of practising. RODDY WILLIAMS: Retief, could we rattle through the details of your round as well. RETIEF GOOSEN: Second hole, I hit driver, sand iron to about 15 feet. Next hole, I hit 5-iron on the green and 3-putted, probably 40 feet. Then I hit driver, 9-iron to probably about ten feet. 7, I hit 3-wood, wedge probably same, ten feet. 9, I drove it in the rough, laid up, hit a sand iron probably 20 feet. Chipped in from over the back on 11. Next hole, driver, 8-iron, probably 15 feet. And there I had 6-iron probably a foot and a half away. Next, 3-wood, 25 feet, two putts. Q. How easy is it for a hole-in-one on 17? RETIEF GOOSEN: How easy is it? Very easy. We're all aiming to miss it. We don't want a boat. (Laughter). RODDY WILLIAMS: Have you ever owned a boat? RETIEF GOOSEN: I've got a little boat in South Africa I ski with and so on. It's a very nice boat, I must say, yeah. Q. How many holes in ones have you ever had? RETIEF GOOSEN: Six. It's been a while since the last one so I'm probably due one. So hopefully 17 in the next three days I can have a nice float back to London. Q. If you choose to go back by boat or the BMW, which would you select? RETIEF GOOSEN: I've got enough cars. I'd probably take the boat. Q. When are you going to start designing golf courses? RETIEF GOOSEN: I am quite heavy in it already. There's probably about six or so, five or six lined up. Three in South Africa, one in Ireland that we already are quite away with, and as soon as summer comes around we'll plant the grass. Korea we're thinking there's one there happening. So I'm sort of busy on that side, too, which is nice. Q. Anything in the Middle East? RETIEF GOOSEN: Not at the moment. If we can get one organised over there, definitely love to have 1-over there, yeah. RODDY WILLIAMS: Thanks, Retief. End of FastScripts |
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