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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIPMay 9, 2007Ernie ElsPONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA JOE CHEMYCZ: We welcome Ernie Els. Ernie with third at Nissan this year, second at Verizon a couple of weeks ago, T34 last week at Wachovia. A little chat about the state of your game at this point, and then we'll let them ask you some questions. ERNIE ELS: Okay. State of my game? I think it's not too bad. I didn't have a great week last week, but it wasn't too bad coming back after a week off. After Heritage I went to China and I needed a week off after the China trip, and last week was kind of -- this week is obviously a big event, huge field, so I'd love to play well here this week. The state of my game is not too bad. My putting is pretty good. Everything is kind of there. I'm looking forward to a good week. Q. What have you found out here? ERNIE ELS: I played nine holes yesterday. I didn't want to play too many holes in that wind. It almost felt like back at Hilton Head over that weekend. I don't know how hard it blew yesterday, but it was blowing. I didn't want to play too many holes. But what I saw was very different. The fairways aren't overseeded. The rough is not overseeded. The greens aren't overseeded. It's all natural Florida grass, the Bermudagrass. The fairways are firm. The greens are even firmer. I don't know if it was just the wind yesterday, but you're going to have a tough time stopping the golf ball on the greens this week. They're very new, so that makes them even more firm. I like it. I like the fact that you can miss a fairway and still advance it to the green. In previous years with the overseed you couldn't do that. I think with this style course in many ways, many of the holes play almost like a links course in certain ways, with the runoffs from the greens and even from the fairways. I feel this course plays -- will play at its best when it's firm, when you have different kinds of shots. And I think that's what they've got here this week. Q. The fact that you can advance it to the green, would that lead to even higher numbers? ERNIE ELS: It could, yeah. It gives you a chance. It gives you options. Obviously if you don't feel comfortable going at the green out of the rough, you can always just lay it up short. I'm sure 90 percent of the guys will try to hit the miracle shot and I think that makes it even more exciting. I think I've seen guys -- you're going to get away with shots, and to see the guys with imagination come out, I think the fans will enjoy it and I think it will be very good for TV ratings to see guys try golf shots. And that gives us more options to play with. Q. How mentally wearing has it been for you, one, to get over the hump and get back in, when you're playing -- whether it's the third round or fourth round you find yourself in contention, how tough is it? Does that become a mental hurdle, or is that something that you really don't think about when you're in the course of trying down the stretch of a tournament? ERNIE ELS: No, I would say at Hilton Head I didn't think about that, especially on Saturday. I didn't have the lead on this TOUR for quite some time. It was a little different feeling. I had a good learning experience, again, over that weekend. I think on the Saturday, which was a very calm day, if I kept playing the way I did Thursday, Friday, I could really have separated myself, basically, from the field a little bit. I wasn't in a great state of mind. I think I might have been a little -- put a little bit of pressure on myself that day. And I didn't quite play the way I wanted to, although I shot 71. I think the field average that day was probably 68 or 69. I felt I lost a little bit of ground. On the Sunday -- or the Monday, it was a different story. I felt kind of more ready and up for it. I think it showed in my play, especially on the back nine. I really played some good golf then. I would say for 27 holes I was a little unsure of myself, and maybe that's from not having won out here for quite some time. So, yeah, I think -- every week is kind of different and I'm just trying to work myself towards winning a tournament, and then from there on I'd like to win a lot more tournaments. Q. When the course is as firm and fast as this one is, is it fair to say that it's not just the quality of the iron shots into the greens but it's the spin that you put on when you hit those shots that becomes so important? ERNIE ELS: Absolutely. I think if you look at The Open championship last year at Hoylake, it was very firm, obviously from tee-to-green, and ball flight -- certain ball flights were going to hold the greens. Even some guys who have a lower ball flight, if they hit 7-iron as crisply and as full of spin as they think they can, those golf balls will still not stop on the green. A different ball flight is required on certain courses. I don't think it's as firm this week as it was at The Open, but definitely, yeah, the higher ball flight with a lot more spin, that's the kind of game that you want here this week. This course, also, depending on flag positions, there are some flag positions, if it's low you can use it off the slopes. Lower ball flights can use the slopes. But overall the guy that has a higher, softer flight here this week, and if he's on his game will have an advantage, definitely. Q. The firmness, vis-á-vis Augusta, just to follow up, how would you compare the firmness that you anticipate to have this week with Augusta? ERNIE ELS: The way it was yesterday, I think some of the greens were almost Augusta-like with firmness. But we've got more cover on the fairways so the fairways are barely covered with the grass, so you can get underneath the ball better yet than at Augusta. It gives you a little bit better feel. Q. Do you find it at all odd that they moved this tournament to May in part to get away from the rain? ERNIE ELS: It's kind of odd. Last couple of days it's almost like March again, a lot of wind, north winds, and kind of not very warm. I see it's going to change a little bit over the next couple of days, so we'll get a little bit of Florida heat. I think we need it. We've played in awkward weather. Q. How about the sand capping they've done, to drain better, to see if it holds its test? When it rains it can still play firm and fast; that's what they've been promoting. ERNIE ELS: Yes, also, moving it into May, thunderstorms come around. But this golf course, out there it's a swamp out there, so -- there was good drainage anyway, but I think as time went on with the golf course, everything needs a bit of uplifting. Obviously this golf course got that. I'm sure they did exactly the right stuff. I'm not sure what they put underneath them. I'm sure there's a lot of sand underneath there and new drainage pipes. Under the greens they've got that SubAir stuff. All in all, I think they've done the right stuff. It should work. They had it at Wachovia last week. We had a bit of rain there last week, and they had the SubAir stuff going on under the greens. Q. They've got those pumps there, too? ERNIE ELS: Yeah, yeah. Q. They have everything there. ERNIE ELS: I heard them going. I guess they were on. Q. When people think of the best of Tiger, everybody thinks about the run back in 2000 and '01. What have you seen from him in the last eight months, is this as good as it was in 2000, '01 in your mind? Better, about the same? Where do you rank the run he's on right now? ERNIE ELS: You know, we all thought he set the bar a little higher back in 2000. We never thought he was going to do it like that again. He changed his swing for two years or a year, I can't remember how long it was, but he wasn't quite the same. Then obviously with the changes of his swing coming through and him feeling really comfortable with that, you know, talent is never going to go away. It's just how you try and make that better, and I think he's made that better. His performances have been unbelievable, and he's back on form. He's quite a guy. Q. You won a major before Tiger turned pro and you've won majors with him in the field. Do you ever get frustrated with the fact that the peak of your career is a time when he's playing or are you always going to view that as a challenge? ERNIE ELS: No, I mean, I think it's a bit of both, isn't it? I think if he wasn't around I maybe could have won a couple more. But that's not taking anything away from the rest of the players. But he's very dominant and he's been up there more than any other player, more consistently. So, yeah, there's a bit of both. But also, if you can win tournaments with him in up the field and with him around, you know that you've beaten the best field ever to have played probably. He's probably on his way to being the best player ever to have played the game. If you win tournaments with him in the field you've really accomplished something. That's why I said what I said; if you can win consistently with him around, you're really performing well. I think the fields, in general, are a lot stronger than they were 10, 20, 30 years ago. There are a lot more guys that can play out here rather than 10, 12, 15 guys. You win tournaments now. You're really performing well. Q. Were you more nervous playing the 17th, 18th at Oakmont or the 17th, 18th at Muirfield? ERNIE ELS: Yeah, that's a good question. The one at Oakmont I guess -- I guess at Oakmont, yeah, because I bogeyed 16 and I did not birdie 17, then I bogeyed 18 to get into a playoff. At Muirfield I think 16 was a big disaster; I doubled there. But then I came back with a good birdie on 17, where I had two really good shots and a good par on 18. I guess Oakmont, yeah. Q. I guess my point being at Oakmont you're 24 years old and hadn't seriously, seriously contended in a major. At Muirfield you're age something -- ERNIE ELS: Yeah. Q. -- and you've got years of experience and really years of -- what it would be, five years since you won a major. I wondered how you could contrast the two, maybe more baggage? ERNIE ELS: It's difficult because it was so different. As you say, you're trying to win your first major. And then in 2002 you're trying to get something back together again to win a couple more majors. They're both very different. In both cases I made mistakes coming in, and in both cases I had to kind of rectify it and kind of make something out of a disaster. So both were different, but they were both very similar, also, in circumstances. Q. As a follow-up to that, it's rare these days for someone to win a major at age 24, as you did at Oakmont. Was there any type of surprise factor, that, wow, I've done this, or were there expectations of doing more because you did turn and give yourself a chance the next year and in '96 at Lytham and then won again quickly? ERNIE ELS: No, I think as a player growing up, I always I thought I had it in me to win majors. I always felt quite confident that I eventually would win majors. I always had dreams of winning quite a few. So in '94 going to Oakmont I had some form. I finished second to Lee Janzen the week before at the Buick Classic at Westchester, which is a very, U.S. Open-type venue. Although I finished second, I felt very at ease with my game. I played some good golf. I had some good finishes in Europe, also. I felt quite confident. At 24 there's not too much fear around; you haven't had too many disappointments. I felt good with the golf course and everything else. I felt it was my time to win, basically. And when you feel that confident you know you can do it. So that was going to be my first win of many; that's the way I thought. Q. When you talk about disappointments, is it easier when you have talent, as you do, is it easier to win majors when you're young or when you're middle-aged? ERNIE ELS: I think I had chances in both cases. Again, I was in my 20s, I had the lead at the PGA at Riviera, I think a two- or three-shot lead there. I didn't win on that occasion. The Open at Lytham; the U.S. Open, also, at -- in Detroit, I had a chance there. I had many chances in the '90s, and then also, again, at the turn of the century. I've had many chances to win majors. And although I've won three -- I think 2004 up to now is still the most disappointing of all the disappointments, so to speak. Q. Charl Schwartzel has just broken into the top 50 after winning the Spanish Open. This youngster is 20 something. Could you talk about the young players coming out of South Africa? And also, second, what's your opinion, if you can share with us, of turning pro early versus going to college like Van Der Walt or Sabbatini? ERNIE ELS: I see you've done your research (laughter). We'll have to get you to pronounce those names. It's a good try. We've always had some talent in South Africa. We've got good weather, we've got a good program down in South Africa. We have a great junior program. On school holidays, and it's still the same, my school holidays we used to play in a lot of tournaments. So you get a lot of tournament exposure at a very young age. You play 36-hole tournaments and you play three or four of them in the week, all around the region. My mom did a lot of driving. You play in tournaments. You make up friends and it's almost -- you get used to traveling at a young age, although it's not very far. Then from there you go into amateur golf, which is also very strong. We have a lot of tournaments. Then if you do well then in junior golf or amateur golf, you can get into teams. Then they pay for you to go overseas and get exposure overseas. All these players have done that, that you've mentioned, Charl, Louis Oosthuizen, he was actually in -- we helped him out, and it's great to see him become pro and be a tournament winner. So you have this whole system going on in South Africa. The only problem is it's in South Africa. You would have seen a lot of these players out a lot earlier or you would have seen guys with similar talent come out, but the lack of funds to get guys out of South Africa and to try out for a Tour card anywhere in the world, it's tough. The exchange rate with the British pound is I think 14, and to the U.S. dollar it's 10. For $1,000 you're going to take 10,000 rand out. It's a lot of money. And money has been a big issue for a lot of these players, not coming out earlier. The talent has always been there, and these guys have come out now. Some of them go to college. Through the college system they can get into getting their Tour cards. They get a full scholarship, obviously the money thing is taken care of. But you want to turn pro as early as you want to, I think, to get better exposure out here on Tour than at college. I think you might waste a lot of your good golf at college. Q. With your successes, where does golf rank among the youngsters? Is cricket still popular? ERNIE ELS: No, I think rugby is still our most popular sport, then football, soccer. Soccer is played by the masses. We have 45 million people, and only five or six million white people in the country. The black population definitely plays soccer. But rugby is very exposed. It's very much our No. 1 sport, then cricket. Golf is like No. 4 on the list. Q. You talked about Tiger going through his little period where he changed his swing and the slump he had. Do you think that you're at a point right now in your career where you're going to begin to kind of go back up to where you were? Do you think physically you're there, mentally you're there? ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I would like to think so. I think after 2004 it's definitely been a slide in my performance. And now I want to pick it up back up again, basically. I think physically I'm ready again. I'm fine, my knee is fine, my back, everything is pretty good. I've got new enthusiasm. I'm picking myself back up, so to speak, yeah. Q. It's generally written by a lot of us that Oakmont is the toughest U.S. Open challenge venue. Do you agree? ERNIE ELS: Well, I spoke to Doug before, I haven't seen Oakmont since all the trees have left the place. You know, it's hard to imagine that we're going to go there and there's not going to be any trees. Those trees were huge. I'm going to go there after Memorial. I want to go there for a day or two and go check it out before the tournament starts. But, yeah, that might well be the most difficult of all of them, even including Bethpage. There's new length in there. Bunkering is unbelievable around Oakmont. The greens are the quickest we ever face. But it's a fair test, so I'm looking forward to it. Q. You were talking about the greatest strength of fields now in the majors and you referred to the disappointment of 2004 for you. Is there a part of you that is surprised it's almost five years since your last major victory? ERNIE ELS: I actually thought about it the other day. It's amazing how time flies out here. 2002 was the last time I won a major. Before that it was another five years. Before that it was another five. So every five years looks like it's my cycle (laughter), so we'll see how it goes. Yeah, it is quite surprising. Obviously I've had chances here and there, but especially in 2004 was probably the time to separate myself a little bit. Q. You mentioned the greens at Oakmont and how quick they are. What makes them so fast? Are they as smooth as they are quick? ERNIE ELS: Yeah, they were back in '94. Since then I've played a couple of little Pro Am's there, until maybe '98, and every time I went there the greens were perfect. Fast as a U.S. Open would be, maybe a little more moisture in the greens. The USGA likes to take the moisture out of the place. But they were just perfect. You could play a tournament there almost any day of the week. They keep it in great shape, and the members are proud of their greens being the fastest in the nation, probably. They must be very close to that. Q. I'm assuming that your first trip to Oakmont was before the '94 Open; is that true? ERNIE ELS: Yeah, the Monday before (laughter). Q. Would you just, your first recollections of what your impressions were of Oakmont then and just some ideas of what the week was like for you? ERNIE ELS: Well, I did watch the U.S. Open -- '83 U.S. Open where Larry Nelson won. And I remember Seve, who never really contended in U.S. Opens, he was a contender that week. I remember watching him and really cheering him on from South Africa. And obviously I saw some of the holes being played, how they played them. I remember the weather in '83 was overcast. I remember the ball stopping on the greens. So when I got there it was a little different. It was very warm. The greens were rock hard. I had a feeling of how to play some of the holes, watching it on television. I just tried to play it the way they did it. I was so young, at 24, playing your second U.S. Open, I was just excited to be there. As I said to Doug, my game was there, so I felt up for it. I wasn't too scared of playing in the U.S. Open. The week went great. I remember Saturday I played some of the best golf, even to today, the front nine of the Saturday round, I had a putt for 29 on the 9th green. I missed that, I shot 30. I played some really good golf. Then obviously I guess reality set in the last three or four holes of Sunday when I bogeyed 16 and 18. Then the playoff that Monday, I don't remember much of that playoff. Don't ask me why, but all I know is I made a lot of putts that day because I was putting for pars almost on every hole and kept making them. It was a weird and wonderful week. Q. Do you remember Monty wearing all black? ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I remember him -- it was so warm -- it was even warmer that Monday morning than it was during the week. Who knows why he wore what he wore. Maybe it wasn't the cause of him playing the way he did. It was warm for everybody. Q. I know you haven't gone there and seen yet the trees that have been eliminated, but in principle what do you think about a place that takes out 5,000 trees and basically changing the entire look? ERNIE ELS: Well, I think tradition, I think -- I remember there's a picture of Oakmont just from The Open when they still -- actually when they built the course. They had the horses and the plows, plowing the fairways. And the oak trees on the whole place. I guess they wanted to go back to that look. It almost looked like a Shinnecock, linksy kind of a look, the old look. I guess the members didn't like the trees around too much. That's the only reason I can think. It's just going out in tradition. Q. You talked about those last couple of holes on the final round at Oakmont. We've had -- if you play this game long enough you're going to run into those situations where you're going to basically maybe leave one out on the golf course that you shouldn't. You obviously recovered from that. What's it like when you don't recover? Because we're going to have U.S. Open now where we'll talk about Phil and we'll talk about Colin, who actually made mistakes on the last hole who obviously cost them that Championship. What is it when you don't recover from that? ERNIE ELS: I don't think you want to look at it that way, because even the greatest players of all had their failures. Look at Arnold Palmer, he should have won the U.S. Open at Olympic that time. And I think Billy Casper beat him, against all odds. Phil doing what he did at Winged Foot, me doing what I did at Riviera and at the British Open at Lytham, those things never really leave you. It's just how you move forward. You just move forward. You've got to learn from those mistakes, but they don't really leave you. It's there for -- probably for life. You always think back, man, if I made this different decision I could have had a different result. That's just the way it is. But that's professional sport. You're not going to win everything, especially in golf. If you win 10 percent or 20 percent of the tournaments you ever enter in, you've had a great career. But in another sport you've got to win 80 percent of the time to have a great career. Golf is different. You're going to have more screw-ups than you're going to have victories in most cases. Tiger is a little different, Jack Nicklaus is a bit different, Bobby Jones was a little different, Ben Hogan was a little different. But even though -- look at Greg Norman, Nick Faldo. Nick Faldo probably won more than he lost. He also lost some. We're all going to lose some. You've got to move forward. Sometimes it's a little tougher after a very tough loss to really move forward immediately after that. In time you get over it and you go forward. Q. Is it tougher to forgive yourself for a physical error or a mental error, say you do something -- you've done it a couple of times, aiming at the corner and hit some high-risk shots through the trees and kicked yourself for weeks? ERNIE ELS: No, it's definitely the mental errors are the ones because you can control that. You can control what you're thinking and what you want to do. You can. At times I went against it and took bigger chances. It's like anything, if you're driving too fast and the corner comes up too quickly, you're not going to hit the brakes, you're going to hit the side barriers. You kick yourself for the way you hit that shot because of a mental error. Q. How long does it stay with you? I guess it depends on the person. How long will it stay with, say, Mickelson, only because he's the most recent? ERNIE ELS: I think he's moved on from it now. It must be tough playing The U.S. Open. When you get to the last hole and you make an error like that, it's not like you've played bad golf. You've made one bad mistake at the wrong time. Out of 72 holes, four days of golf, if you make one bad error a day, that's pretty good. Unfortunately his bad one came on the 72nd hole when all the pressure is on and everything is on the line. Those are the tough ones to get over from. We've all made those mistakes; every golfer out here has made a mistake. Even Tiger has made a mistake like that. For him, unfortunately, it was the U.S. Open, 72nd hole and that takes a bit more time. But I think he's fine. I think what he's doing now, working on the new swing and he's trying to make things fresh again, and I think that's the right way to go. End of FastScripts |
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