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EDS BYRON NELSON CHAMPIONSHIP


May 12, 2005


Ernie Els


IRVING, TEXAS

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Ernie, thanks for joining us. Great round today, 6-under, 64 on the Tournament Players course. Just start with some opening comments quickly.

ERNIE ELS: Well, I'm satisfied. How about that?

Q. It's a good start, isn't it?

ERNIE ELS: It is a good start. I'm really happy with that.

Q. Is it nice to get a low one on the TPC course knowing that usually the other one is easier?

ERNIE ELS: I disagree. I played Cottonwood yesterday afternoon. I mean, the wind was up. I thought it was firmer and a little bit faster than TPC. You've got to be careful on that course. It's a bit shorter but it's tricky.

Q. How often a year do you walk off the course and go, "Boy, I'm really satisfied with that"? How many days of the year do you feel that?

ERNIE ELS: It depends on how I play. I play 26 events over here. Let's say -- I would say 50 times.

Q. About half your rounds?

ERNIE ELS: If I'm playing good.

Q. Do you think that's probably high compared to most guys like Steve Flesch or --

ERNIE ELS: I don't know. If I'm having a good year, I walk off satisfied.

Q. How was today's form compared to Shanghai?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I mean, I think -- I felt comfortable over the ball. I felt I hit the ball solid. The fairways I missed I wasn't too far away, and the greens I missed weren't too far away. Yeah, probably about that form, yeah.

Q. 8 it looked like you were kind of in jail on the right side of the rough and you carried it over trees and hit it to like three feet?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I had a nice angle actually. I missed my drive right there and was just on a little bit of an upslope. Yeah, it's one of those days. I got a break, got a good lie in the rough, and the ball came out perfectly second shot and went to four feet.

Q. What did you hit there?

ERNIE ELS: 7-iron.

Q. Seems like when you get out of sync maybe it's because you're taller and you've got more parts to you or something. It's always an alignment thing with you; somehow your knees or your feet or your shoulders or your hips. Is that fair to say?

ERNIE ELS: Absolutely. I mean, I'm 6'4". It's not like I'm 5'7" like a lot of guys. I have to keep working on that, and that does get out of whack. My posture got slumpy, and as you say, my alignment got out of whack. If you don't address the ball properly, you're not going to hit it properly, and that's what I did. I had to get back to basics.

Q. Do you know when you're getting out of sorts or does it sometimes take a round or two of not hitting the ball well to figure it out?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, it takes a while. You know, I might just be out but I've got good rhythm, so I can always smooth it out in my swing. But after a while, I start seeing it, I start seeing those pull shots or a high right shot. That's normally when I'm not in a good position on the backswing, and that comes from ball position or alignment.

Q. The problem at Augusta, was it alignment?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, exactly. Unfortunately I got sick -- well, it was TPC week when I got sick. I had a horrendous week, and eventually I got sick there on Sunday night, and I was just done the week before The Masters. I didn't quite have my energy back, and I was just slumping around there kind of a thing.

So yeah, I was not good then.

Q. You got through the Tavistock Cup okay?

ERNIE ELS: If I saw how I hit it, I don't know what I shot.

Q. Do you videotape stuff and send it through the Internet with Leadbetter or do you wait until you guys catch up to each other?

ERNIE ELS: We talk to each other on the telephone, show each other pictures of the swing, and basically that's how we do it. He doesn't travel like me, he likes to stay in Florida. So we have to do it by other means, and that's what we do. I've got a very good friend of mine, I think you know Johann Rupert. He's also been on my case for a long time about my setup. But he's a 12 handicap, so I'm not listening to him.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If we could touch on your round and we'll take one or two final questions. You started out with a birdie on the 1st hole.

ERNIE ELS: You want to go through the round? Okay, 1st hole was 22-, 25-foot putt, hit a wedge in there on my second shot.

4, hit it just in the first cut, then I hit wedge to eight feet, birdie.

5, pulled my tee shot left, hit my second shot just short of the green, pitched it up a little bit too hard, kind of just went through the green, but I was only about eight, nine feet away.

7, I hit a drive right, hit a 7-iron four feet.

13, par 3, I hit 8-iron there about 14 feet past the hole, made that.

16, I hit a drive in the left rough, 3-wood short left of the green, pitched it up to about five, six feet.

Q. You talk about being 6'4" and the things that can go wrong in a tall person's swing, but you're 6'4", Vijay is 6'3", 6'4", Tiger is over six feet, Retief is 6'1", 6'2"?

ERNIE ELS: But they're not 6'4". It makes a big difference (laughter). I guess you're right. I think the game has probably changed from 15 years ago. I think Nick Price was the best player in the world for a long time and he's only six foot, and Greg Norman was maybe only six foot, 6'1". Sign of the times.

Q. You've won already this year but are you anxious to get on the board here in the States?

ERNIE ELS: I don't want to use the word anxious, but yeah, I want to play better over here. I haven't done well here in March the last time I was here, so obviously I want to play better. I mean, this is just one tournament. I'll be back at the end of the month and three weeks in June, so I'd like to play better.

Q. Is there a sense that maybe Vijay, Tiger and Phil have won almost all the tournaments, or does it matter?

ERNIE ELS: I've only played six times over here. I mean, I think Vijay is playing 14 or 15 this week (laughter). It's a little bit of a different world we're living in.

Q. You may have said this yesterday and I forgot, but did you feel things turning around for you the weekend in Beijing?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I had to start working on those things that I was talking about. Those are little changes but it just feels like a different motion, different swing you're making.

But I knew it was the right stuff I was working on, and you've got to grind through it until it feels comfortable. So I hit a lot of balls in Beijing, and yes, that weekend I started hitting the ball better and things started coming around. Obviously at Shanghai I was surprised -- as surprised as you guys to win by 13.

Q. Obviously you played well in Shanghai --

ERNIE ELS: Shanghai was a the type of golf course very similar to here; you've got to hit it in certain areas. You don't have to use the driver too much, so I could put the ball in play with a 3-wood or 2-iron, but I had to hit a lot of iron shots. The whole week really helped me a lot, working on my game, also.

Q. Do you feel yourself poised for a nice run through the summer?

ERNIE ELS: Well, yeah. You know, now I'm working on the right stuff, I've just got to keep doing that, and just keep grinding. I've just got to stay sharp, yeah. I'm feeling good.

Q. Has your swing changed a great deal since early '90s?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah.

Q. Is there anything different about your swing that makes it easier for a guy who is supposedly 6'4"?

ERNIE ELS: As I said, I think my rhythm helps. I think all these tall guys like Vijay, myself, we've all got pretty good rhythm, and we give ourselves time to hit the ball. We don't rush it.

My swing has changed a lot. I'm hitting it more with my body than with the arms and wrists kind of a thing. Yeah, my swing has changed quite a bit.

Q. I just heard that there's a chance that if the swing is not done properly that a tall man is more susceptible to back issues than like Shigeki or someone.

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, your lower back, if you don't get your lower body and your upper body working together, you can get some hip problems and back problems, yeah, sure.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Ernie, thanks.

End of FastScripts.

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