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WORLD GOLF HALL OF FAME INDUCTIONNovember 2, 2009Jose Maria OlazabalST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: Well, obviously it's a great honor to be part of this group of special people, great champions, people that have done so much for the game of golf, sharing a piece of history close to my friend Seve. I spent a couple of hours yesterday here just looking at all the history of the game, all the artifacts that are here on display, getting to know a little better the stories of most of the great champions that are here and people that have helped the game of golf, like Bob Hope. It is a very special place, and it's a privilege and a great honor to be part of this. I'm really thrilled about it. I was telling Arnold at lunch today that I already dropped a few tears, thanks to Jim Nantz, and it's going to be a tough afternoon, I think, for me, very emotional one. And that's all I can say so far. Q. Where do you think your major victories and your Ryder Cup career weigh in your career? JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: Well, I really don't know how they weighed it on the decision. But from a personal point of view, I think the majors are crucial for a professional goal career. But I have to say at the same time that the record that I have, playing with Seve in all those Ryder Cups, not just the record but the way we played those matches, the way we fought during those matches and the way we behaved during those matches, I think that is also very important. I think from my point of view, to respect your opponents, your peers, to fulfill the rules of golf, to show integrity that is needed on the golf course, I think all those things combined have, from my point of view, made the decision of that group of people, allowing me to be part of this special place. Q. (Question regarding how Seve helped him.) JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: Well, obviously he helped me a lot. Most of you don't know this, but when I was 15 years old, he gave me a phone call and asked me if I would play in a charity match against him at his home club, Pedrena, and I said yes. Something special happened that day. It's very hard for me to say, but you can call it chemistry, call it whatever you want, but it was the base of a great relationship through the years, and it showed at the Ryder Cup. But at the same time when I had the chance to come over here to the States and play a little bit more here, we spent a lot of time together, practicing, working together on the driving range, out on the chipping green. I learned a lot, especially around the greens, from him. I think that was quite important. And also he showed me how important it was not to give up at any point or any stage of the match or the round. He was always -- he always had that fighting spirit. He never gave up, and I learned a lot from that. I think that has been very helpful in my career, at several points in my career, where things are not going your way. You think, wow, is it worth all the work that I'm putting on? And then you look at a guy like him, and I say, well, there is no shortcuts here, so you'd better keep on working hard. Q. Do you recall where were you and what were you doing -- how did you find out you were elected to the Hall of Fame? Was it a phone call? JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: No, I was told at Augusta this year, and obviously I was told not to mention it to anybody. (Laughter.) It caught me by surprise, I have to be honest. My reaction most probably was not the one that was expected, but it caught me, as I said, completely by surprise, so I said, "Okay, fantastic, very good. Thank you very much." And that was it. But as the year, as weeks have gone by, I've been able to think more about it and have time to talk to Seve. I've been here yesterday, and everything is sinking in. You start to realize how special it is to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. You know, I'm really thankful for that. Q. Were you at the golf course? JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: I was at the golf course. Well, I just finished my practice round, and I was walking towards the clubhouse under the huge oak tree that is there by the clubhouse, and that's when I was told. Q. What's the best shot you've hit under pressure? JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: I mean, I guess that playing so many years, you hit great shots, but obviously the ones that stand out are those crucial shots that help you to win a tournament or a great event. And in that regard, the three shots that come up to me is the 5-iron that I hit playing the Hong Kong Open a few years back. I just mis-hit my tee shot in the right rough, and I had a few trees in front of me and water in front of the green, and the flag was right on the right corner. And I had a distance of an 8-iron or something like that, and I took a 5-iron, hit a low shot under the branches and cut it towards the hole and hit it about a foot from the hole, and that was the shot that clinched the victory. And then those other two shots that are even more special than that one are the par that I made at the 15th of Augusta playing against Tom Lehman in the last round of the '94 Masters. He had hit a wonderful second shot with -- I don't know if it was a 5- or a 6-iron he hit. I don't remember. And he was like eight, nine feet past the hole. And I just hit my 5-iron just onto the green. The ball was very close to going into the pond. And I hit a putter from I would say 50 feet, something like that. It was a long putt. And I knocked it in. And Tom hit a lovely putt, and to this day I still cannot understand how that ball didn't go in the hole. He hit a lovely putt with a perfect pace and it touched the edge of the hole and didn't go in. The other shot is the 6-iron I hit on 16 in '99. Davis Love was playing in the group ahead of me. I pulled the tee shot left and made an incredible chip from the left side. And at that time I think I was two shots leading him making that chip, and he went back to one, and he put the pressure on me, and I hit a lovely 6-iron, one of the best shots I've hit, and I left it about two, three feet from the hole and that gave me the cushion to play the last two holes a little more conservative. Q. (Inaudible.) JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: Not all that many, to be honest. That is one. But I don't spend too much time thinking of those moments. I think I've had quite a successful career. I cannot say that I've missed too many opportunities. Most of the opportunities that I've had I've managed to do well. I would say that's pretty much the only one. At the Open I've been close a couple of times, but I really didn't have that shot where you can say, if I had hit a good shot here or there down the stretch, I would have a better chance of winning. No, actually I didn't make that many mistakes. Q. The hole after that 16th hole in '99, you kind of pulled your tee shot a little bit, right? How good was that second shot to the 17th green? JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: It was good. It was good. But I think the key shot was that 6-iron. That gives you the chance to maybe make a slight mistake down the stretch down the last two holes and still have a cushion playing the last hole. Obviously every shot counts, but they're crucial moments in a round of golf, and especially when you're down the stretch. Those are the really -- the ones that make the difference compared to the others. It's true I missed the tee shot on 17 and then I hit a good shot onto the green to save par on 17. But it would have been a different scenario if I didn't hit that 6-iron on 16. Q. In '99 I believe you eagled 13 either the first day or the second day. Do you recall that? Did it bounce over the creek and I think you chipped in? JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: Well, I don't recall that. I don't really know. I cannot answer that question to be honest. Q. Could you describe the early stages of golf for you, public course, private course, early instructors, what age? JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: Well, I first started playing golf when I was two years old. Somebody gave me a putter and a ball, and that's how I started. Lucky for me it was a private golf course, but in those days very few people played during weekdays, only on the weekends, because the only people that played the game in those days were people that belonged to a high class society. That was not my case; I was just lucky enough to be born in the middle of the golf course because before the golf course was built, that was a farm, and then they built the golf course, and I was born just the day after the first nine holes were opened. I was really lucky in that regard. Golf is an individual sport. I didn't have any other kids to play with. And that's how I started to play golf. My first coaches were the team of coaches at my home club. I got my first lesson of golf when I was six years old. I had a hard time to start with because I used to swing the club left-handed. If you look at one of the pictures there when I'm on the top of the backswing, just like a little kid, I gripped the club left-handed even though I was hitting right-handed. So I had a tough time changing the grip. As soon as the coaches turned their back on me, I was again back to the left-handed grip. I just played because it was a lot of fun. I could spend hours and hours on the chipping green or hitting balls or just walking those fairways. Once I got a little bit older I started to play some events, managed to get into the national team, and I started traveling around with the team, playing matches against the French team, the Italian teams and so forth. And when I was 19, I decided to turn professional. I went through the school. I got my card to play on the European Tour. And well, the rest pretty much you all know. Q. (Inaudible.) JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: It's going to be like 15 guys. My parents are here, friends and people that have been with me pretty much through my career. Around 15 people. Q. (Question regarding his relationship with Seve). JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: Well, I mean, all I learned with him, the way he was. It's true that he was not an easy person to approach. He was kind of a reserved guy in that regard. But with me for some reason he felt comfortable, and he talked to me about when he started playing golf and all the things he had to do to be able to play, how he sneaked at night when it was a full moon onto the golf course and would play holes there. What I value the most is the friendship, the way that he was ready to sacrifice some of his time in order to spend it with me so I could learn more things. Out on the golf course, especially playing Ryder Cup matches, he took over. It was as simple as that. It was very easy for me to be near him. I remember in '87 when we played together the first Ryder Cup at Muirfield Village, we were walking from the putting green towards the first tee, and he approached me and said, "Ollie, all you have to do is just play your game. I'll take care of the rest." And so he did. Q. When you first made that national team and you were sort of traveling, was that your first real experience with traveling much outside your home country? How big of an adjustment was that? JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: Well, everything was new to me. The first trip I remember was across the border to France. It was a match against the French team, and everything was new. I had new people in the team that I never met before. Food was different. Living in a hotel for the first time. Everything was pretty much new. And it was tough. It was not easy. I mean, I didn't -- I spoke a little bit of French at the time, but my English was very poor. And when I was 16, 17, I decided at school that I'd better learn some English because it would be very handy, or at least handier than French, and that made things easier when traveling around the world. But it was always kind of a tough adjustment to travel around the world. You know, spending a lot of time in airports, I never felt comfortable at that time, because obviously I didn't -- my English was very poor, so I felt a little bit odd in airports, kind of lost. I didn't know where to go. You know, where I live food is actually very, very good. (Laughter.) And when I traveled abroad, I missed those lovely meals. Q. You've traveled basically throughout the entire world because of golf. JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: Yes. As I said, I went into the national team, and then I played the World Cup, the junior World Cup and the Amateur World Cup in Hong Kong. I traveled all around Europe. I traveled a couple times here to the States. I remember playing the Commercial Union in Atlanta. Yeah, pretty much thanks to golf, I've been able to travel the world. It's true that most of the parts that I know are the hotels and the golf courses, but it's part of the game of golf. Q. When you wandered through here earlier today, anything that made a particularly big impression on you? JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: Well, yes, the amount of artifacts and the amount of stories that you see around here. It is just amazing. I mean, the Bob Hope place is unbelievable. You see the first TV contract he ever had, the big box that he traveled with, all those weird clubs that he used to use. And then the stories of the professionals, the great professionals, that are here, the small items that were very close to them. It's just amazing. I mean, in the old days the clubs they used to use, it's just unbelievable. The whole place is just amazing. Q. Is this your first time here? JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: Yeah, it was the first time, yeah. Q. How much time did you spend here? JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: A spent a couple of hours, a good couple of hours having a look around. Q. Today or yesterday? JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: Yesterday. Q. Are there any shots that you can remember that you wish you had back? JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: Let me put it this way: I'm very happy with what I have achieved. Q. (Inaudible.) JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: No, actually it was kind of a private visit. There was not many people around. Actually there was a couple more guys around here, and I took a couple of pictures with one of them. That was it. It was cool in that regard. I had the whole place pretty much for me. Q. Obviously your parents have been very supportive of your career. Did they know much about the game of golf when you started? JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: Good question. I mean, they really didn't know anything about golf until the golf course was built, obviously. They were farmers, and they worked the land, and that was it. They couldn't understand what it was all about, that white thing and all those green fairways and things like that. In those days, golf didn't have any special meaning to them. They couldn't even believe that you could earn a living by playing golf. So when I told him when I was 16 years old that I was going to be a professional golfer, you should have seen their faces. (Laughter.) Q. (Inaudible.) JOSĂâ° MARĂÂA OLAZĂÂBAL: Well, I was really impressed when I first went to Japan. I went for three weeks, and I couldn't play the week in between, which was the Dunlop Phoenix, but I played the Visa and the Casio, and it was a shock to be honest. We were based in a hotel that was like a 15-minute drive from the golf course, and it was up in the mountains. And when I went there, the first night I went to the restaurant to have dinner, and I asked for a menu. So the guy approached me with a menu, and I opened the menu, and everything was in Japanese. So I didn't have a clue of what to ask, so I asked if they had a French menu or an English menu. They didn't have any of those. I asked for a pen, and the whole week went like that. So I ordered a couple of things, and if I liked the thing that I was eating, I put a cross there and said it was okay, and that's how it went. TV was all in Japanese. I couldn't understand a word. As I said, I was really shocked. But at the same time, I was really impressed on how important the game of golf was then and how the biggest stars -- how much the biggest stars were loved. They were considered almost like gods. Jumbo, Joe and all the brothers, it was unbelievable. They had a group of 20 guys going with them, and if Jumbo wanted a cigarette, one guy was lighting the cigarette and he was giving it to him. It was just amazing to see. End of FastScripts |
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