BUICK CLASSIC

June 10, 2000

Ernie Els

ERNIE ELS: Getting tougher. You know you can see the breeze really picked up this afternoon a little bit, and the golf course is starting to look like -- almost like a U.S. Open type of place. It's starting to play fast. There's a lot of rough still from the rain they have had here in the past, and if you don't keep it in play, you know, you're not going to score very well. The greens are very undulating and when they play this firm and fast and you haven't got too many birdie putts, even when you hit it really close you've still got to bury a lot on the putts. I kind of said to my caddy, "Maybe it's good that the wind blows, because if it was very calm the leaders could have pulled away from us a little bit." Conditions suited us today.

ERNIE ELS: I was really frustrated. I guess I showed it a little bit. I thought I hit a good second shot in there. I wanted to keep it under the wind. I just, you know I guess the green was firmer than I thought and it just went through. And I had a really tough lie, but, you know, having played U.S. Opens and having played this course, you know, I should have probably played a better shot than that. I just felt that I got a bad break and I probably didn't concentrate as hard as I should have. Those are the kind of things that happen to you out there now. If you're not precise now you might be looking at a bogey quickly.

ERNIE ELS: Yeah. I think if you look at the conditions today, this will be a really good day at Pebble Beach. We all know how the wind can blow there and how hard it can get there. You know, I don't try and think about the U.S. Open, but when you see conditions like this, it kind of crosses your mind a little bit and when you play well, yeah, you're going to take confidence in there, anyway. I'm still trying to think about this golf tournament.

ERNIE ELS: It was fun playing with Phil today. It's always nice playing with one of the world's top players. You know, we've kind of -- we've been playing golf ever since we were teenagers. It was fun playing with him, and I could see the galleries getting a little bit larger on the back nine as we were kind of making a run at the leaders. Yeah, it makes it fun when it's like that.

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, this is more like it. You know, today you had to play well to shoot under par. You know it seems like when this place is soft like it was the first couple of days, you know it seems like just stick it at the flags. The guys are pretty good out there when it's soft you just go at the flags all the time. Now with these small undulating greens, if you're not on your game now, it's going to show.

ERNIE ELS: It was blowing a bit more today. But it seems like on quite a few holes, it actually helps you. On a couple of the par 5s it maybe helps you to get the ball on the green in two. It's not a very difficult wind, let's put it that way.

ERNIE ELS: No. Maybe a club wind.

ERNIE ELS: Yeah. I was thinking 5-iron at first, and then as soon as the wind -- seemed like the wind really picked up and I was about to play and I watched Phil's shot come up short there and I could see his caddy signalling to the guy, he said, "Hit 4-iron." Phil is about half a club stronger with his clubs than I am and I thought 4-iron was perfect and I just hit it too good.

ERNIE ELS: Well, you know I tend to look at leaderboards quite a lot now. I like to know where I stand and I look at other players, what they do. You know, you can't look at guys not as well known as others any less than the well-known guys. You've got to look at who is playing well and try and fend them off.

ERNIE ELS: Definitely. That's why the leaderboards are out there. You look at who is playing well and see what you have to do.

ERNIE ELS: Yeah. Today I felt like I really played well. I mean, I really -- I left some shots out there. I felt like I could have shot two, maybe three shots better. Then again, I could have been the other way. So I am playing better. That is the best I've had all week, ball-striking-wise and playing. I had a really good week two weeks ago at Memorial and it seemed like last week was kind of in -- in neutral the whole week. So it's nice, yeah. It feels like my game is coming around and I'm looking forward to next week. But, you know it's a lot of work next week. I've got to take it easy going into next week.

ERNIE ELS: A good question. I feel like I'm playing well enough to win. And especially on this golf course, I know how to win here. A win would be great for me right now. I haven't won since last year February, and I've been close a couple of times, but a win is always an unbelievable confidence booster. If you look at the way Phil played today, makes double-bogey on 16 and then he knocks it in on 17, that's what confidence does, you know. You just kind of -- you can always bounce back and you know that in the back of your mind. So, yeah, tomorrow is -- this one is important for me.

ERNIE ELS: I started off quite slow. I didn't make a birdie until 5 and I 3-putted on 5. Then I was still seven shots behind Dennis, and I knew -- I kind of kept on saying to my caddy, "I want to get to 8-under," and I almost got it to 8-under; I would have been leading right now. This kind of course, you've just got to keep playing, keep plugging away.

ERNIE ELS: Well, it's got to give you confidence. I think more than anything, I think the golf course is starting to play to it's full potential now. I think you'll see guys that are really playing well coming through tomorrow, if it stays the same. I've just got to go out there and play my game, try and do my thing, and hopefully get off to a decent start and kind of play myself into this tournament tomorrow -- tomorrow afternoon, and, you know, see what happens. Might get hot early. Who knows. I've got to just try and play.

ERNIE ELS: No, more than anything, I come to the golf course in a very good mood nowadays. Mentally, I'm as ready as ever to play, and family life is really good. I think last year was a big change in a lot of golfers' lives out there, like Phil and myself. Right now, we're in the groove and we know what we have to do, and it's great having a family.

ERNIE ELS: It's just like I said, last year was a change in the life, yeah, so maybe it did.

ERNIE ELS: Third round at Memorial? What happened there? (Laughs). That was great watching that. That was a good display of ball-striking. I felt pretty good about my score that day after my start. You know, as I say, it was nice watching it.

ERNIE ELS: Yeah. Yeah, there's quite a few people out there that I can feel pulling for me quite a lot. It's nice, you know being a foreigner and playing in America and kind of having a home crowd. You know, it's nice, I think Phil still gets the bigger cheers, but it's nice having some people follow you.

ERNIE ELS: Birdies -- started with a bogey. I 3-putted on 4 from about 35 feet for bogey. 5th hole par 5 I hit a driver, 2-iron, front fringe and 2-putted about 40 feet for birdie. 7 was a 2-iron off the tee, sand iron to about 12 feet. Holed that for birdie. 10 was a driver off the tee just short of the green. I pitched it up to a couple of inches. 13 was a driver, sand iron, to about 10 feet for birdie. 16, I hit 3-iron short of the green. Pitched it up 10 feet short. Missed that; made bogey there. 17 was a 2-iron, wedge, 10 feet.

ERNIE ELS: I kind of did both. I misread it a bit and I pulled it a bit. I was hitting it to go inside left, and I kind of pulled it to the left edge and the ball actually went the other way. So the ball had no chance of going in.

ERNIE ELS: It must have been eight feet, yeah.

ERNIE ELS: 18, I had 185 front, 205 hole.

ERNIE ELS: I normally play going into -- well it depends on when this tournament is. But I normally play going into the U.S. Open and I normally play going into the British Open. The others, I kind of look at the schedule. It's hard to answer that. It's just the way I feel. Sometimes I feel like I need to play, like this time and other times I just go to the place and have a couple of days off.

ERNIE ELS: I haven't played there at all. I played it once. I played it once in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and it was so soft and so calm, it was -- I mean, it's nothing like what I'm going to find when I get there.

ERNIE ELS: That was in '96.