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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIPMay 9, 2014Martin KaymerPONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA LAURA NEAL: We would like to welcome Martin Kaymer to the interview room. Martin, nice 69 today that gets you to 12‑under heading into the weekend. Talk to us about your round and your position after two round at the PLAYERS. MARTIN KAYMER: I think, overall, if you see it overall, 12‑under par is a very good score on that golf course after two rounds, especially the way it played this morning. I thought ‑‑ I was hoping for a little bit less wind, but it was very difficult to play. Especially with those pin positions. I made a couple of good up‑and‑downs on 4 and on 10. So overall 12‑under par is ‑‑ I'm very pleased. LAURA NEAL: Questions? Q. Other than in our own minds, nobody in this room knows what it feels like to be No. 1 in the world at anything and I was wondering how different do you feel now than you did when you were No. 1 and is that feeling something that you are trying to get back and how close are you? MARTIN KAYMER: Well the goal is not really to become No. 1 in the world again. That is three, four, five steps more than you should go. I take it step by step. It's a very ‑‑ a lot of people think it's a good feel to be No. 1 in the world and it makes you very proud, it's nice to be up there, but it comes with a lot of pressure and a lot of expectations from others and subconsciously from yourself. So you need to find a way to manage that and you need to find your own way. Nobody can teach you that. You need to see how it feels and then go with it. I learned quite a bit through that. But it's always very difficult when people expect you to do very, very well every week and you can't do very well every week, you can't win every week. As long as you know that and don't try to please everyone, it's a lot easier to manage. Q. Do you assume since you've been there before that you will feel differently if you ever get there again? MARTIN KAYMER: I hope I get there and I can answer that question, but I don't know yet. I think I'm better prepared for sure and it will be a lot easier. I'm a hundred percent sure I will handle it better. Q. If it's four steps away, what's the next step? MARTIN KAYMER: Try to win the golf tournament first. I had a lot of good finishes. The way I played golf, I was very happy the last four or five weeks, especially, so the next step is just putting yourself in contention, hopefully win. If not, it's okay. But as long as you put yourself in contention for the next few weeks, especially now we're coming up to the U.S. Open, British Open. So it would be nice to gain even more confidence and if you sneak in a win here and there it would be nice. If not, it's still good golf and good performances. Q. 14 has been kind of problematic for a lot of the players. Why is it playing so difficult? MARTIN KAYMER: It's a difficult hole. It's just long, it's a difficult tee shot. Even though there's a lot of room left, but you don't really want to be on the left side of the fairway because then have you some trees in the way. Once you hit it into that right rough, the ball settles down quite a bit and then to get on the green is, there's a little luck involved. It's just a very difficult golf hole. That's all. You have to hit the fairway and even then you need to hit a good approach. Q. You spoke about trying to think less on the golf course. When you have a day like yesterday a stunning score like 63 do you put that completely out of your mind this morning and start again or did you draw off it in some ways? MARTIN KAYMER: I don't really believe in taking momentum into the next day, because you sleep, you wake up with a different body feel, everything is a little bit different. I think the most important thing is that you lower your expectations. Everybody else thinks you keep going like this and subconsciously you think you should, but I, fortunately, I shot a few of those rounds in the past that I know that the next day is very difficult, like just mentally. You have to be careful that you don't compare yourself. If I want to compare myself to yesterday, I think I was six shots worse the first nine than yesterday. So that would be the wrong way to think. It's a new day and if you are level par or 1‑under par after nine holes, it's still a good score. You can't compare or you shouldn't compare. I think that comes from experience that you know it's a new day and new things will happen. Q. How low were those expectations today? To break par? MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, it was, it's a difficult golf course. Yesterday was just very special day for me. But anything around par today, if you shoot 1, 2‑under par, or even level par, it's a good score. Even though I shot 9‑under par yesterday and if people want to talk negative about it, I shot then six shots worse, but you can always go in the negative. But I see very positive things that I backed up that 9‑under par with another decent round. Q. How would you characterize your short game this week? MARTIN KAYMER: Putting was good. I didn't chip much, fortunately. Q. Yesterday. MARTIN KAYMER: Yesterday. Today was okay, I didn't have to make a lot of standard chips. There were a few strange ones that you need to be a little bit creative and I think I did that very well. So overall everything is coming together nicely. Q. Sometimes when you work so much on your swing sometimes the short game gets neglected. Was that the case? MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah. Last year I think I was, my short game was very poor, because I didn't have ‑‑ well I did have time, but I just didn't have more energy, because you work so much on your swing and there's a time where your body tells you that's enough where you need to rest. In between I had to play some tournaments as well. So that suffered a little bit. But at one stage you see the long game is getting closer, so you spend a little bit more time on the short game and it's a lot of work. It's a lot of time. But when I walked the golf course today, I thought about the same thing that, all that work, all the hours, it's, when you are standing on the range or six, seven hours, hitting the same shot, the same drill you feel like it should be enough at one stage; and you just don't want to be there at one stage, because it's so much. And it's a little boring as well. But you know, long‑term, it will become something good and obviously right now it's paying off quite nicely. Q. You referenced earlier the expectations that come with being No. 1 and the pressure and people expecting you to perform. Did that in any way have anything to do with you making the changes that you have talked about in your game, trying to make those swing changes, did that lead to that at all? MARTIN KAYMER: It was confusing question for me. A lot of words. I didn't get the question. Q. You talked about the expectations that come with being No. 1. Did that cause you to want to make those changes to your game? MARTIN KAYMER: No, has nothing to do with No. 1, has nothing to do with what other people expected. At the end of the day I play for myself and there are only really a few people who really care how you play. The others, they like to see you up playing well, then they can write something when you play bad. So at the end of the day it's only you who really care. I wanted to become a better player and I didn't feel like the best player in the world, even though I was up there. So that's why I needed to change, to become more happy that I can do anything, whatever I need on the golf course, I can hit it. That's why I wanted to change. It was very necessary. Q. You warm‑up with a tennis ball around your neck. Did you create that? What is the story behind that? What are you trying to accomplish with that? MARTIN KAYMER: Well my coach, he gave it to me a few weeks ago. It's just for your back swing, that you keep your arms together and that everything is very much connected. A lot of ‑‑ I think in the past you have that ball in between your forearms and the ball always flies away when you hit the shot, and then that, in that case, when you have the little necklace or whatever thing, it keeps it there. You don't need to walk to get the ball. So it's a smart way of being lazy. (Laughter.) Q. Two things: I know there's a formula that said you were No. 1. Did you feel like you were the best player in the world at that time; and second, if you were to put together a formula for determining who really is No. 1, what would be the things that are most important to you as a player judging who is No. 1? MARTIN KAYMER: You mean in the player, like a name? You want a name. Q. Doesn't have to be a name, just the criteria, the reasons. MARTIN KAYMER: I think Tiger did a very good job of that a few years. What I said earlier, I didn't feel like being the No. 1 in the world because I didn't know ever shot of the that's why I needed to change. But criteria, I think playing‑wise there are a few players out here who can be the No. 1 in the world. But what I said earlier, it's very tough what comes with it. This week there are four guys who can become the No. 1 in the world, and if you want to or not you think about it. And at the end of the day you ask yourself, you only distract yourself, so you need to find a way that it doesn't affect you in the negative way. Because in the end of the day, if you become No. 1 in the world now or a little bit later, who cares? If you play good golf‑‑ well you must play good golf, otherwise you wouldn't be in the ‑‑ you wouldn't have the possibility to become No. 1. So it's just I think taking it step by step and caring more yourself or what you really want and what you think is right for you and not really what people always tell you. You got so much distraction. I like reading articles about golf and I like watching the Golf Channel and all those things, but there's a lot of talking and you need to separate those things. So that it doesn't get in your head. Q. Well, you're ranked 61st, I'm just trying to figure out what is the difference, other than 60 spots, between you and the No. 1 player in the world? MARTIN KAYMER: There's a consistency. Obviously, Matt Kuchar, he played very, very consistent this year. Adam Scott, he's playing very consistent. It's more the consistency over two or three years. It's not about winning THE PLAYERS this week and then having a year off, maybe missing 10, 12 cuts and then winning the U.S. Open, that doesn't get you to the No. 1 in the world. You get some nice trophies at home, but you need, I think, consistency at the end of the day. Q. Four guys have gone wire‑to‑wire here. Couple different things, what's the difficulty in playing from the position you're in, particularly here. Then, secondly, what's been the most difficult part of the process for you over the last couple of years to kind of get back to playing the sort of golf that you are? MARTIN KAYMER: The difficult thing is that you just keep believing in what you're doing, that you work with the right people, that you just continue working hard. I said it yesterday a few times in some interviews, just, there's a time where you work and there's a time where you have to play golf. And you need to separate those things. And that's the tough part to separate on the golf course. That you trust your feel, you trust your work that you put in, and then you just try to let it happen. That's very difficult sometimes. Because on the range, in that sport, you work before the actual thing that happens, you go to the range, then you go to the golf course and you work afterwards. So it's a lot of work and a lot of thinking and a lot of trying to improve. So I think it's important to learn and to find a way to separate it. Q. In terms of the difficulty just playing with the lead going into the weekend. MARTIN KAYMER: Again, it's something about the expectations. Leading after one or two rounds doesn't mean that you will win the tournament. Anybody else in that field can shoot a 9‑under, 10‑under par, what I've done yesterday. So it's still very open. Q. What did you take away from being back in contention last week at Wells Fargo and how much did that build your confidence that you could have a week like this? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, what I said earlier, it's quite nice to put yourself up there as much as possible, because you get to experience ‑‑ your experience increases and you get to know yourself a little bit more after being in contention more often. It just gives you good confidence that you know you can compete right now again, against the best players in the world. It's just, right now, it's everything is very positive. So I just enjoy playing golf and if it's in Charlotte, if it's in Sawgrass or next week at the Byron Nelson I take it and I just enjoy it. Q. Going back to how you were talking about each day is different, you had to hit more putts today, you hit less greens, how are you able to handle that and just to stay focused to make sure you got around in the 60s? MARTIN KAYMER: I said it's a new day, it's a new body feel, there are new pin positions, new tee boxes, everything is new, you can't really compare. It's the same golf course you play, but under different circumstances. So it's the same golf course, but different golf course. And as long as you approach the day in that way, you keep it very clear and you don't compare yourself or try to compete against yourself from yesterday. So that's very important. Q. Do you have any superstitions? MARTIN KAYMER: I have a routine, but superstitions? No, I don't have any special marker or anything. No. No. Q. You say you're trying not to think, were you able to do that on a hole like 17 out here? MARTIN KAYMER: Well let's put it this way, I'm not trying to think too much. I still need to think once in a while. But, so what was it? Q. What was going through your mind at 17? Were you able to not think? MARTIN KAYMER: Well we talked about the shot yesterday, it was actually a good yardage for us yesterday to hit a gap wedge. So when we walked off the tee we were both long and I said to Darren, I said, wrong club, but the right shot. So it's a smart play, but without the water we would always hit gap wedge. And today it was kind of like similar, but obviously with the back flag, so you would rather want to be a little bit shy. And after he hit his shot and the way he hit it, I could quite good understand and manage, the way he hit it, how hard I have to hit it. Because it was the same, obviously we played the same time, so it was the same wind. Then I hit it to three feet and then we just laughed because we were, this time we were a lot more brave, we really went for the shot. Yesterday, we were a little like a wimp, but it was smart. But it was the right shot. But it was, yeah, I mean it was smart shot, but the wrong play. Today we were much braver. So it was a funny situation. Q. What club was it? MARTIN KAYMER: A pitching wedge, yeah. Q. Gap to a pitching wedge? MARTIN KAYMER: Yesterday we did hit pitching wedge. It would have been a gap wedge. Without the water I would always hit gap wedge, but, yeah, you take three there every day. Q. Back to the swing changes for a second. MARTIN KAYMER: Please, no. I'm done. I'm done with it. Q. Jack Nicklaus had a fairly good career hitting long fades. Are you now comfortable that that is a pretty good go‑to shot? MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, I mean my natural shot is and always hopefully will be the fade. It's just important that you can hit any shot. And that's why I needed to, I needed to change. You can play golf with a fade, you don't need to be able to hit the draw. You can win once in a while, of course you can. But standing here on the second tee and you can't draw the ball? Or on 16? You know, when you're that young, I was 25, 26 years old, how can you accept that you can't hit that shot? I mean, when I would come out here at 45, and play like this, okay, I wouldn't give myself much hope to change. Because I'm only going to be out here for another five years. But I, hopefully, am going to be another 20 years, so that's why it was very necessary for me. Q. What's the German word for wimp? MARTIN KAYMER: Weiches ei. It's soft egg. (Laughter.) LAURA NEAL: Could you do birdies and bogeys for your scorecard for these guys. MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah. Sure. Birdie on 3. It was a nice putt over the ridge. It was in between clubs, but the smart play was to leave it a little bit short and fortunately I could make that putt. Then I made bogey on 7. Was in the fairway bunker on right side, hit it long on the green. That putt, I had to putt almost through the rough. But I hit a good putt, I missed a short one then. 9, I hit a rescue to the back green, 2‑putted. 14‑‑ no, 12 I made birdie. I had 85 yards from the fairway, hit it to probably 12 feet and made the putt. Then I bogeyed 14. It was a very difficult hole. He told me that. Hit it into the right rough, couldn't get on the green, didn't make the up‑and‑down from the bunker. Then 15, made a long birdie putt from probably 20 feet or so. Then 17, I hit it to four feet, made the putt. LAURA NEAL: All right. Thanks for your time good luck this weekend. MARTIN KAYMER: All right. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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