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NEDBANK GOLF CHALLENGEDecember 4, 2014George CoetzeeSUN CITY, SOUTH AFRICA MIKE GREEN: Thank you very much for spending some time with us. Solid way to start the Nedbank Golf Challenge 2014, 4‑under par 68. Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. What happened on 18? GEORGE COETZEE: Well, I was talking to Dave after I hit the second shot just long left. He said, it's a strange way of playing the hole, duff 2‑iron, pair 5‑iron; I was like, well, it's better than pair 2‑iron, duff 5‑iron. I was tempted to chip it, but yeah, thought it was a little bit close to the green, so I thought I would have a putt at it. Stuff like that happens. It's golf. You can't have everything your own way. But all in all, I'm happy with the round today. Obviously starting with three birdies, that was special. First Nedbank, wasn't expecting that but obviously a pleasant surprise. MIKE GREEN: One of the things one of the South African golfers said to me before the tournament was that you guys are familiar enough with this course, it's not that threatening. I guess it's just the size of the stage that you are used to that, too, as well. GEORGE COETZEE: Yeah, this is still kind of Africa's major. Came here as a kid and watched golf. This is probably the only tournament I came to watch as a kid. Yeah, the stage might be bigger but we've played here a bunch of times in the DiData and obviously know the golf course pretty well. Kind of have a little game plan even before I got here this week about how to play the golf course, and hopefully I'll stick to it during the next couple of days. MIKE GREEN:  The television commentators, the practice routine, what are you trying to achieve there? GEORGE COETZEE: No, it's just something me and the coach are working on that changes; the idea of it changes every now and then.  I don't know, just give me a good idea of kind of what I'm trying to do on my golf swing. I'm working on a few things. It's a little too technical really to think about but just gives me a little idea of what I want to feel like in the first couple inches of the takeaway. MIKE GREEN:  Seems to be working. You must have been happy to reach 17 at 5‑under like that. GEORGE COETZEE: I can't he, I mean, I still made a couple of mistakes and hit a couple bad shots during the round but I recovered well from most of them. All in all I felt like the first 10, 11 holes, ball‑striking went great. Then became a boring golf striker the next couple holes. That's golf. You can't play golf perfectly all the time, so you kind of go with the flow and try to play as well as you can, and when I started hitting those bad shots, I knew that I had to concentrate harder on my senses and my feel that I'm working on. MIKE GREEN: Do you think playing with Ross Fisher helped? GEORGE COETZEE: Yes, I'm sure we fed off each other. I'm sure he's grateful for me, too. Yeah, I mean, it's always nice to play with someone when you're playing well and he's playing well and you kind of feed off each either and makes it easier. Marcel was running around us like crazy, making birdies and eagles and winning cars and almost winning watches, lucky bugger (laughter). I've just got to hit good shots, 15‑, 20‑footers, make good putts. I was quite comfortable the first couple holes, especially the first ten holes. I felt like I was kind of in control of what I'm trying to do with my game. Q. Given that you're working on some things in terms of your game, how happy are you? Obviously the front nine allowed you to start that way but the back nine, the pressure was really on and things were not going your way, to only drop a shot right at the very end there. GEORGE COETZEE: Yeah, I was happy. I've been working on these same things this whole year, and it started clicking kind of around Dunhill Links. Played well for a good month there and then went a little off because I was away from home a lot and didn't work‑‑ my technical side wasn't that good away from home. So went off for three weeks during Turkey and Dubai but happy that we worked it out and it's starting to go well again this week. Q. What was going through your mind when you hit that ball right on 14? GEORGE COETZEE: I knew there was space (laughter). I promise, I told‑‑ I knew I kind of had to hit a provisional but I've probably hit it there like nine out of ten times. When I played that hole, I end up bailing out to the right. I think the 10th time, I actually bailed out left. Yeah, I know there's space and you still need to get a little bit lucky but fortunately enough I had a gap through the trees to chip it through. Yeah, it's not the easiest hole in the world and there's actually quite a lot of tough holes on this golf course. You can't play them all perfectly, so I thought to myself, might as well do it now if I'm going to mess it up and carry on and try to play better from there. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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