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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONALAugust 5, 2015Martin KaymerAKRON, OHIO STEVE TODD: Welcome back to Akron for the WGC Bridgestone Invitational. You're back from a couple of good performances in France and Ireland. Just give us your thoughts on coming here this week. MARTIN KAYMER: It's a golf course that we all know. There's not many practice rounds necessary, but I think it's a little bit underrated in general. It's one of the best golf courses that we play all year. It's always in fantastic shape, which is almost what people always expect, but it's not normal. Every year we come, it's fantastic to play. Obviously, it's a great event. A lot of people there speaking about the PGA Championship already, the last major, but I think we should speak about this here because this is quite nice to win. Yeah, I've been playing a little bit better the last two, three tournaments I've played. I didn't do that much practice the last couple of weeks because I think there are going to be a lot of tournaments for me coming up now. But I arrived already here on Sunday, practiced Monday, yesterday, and played a few holes today. So I should be okay for tomorrow. STEVE TODD: You mentioned there's a lot going on as well, and obviously, we have a year to go until the Olympics today. I know you've been a big supporter of it back in Germany. Just give us your thoughts on that milestone. MARTIN KAYMER: There's only one year to go. I can remember when it was announced a couple of years back that we were going to be in the Olympic games, and I was very, very happy about that because, in general, a lot of sports stay in the Olympic games who, on one hand, shouldn't be in the Olympic games, but when they are in there, I think golf should be in there too. So I thought it was quite nice that finally they decided to pick up golf. Obviously, it's only 12 months to go, but to win one of those is, for me personally, for some other players it's different, but for me it's a big, big goal. It's difficult to explain because you don't know the emotions behind it, what it means to win one of those gold medals, but I can imagine coming back to your country winning one of the most important -- not a trophy, it's a medal, but awards, or whatever, in the world and be part of the big, big family of athletes who try to achieve the same. It must be incredible. Therefore, I'm a big supporter of that idea. I'm a big supporter of the Olympic games in general. Therefore, I will try everything I can to win the first gold medal. STEVE TODD: Thank you, Martin. Well said. Q. Martin, welcome back to Akron. Does this tournament this week have a little bit different feel because you don't have Tiger Woods here, an eight-time winner; you don't have last year's defending champ, Rory McIlroy, who is also the world's No. 1? Is there a different feeling coming into the tournament this week because of that? MARTIN KAYMER: For us players, I would say not so much. I'm sure for the spectators, for the fans, for the media as well. For us, if Tiger's in the field or not, or if Rory's in the field or not, you play for yourself. You play against a lot of the other guys, and you play your own game and see where you end up. Obviously, the way Rory played recently over the last few years, he would be always one of the guys that might be in contention by Sunday. Obviously, some players don't admit it, but it's quite nice that he's not here. He's one guy who's very, very good in shape, and he's not playing. On the other hand, you really, really hope that he comes back soon because, obviously, if somebody is that good, you want to see him perform even better over a longer period because it's nice. It's inspiring. So hopefully, he's recovering quickly and that we see him latest in a couple weeks or so. But for now, I wouldn't mind to see he takes a couple weeks more off (laughter). Q. Martin, Germany has such a great tradition in the Olympics. I'm curious about what some of your favorite winter or summer Olympic sports are. And when you're there, do you plan on staying in the Village? MARTIN KAYMER: I talked to a few athletes already about it, if I should or shouldn't. 90 percent of them or 99 percent say I should. And there's some -- I think it's all about planning and how you want to do it. I think you can play or you can stay in the Olympic Village before your actual tournament to experience it, and then during play, you maybe go into a hotel or so. Because it must be quite strange to stay with other athletes in the same room. I don't know what a rower does at 3:00 a.m. in the morning. Maybe he gets up and does some workout, I don't know. It could happen. And then you might struggle with sleeping. So things like this I would like to experience on practice days, but during tournament, I'd rather stick to my schedule because it's an important week for me then. Q. Favorite Olympic sports? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, there's not really one favorite. It's just I enjoy watching the best in the world doing a sport, and pretty much, yeah, not every sport I enjoy, but a lot of them. It's just nice to see the greatness of a human being, how good they can be. If you watch, last year I went to a Champions League Final Bayern Munich against Barcelona, and just to watch Messi, how he plays football, it's almost like the ball sticks to the foot. It's one. It's impressive to see, and that's what I like about the sports, about the athletes, how good they are in their sport. That's something that's quite inspiring. Q. A couple good results in your last two starts. You talk about kind of a lull after the matches because you put so much into it. What did you do to maybe kind of get out of it or get back in form over the summer? MARTIN KAYMER: I just needed a little bit more rest. Mentally, as well, it was very, very disappointing, very disappointing, because I tried really hard. Sometimes you can try too hard, and that was not the reason I tried too hard. I just prepared a little bit too much. I didn't really think about recovery -- not recovery, more like resting. So therefore, it was very, very disappointing, and it took me quite some time to get over it and focus on the next two tournaments coming up. Obviously, it's the first major of the year. There are a few more to play for. And then slowly, you get back into it, and it's fine. It's just a little bit off -- that little bit of percentage is missing at tournaments of whatever it is, the focus or concentration, whatever it is, you won't win, or you won't even compete or put yourself in contention. That was pretty much the reason the last few months after the Masters. And now I'm really looking forward to the end of the year. Especially if you haven't done that well, you know you have to make something up -- not to the other people, just to yourself that you can have a nice Christmas, be happy about your season. It will be tough to beat what happened last year, but obviously, you shouldn't compare yourself with what happened the years before, but maybe I can pick up a few good finishes by the end of the year, and we'll be fine. Q. I want to ask you about next week. Have you been to Whistling Straits since you won? MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, the weekend before the U.S. Open, Craig, my caddie, and me, we played a few rounds Saturday and Sunday, and then we flew to Chambers Bay. Q. What do you think about the golf course? And will you be particularly careful whenever you're near any type of sand at all? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, I think it's -- for me, it's a top three golf course in the world, not because I've been successful there, just the whole setup. It's beautiful to play. It's really, really nice to see the surroundings. You don't mind if you have to wait a few minutes because you can just have a look at the lake, at the dunes. It's quite nice. Personally, for me, it's a beautiful golf course. It can play a little bit like link style, which I enjoy anyways, and obviously the memories, the experience that I had in 2010, all those combined, it will be a great week, and I look forward to stand on the tee on Thursday. Talking about the bunkers, you know there are some bunkers that are smaller than a footprint. So you just need to -- you know that by now. So it's just part of the golf course. Q. Martin, I think, when you won the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits five years ago, and you went to No. 1 in the world. And you spoke about the difficulty of being No. 1 in the world and spoke to different figures in the sports world. Going back now five years later, how do you deal with the pressures of being one of the top ranked golfers? MARTIN KAYMER: Five years ago, it was for me -- you know, if you're only two or three years on Tour, you have other things to deal with first. You think about, okay, hopefully I keep my card for the next year. You think where do I practice in the wintertime? Obviously, I can't stay in Germany. I have to go somewhere else. Can I afford things like this? Then all of a sudden, you win a major, you become No. 1 in the world. There are no worries anymore. You can practice anywhere. They want to you come. So it's a little bit strange to understand if you're not right into it. And I think -- I don't want to say all the Europeans, but especially for me as a German, it was not normal to be in the spotlight that much. When you grow up in America, when you're good in a sport, the sport has some coverage. It's already on TV when you're 15, 16 years old. So you get kind of slowly into it to be in the spotlight when you're one of the best. And then maybe it's a little bit -- I wouldn't say easier to handle, but maybe you're more used to it so you can prepare for it. Already it's a little bit more part of your life. For me, it was completely new. I was not on a TV show when I was three years old chipping balls into a little -- a target or something. For me, it was pretty much straight in. And all the expectations that come with it. Not here in America, just the expectations in Germany. When you have someone driving in the Formula 1 who wins 80 percent of the races, then you have the German football team that wins a lot, and then you're No. 1 in the world in golf, and then why don't you win? Top 10 is a disappointment. Missing the cut is -- you cannot even describe this. The world is down. So things like this, it's difficult to handle when you're 25 years old and in that position. So now is different. Now, on one hand, you think, okay, you just have to say whatever. Whatever they say is fine. I don't care. The people who really can understand how you feel and why you play the way you play and miss cuts or whatever you do, they're a very small circle. So they're maybe four or five people. Their opinion really matters because they know all the insides. The others, it's just speculation. Back then, I didn't really realize that, but now I do. So it's fine. Q. If I could follow up on that, knowing that now, would you have done anything different back then, or is it okay the way it all played out? MARTIN KAYMER: No, I would have said more my opinion. Back then, I was more being told what I should say, what I should do. You should go to this TV show or you should do this, you should do that, and I thought, what's the point? What am I doing there? I don't know what I should talk about, and I don't like this TV person. I don't like to go there. But it's just part of it. That's what you do. Then you ask yourself, do you want to be part of that whole circus? You do this, you do that, but you don't even know why you're sitting there. So now I would say, I want to do this, this, and this. Can you help me, getting me there or not? Then you're more the active person, and that was not the case back then. Therefore, it's quite difficult to handle. Q. Going back there to Whistling Straits, obviously, you'll enjoy it, but can it be distracting? I hit this here. Looking back at those memories, can they help you or be distracting or both? How do you handle the memory of Whistling Straits? MARTIN KAYMER: As long as you don't compare yourself, I think it will be an advantage. If I compare myself the way I started five years ago, I think I started par, eagle, birdie. If I compare myself after three holes this year and I maybe start par, par, par, then I make it tougher for myself. I think, if you embrace the challenge again and enjoy the golf course because it's one of the best golf courses that we play, with all the memories, especially 10, 17, and 18, it will be an advantage because a lot of positive, a lot of great has happened there, that day, that Sunday for me. So I think it can only be an advantage. I know and I learned not to compare to other years, to other rounds, and so I see very positive. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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