	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 11, 2015

Louis Oosthuizen

Kohler, Wisconsin, USA

JOHN DEVER: Good afternoon everybody, welcome back to the 97th PGA Championship at Whistling Straits. I'd like to thank Louis Oosthuizen taking time to spend with us this afternoon.

Louis, this is your 7th PGA Championship, and you were here in 2010. I was curious about what you remember about Whistling Straits from then.

LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, not much coming into this week, really. I had a quick exit in 2010. But as I played the course yesterday and today it all came back to me. I mean, the golf course is in phenomenal shape. So I think you can expect some good scoring.

Just really looking forward to the week. The final major of the year and one that everyone would put in a little bit more to try and make every season really good.

JOHN DEVER: You've played, obviously, very well in the big tournaments this year, majors included, so that begs the question, how are you feeling this week?

LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, I'm feeling fine. Obviously, I had a few hiccups last week, especially off the tee. But I sorted that out. And just looking forward to the week, to get started on Thursday and see how it goes, see what the golf course would present and just go out and try and put a good score on the board.

Q. You've had such a great success in the majors over this period of time. My question is for this year's rotation of majors, Chambers Bay, St. Andrews and Whistling Straits, is there any thread that you could possibly conceive between those three and how it would affect you and how you attack this golf course?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: I think that, you know, the three courses have a pretty links feel to it. Although, obviously St. Andrews was a great golf course, a great links golf course. But, yeah, Chambers Bay really was the last nine holes of just everything going in the right direction and making putts and you have those weeks.

But that really got me motivated for St. Andrews on a golf course that I love. I came up short there. And I'm looking forward to this week. The golf course, bits and pieces, came back to me when I played the practice round now and just remember how good the course was and that you really have to drive it well around here.

So there was one issue last week which I struggled at, but I think I've sorted that out in the few days now and hopefully I can get a good start off the tee this week.

Q. You're the defending champion of the long drive competition, what do you think of that competition? Do you think it's fun for golf? Would you like to see more of it?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, it was so much fun last year to do that and to get up there. Unfortunately, this year I forget about it up until yesterday after I had already done nine holes. So my nine holes were the opposite. So I didn't even hit that shot this year. Struggling last week with the driver, I think I probably would have just missed the fairway.

But it's a great fun event. I think it's great for the crowd, for the people to see that, to see the guys standing there and giving it a good bash. Yeah, it's a really good thing.

Q. There's a lot of talk about an American sweep of the majors again this year after a long time. Do you think which one of you might take away it away from America, if possible, this week?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: It's great to see Rory back this week. There's a lot of guys that's really playing well. Obviously Jordan is -- has got the best record on the majors this year. But there's a lot of guys that have got a good chance.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's a clean sweep this year with Americans taking the majors, but probably have to wait until Sunday to see that.

Q. Last seven rounds of a major you played better than anybody. Can you just talk about how difficult it is to win a major championship these days?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, I felt I did everything right at the Open at St. Andrews. I played to my strengths at the golf course. I did exactly what I tried to do the whole week. And at the end of the day you leave yourself -- you want to give yourself a chance to win a major on the back nine on Sunday. And that's exactly the situation that I put myself in. It was just not good enough to get it done.

But it takes a lot of hard work and playing a lot of golf and being in that situation to put yourself in them. And that's what you see from top guys winning two, three, four majors. They've got the ability to put themselves in that situation and then pull it off and they have a great victory. I think there's only a handful of guys that wins more than two majors. It's great to see when they get in that situation to be able to just pull it off.

I would like to get myself more in those situations to see if I can get that second and maybe even a third major. But it's a great place to be in and that's what we all work hard towards to be in that situation, to win a major.

JOHN DEVER: I'd be curious to ask you about Pete Dye golf courses and your feelings and your successes on them in the past. What do you think about his designs?

LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, I mean, you've got to take the golf course the week it is, how it plays. I think -- I don't have the best track record, but I love this golf course.

2010 I know I was really nervous playing this being good. I played with Phil, I played with Graham the first two rounds. It was my first major after winning a major. And I was really nervous.

This year I'm a little bit more at ease coming into Thursday. I like the golf course, so I'm curious to see how I will handle Thursday.

Q. To follow up on what you were saying about close finishes at the majors, when you were as close, and you were almost there, as you've been a couple of times, do you ever find yourself looking back and said if I only had one shot here or there, do you ever look back at your rounds and how do you turn that into a positive?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, I think you need to -- if you do that in all the tournaments, you're going to struggle to go forward. You need to forget about what happened.

But obviously when you get that close, you do look at a few things. I don't think I would have played the golf course any different. Obviously there was putts being missed. But that happens. That's golf.

But playing the golf course different, maybe hitting different type of shots, I didn't really think I would have played it exactly the same way. And it's so close at the end, if you make one here, then you probably wouldn't have made another 40, 50-footer that you forget about. You can't really look at it that way. I think you're just trying to take a lot of positives out of the week and carry on to the next tournament.

JOHN DEVER: Louis, many thanks, best of luck this week.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297