	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

WGC DELL MATCH PLAY

March 27, 2016

Louis Oosthuizen

Austin, Texas

Q. Congratulations on a great final, give us your thoughts on that match?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: I knew he was going to be tough. I knew I had to play really well, and I didn't. I didn't play bad, but I just didn't make any putts for birdies, which never helps.

But, I mean, he's a great player. He hit some amazing iron shots, amazing up and downs. And he's definitely at the moment a few steps ahead of everyone.

MODERATOR: A great week for you, leading into a very important part of the season.

LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, the game is good for Augusta. Augusta is on everyone's minds right now. And it's shaping up very nicely. So if I can have a nice solid week in Houston, it's exactly where I want my game before Augusta.

Q. Obviously you came out, you drove the first green, you had the lead. Talk about holes 3 and 4.
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, I had a good opportunity on 2, hit a good putt, just missed it.

On the third hole, the fairway bunkers are a little soft this week. It was one of those where I need to clip it perfectly to get it on the green, and I just caught it a little thin, made the bank, went in the hazard.

Fourth hole, Jason made a good birdie.

And I made a good drive on 5.

There was never really a turning point, I feel. It's just I was sort of playing catch up the whole time because I didn't really put any pressure on him by making a few birdies. He always had the birdie putt for the win, and he's a great putter. I was just not good enough today.

Q. I'm sure you're aware of all the issues Jason had earlier in the week with the back problems. And you've had them yourself. I don't know if it's anything similar but clearly back issues and golf don't typically go very well together. Can you talk about in your own case how you've managed that and how hard it can be sometimes just to swing a golf club if that's bothering you?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, it's never fun to struggle with lower back. I've had every single lower back issue you can have. And I've been really good last year.

This week was a massive week for me to be able to do 72 holes in two days. That means I'm definitely going in the right direction with the training I'm doing.

Lower back, I mean, if you look at where the game is going these days, maybe one swings it harder and tries to get it farther. So it's chasing swing speed and ball speed and somewhere something is going to cave. The training needs to be really, really good. Lower back, when I've got disk problems or SI joint, when I had the disk problems and SI joint problems I couldn't even take a backswing. I couldn't get in the position of standing over a golf ball because I didn't bend forward. So when that happens, obviously, you've got no chance of hitting it. And that's not a nice feeling.

Sometimes you get it just more of a fright than anything and it goes away. I'm pretty sure that's what happened to Jason early in the week. He had just something flared up, but nothing massive, and it sort of went away.

So it's definitely, for a golfer, lower back is your -- it's the first thing that's probably going to go, if something is going in your body.

Q. You've had hectic schedule, you only missed one week?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, I'm pushing to see how my back is doing. But I've had a rough start. Augusta will be my seventh out of eight weeks. I'll have a month off after then. While I'm feeling great and I'm doing the stuff I need to do, I want to play. If I'm playing well, I want to play more events. And so, yeah, I'm forgetting about the past with injuries and just trying to push forward.

Q. What does having a week like this do for you as you're moving forward, knocking out Spieth for your confidence? And second, what were your thoughts on Austin this week?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, it means a lot, confidence-wise, especially two weeks before the Masters. I'm sure Jason is going to be a big favorite at Augusta. He's definitely playing the best golf right now in the world. Yeah, confidence-wise, you know, you're swinging well, you know you're playing well, so you just need to be patient. And mental strength is going to be a big issue that week.

I loved Austin this week. First time here. I went to a rodeo. I went to watch that. That was so much fun. So, yeah, it was a lot of fun for me and the family this week.

Q. Can you explain the story with your mattress. Who gave you that idea and how it kind of works on a weekly basis?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: The mattress, yeah. Yeah, you know, it was -- I don't really think I need it as much now as I did a year ago. I just had issues that every week you're in a different bed, soft beds, hard beds. The way my back was back then it did stress out everything that was wrong, as well, with the back.

It helped traveling with a mattress that I'm comfortable with. And week to week it goes on Steve's truck. He takes everyone's clubs. He's got my mattress. And then some weeks I use it, some weeks I don't. If it's a mattress at the hotel that I'm not comfortable with then I'll use my mattress. So I just thought, why not, why not, yeah.

Q. Do you lug the mattress into the hotel, take the mattress off the bed?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, it's a big process. I mean my manager is right there. Ask him. Yeah, it's a piece of cake. Getting it to the hotel, they change it for me and by Sunday I get it to Hulk and he takes it to the next week.

Q. Firm bed? Soft bed?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: It's quite firm, yeah.

Q. The course is difficult this week, obviously. Was it even harder this afternoon than it was this morning? Seems like you can never get comfortable chasing anything out there?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, the wind came up quite a bit this afternoon. It was strong. It was only two days we had this wind direction. Most of the time it was south, southeast, I think. Today it was northwest. So it was a bit different.

But it's a great golf course. You need to play well around this golf course to make birdies. If you're going to hit the ball really well and you're going to putt well, there's definitely a lot of birdies out there. But you need to be sure the type of shot you want to hit with the wind being all over the place, especially on the front nine.

Q. How much rest do you need the next couple of days before starting Houston? Why have you personally decided to play Houston?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, Houston is a golf course that I really enjoy. I've done well there in the past. I really like the golf course, and I think it's a good preparation before Augusta. They try to shave the greens and next to the greens, they're shaving the grass, so a similar feeling to Augusta. I just enjoy the place and been going there almost every year.

I'll take the next couple of days off. I'll probably fly up early Wednesday morning and see how the week is. I feel pretty confident the way I'm playing, so I hope it's a good week.

Q. You were talking about Jason as kind of definitely a step ahead of everybody else right now. When you're playing somebody like that and you know that they're at the top of their game, what kind of emotions or what goes through your mind? What do you feel like? What do I need to do to be able to stay with this guy?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: You know, you put yourself in a situation where if you play a guy like that, he's going to always take probably the toughest shot on, and nine out of ten times he'll probably pull it off in the form that he is. It makes you also, you're going up -- you're taking a more aggressive route. You know you need to make birdies. You need to make putts. You're under pressure the whole time because your opponent is playing that good of golf.

A shot like me on 12 today, I had to take that on. I had to try and hit that green or be right up there to try and force a birdie. Then mistakes creep in and you hit it in the water like I did.

So you put yourself under a bit more pressure. But if you're playing well, you should handle the pressure and then try and pull the same shots off.

Q. I know you just said about the nine out of ten times he'll pull it off, but what is it about Jason now that you see because you're playing him in a match play format that you see that maybe you didn't see before because now he's going to move to world No. 1, you're talking about how good he's playing?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: You know, he always -- I think a top player these days, he always makes that crucial putt when he needs to. We've seen a thousand times through Tiger doing it. Jordan does it all the time. And Jason, whenever he needs to make a crucial putt he makes it. And I think that's massive these days. You see him this morning against Rory when he made that putt on 18. That's great to have the ability to do that.

He's always been a great iron player. He's always been a great long iron player, and the way he's putting now there's a reason why he's No. 1 in the world.

Q. Just curious, after a long week of match play, do you relish the chance to just get back to stroke play?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Well, it's nice if someone gives you putts the whole time. So stroke play is going to be a bit different. But, yeah, match play is always -- it's a fun week, I feel, because it's so different to what you do every single week.

But it's nice to get back to stroke play. Stroke play is what we were brought up on and that's the game that we have to play well in to win major championships.

Q. A final word to the fans here in Austin who came out and watched this incredible tournament?
LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, the fans were great this week. I think I said it yesterday that they were cheering for good golf, and that's always nice to come out to see that. Everyone had a great time on the boats down by the 14th tee.

It was great seeing a lot of people out there today. I honestly didn't expect that many people out that early this morning. But when we got to the 5th, 6th hole, there were lots of people and it was great to see.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297