	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

OLYMPIC GAMES RIO 2016: GOLF

August 13, 2016

Jaco Van Zyl

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Q. How does it feel to have a ‘one’ on the card?
JACO VAN ZYL: It's great. Especially you add it up, the least amount of strokes you can take, it really helps. It's just really special. It's great.

Q. Did you see it go in?
JACO VAN ZYL: Yeah, the pin was cut back left just over that trap there, and I just absolutely pured a 7‑iron, and I looked at it the moment it came off the face‑‑ I hit it to about three inches there on the same hole in the first round – and I chatted to my caddie and I said, ‘there's something special going in the Olympics’, and lo and behold, two rounds later, we managed to hole in one.

Q. Did you use the same club the last time around?
JACO VAN ZYL: No. We had it a little in off the left today, and the first round it was a little bit further back and hit 6‑iron.

Q. What was your yardage today?
JACO VAN ZYL: 173 yards.

Q. How many holes-in-one have you had in your career?
JACO VAN ZYL: I've had 15. I'm fortunate.

Q. How many in competition and how many in practice?
JACO VAN ZYL: Just off the top of my head, I would say at least nine in tournament play.

Q. And have you won anything in that nine?
JACO VAN ZYL: Not really. A Dunhill fountain pen, which is not really something we use (laughter).

Q. As many aces as you've had, do you still get jazzed about it?
JACO VAN ZYL: Oh, yeah. It's a feeling that will never go away. It's just sometimes you absolutely hit the shot you imagine and you pure it, and you get the result. Sometimes it bounces off the right hill and finds the flag and the bottom of the club. But it's always nice to put that one on your card.

Q. I know you're not the first, but having that next to your name, hole‑in‑one at the Olympics must be pretty cool.
JACO VAN ZYL: Yeah, it's great. Unfortunately, it hasn't been a great first three days for me, and not much to reflect on golf‑wise. That was just a really nice cherry on cake.

Q. Do you feel like the Olympic spirit is in the air here?
JACO VAN ZYL: Yeah, it's just been great. It's very different to any other event we play, including majors. It's got a very special aura about it and it's just great to be a part of it.

Q. What about other sports and other athletes from SA; have you encountered a few along the way?
JACO VAN ZYL: We all share one apartment block, so I've been running into Cameron van der Burgh quite a bit and spending quite a bit of time with Schoeman and running into the Sevens coach and some of the Sevens players. It's just been great. Going to go watch a little bit of track and field later this evening.

Q. When you came here, did you have any kind of goal to meet somebody in particular?
JACO VAN ZYL: Not really. I mean, walking in a village, you literally have to wipe the grin off your face every now and then. Everyone you see, there goes Usain Bolt, and there goes this one and there goes this one. You see them out of what they do, they are normal human beings, asides from the basketball players, I don't think they are normal human beings. But they are just normal people. You run into them and they want to know how your day went, and they have a keen interest in what we do, which is nice.

Q. You have quite a few people coming up to ask you about golf?
JACO VAN ZYL: Quite a few. It's been great. It really has been great.

Q. So all the preparation you put in, missing out on Royal Troon and Baltusrol, has been justified in your own mind?
JACO VAN ZYL: Yeah, unfortunately I was battling with my health. Without pulling out of those two events, I'm sure, almost certain, I wouldn't have been here. Spending a little bit of time at home and managed to get the health back to where it should be, really I'm absolutely loving it. Really loving it.

Q. Have you enjoyed having an icon in Gary Player alongside the team this week?
JACO VAN ZYL: Yeah, it's very special. I mean, he's 81 years old, and just to see the different people and different players, just loving the fact that he's out there. For him to come out‑‑ he's still walking with us a couple of holes. He's still very fit for 81 years old and it's absolutely great.

Q. What was the health issue that you had?
JACO VAN ZYL: I battled with some flu the week of the U.S. Open. Played Germany the week after and it got worse, and France the week after. By the weekend in France, it was literally golf and sleep, golf and sleep. I had to do something.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297