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THE PRESIDENTS CUPDecember 10, 2019Louis OosthuizenMelbourne, Australia Q. What are you most looking forward to? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, the week's been good so far. We just are really looking forward, I think it's been a year now where everyone's really just looking forward to getting to this week. A lot of preparation was done for this, and captains has done a great job. As a team, we're ready to go. Q. You're a young team this year. As a veteran, how have you focused on the younger players? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: The youngsters on the team is the guys that are really on good form. They are really playing well, and it's great to see how eager they are to get out there and play, and the way they are hitting the golf ball. Yeah, I think my job and a lot of -- well, Leish and Adam and Hideki's job is to just try and make the guys a little more relaxed and get them on Thursday to just be calm and go and play golf. You know, just tell them to still have a really good week and have fun. Q. Obviously coming off a great finish at the Australian Open, how does your game feel? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: My game is good. I'm playing nicely. I'm putting nicely. So around this golf course, I think you need to be really sharp around the greens. So a lot of long putting and lag putting. It's definitely a different style of golf course, but something I really enjoy. Q. How do you get ready for match play after stroke-play last week? What changes in the approach? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: It's on the day. It's basically what you see on the day. If your partner is having an unbelievable day, you're going to change your game by being a little more aggressive maybe. It's going to be tough around this golf course, though, to be aggressive. You need to know where to not go around the greens. You can absolutely leave yourself with no golf shots. I think the matches is probably going to go longer, sort of go to 17 and 18, because I can't really see a lot of birdies out there, you know, so I think it's definitely different to ones we've seen before, golf course-wise, yeah. Q. Any specific areas that you can take advantage of? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: There is holes where you can whack a driver down close to the green. All depends on pin positions. Some of the holes where closer is not always better. You'd rather leave yourself further back to have a fuller shot in, and I mean, the greens are so firm and fast at the moment, and it is quite windy out there. So it definitely feels a lot like playing an Open Championship. Q. Do you feel like this team is different from previous teams you've been so, and if, why? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: I do. I think it's the youth sort of in our team. It's a lot of youngsters and a lot of rookies, and it's great to see how eager they are and how ready they are to get this done, and that's where I feel Ernie has done an unbelievable job getting all of us ready and together and just, you know, everyone's been looking forward to this week. The boys are playing good golf. Q. Can you speak about Ernie as a captain? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, it's weird, being the only South African, but at least I have a captain, and Trevor, as well, that's in the team. You know, used to be at least three all the time, three players all the time. But yeah, Ernie, he's been great. Being in his foundation growing up, knowing the guy, and he's been my role model for ages. It's just great being able to play under him and he's been a great captain so far. Q. The players in the junior Presidents Cup -- LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: I drove with them yesterday and seeing them, they played this golf course as a beast yesterday with a northerly wind. I drove with them. I wasn't looking forward to today after seeing the golf course yesterday, but luckily with the wind being from the south, it was a little different. They had a good time and played great. I think two of them won their singles yesterday, and Jordan unfortunately lost. You know, it's great seeing kids that you're trying to help and support coming through and playing on big stages like this. Q. What do you expect from the fans this week? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Well, I hope and I think they will give us a proper home-course advantage, and should be that way. You know, when we play in the States, it's always tough. We're playing against a lot of people that wants the U.S. to win. You know, hopefully this week, we have that edge with the Australian crowd. Q. The performance from 2015 -- can someone do that? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: I think so. If you can get that one or two guys that really gel as a pairing and they can go with a 4-0 through Saturday, then I think that brings a lot into the rest of the guys who sort of believe, and look at those boys, look at what they are doing. You know, I think one thing that's on our side is we have quite a few guys that's playing really good at the moment, and especially the rookies. They have been really, really solid and playing nicely, and I won't be surprised if you have a few of the rookies doing really well this week. Q. The team's practicing in foursomes -- is there anything specific you're doing? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: I think everyone knows stats-wise, it's always been our Achilles' heel with the foursomes. We just wanted to play a proper day with foursomes, getting in that sort of mind-set and then let the boys have a proper feel for it again. It was fun. It was a very relaxed sort of round because obviously you don't hit every second shot, so not really a lot of golf being played. It was fun to sort of just get that familiarizing with the format. Q. The new logo, what do you think? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: It's brilliant. Ernie's been on this for a while. We need to get that identity of what we are and what we playing for and who we are as a team. To do something like that, and have that emblem, it's really made a big difference in our team. Q. Will you miss Branden Grace this week? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: You know, I've never really played with anyone else, so it was weird getting pairings who I'm playing with. It was always set that I'm playing with Branden. But you know, the way the boys are playing, I don't mind playing with anyone. It's fun to play with them, and I'm looking forward to the challenge of having someone new as a partner, but it shouldn't be a problem. Q. What do you think of the look overall? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, like I said to the boys, it's great to have that. It's great to have that identity, sort of we need, it who we are playing for, what we are, and what we stand for. Ernie did a great job of getting something that we look up to and know that's our team; that's us. Q. Let me rephrase it. What did you think of the other one, the other one that the TOUR laid out? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: This is more personal. This is more -- I think this is more what the players really wanted, and Ernie spent a lot of effort and time in this. I think this is good. This is what we want. Q. Do you take any personal positiveness out of what the Springboks did earlier, and then this weekend? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, the South Africans are pretty decent at the moment. Hopefully, yeah, I can have a good week and Ernie as a captain can have an even better week. Q. What's the meaning of it? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: It's a shield -- it's a few different things. It's the unity of all of us together with a shield. There's a few things in there that, you know -- I don't know if I want to go into all the details. But it's just -- I think it was a very personal and a very good thing that he did for us with that. Q. Is the meaning something that only you guys know and don't want to share? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: I think probably down the line there will be more, but I don't think it's a secret. I don't want to explain it the wrong way. I don't think I'm going to get it out the right way. I'd rather let someone -- I don't want to screw it up; let's say it that way. That's the best way. Q. For the future of this event, is it important that the International Team wins? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Oh, yeah. Q. Is there a chance if the U.S. is winning, people will lose interest? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: I think we're almost at that point. In 2015, it was really hard because the boys were really playing well. We all know Chris Kirk made that putt on 18 and Anirban missed that putt. If it was the other way around, we won. It was such a close call, and then obviously running, facing -- running up against a brick wall in New York with an unbelievable in-form U.S. Team, was just, you know, very difficult that week. I think this week, this is probably the best chance we will have with this golf course, this crowd, and I think the way our guys are playing, as well, I think this is probably the best chance that we'll have in the four Cups that I've played. Q. Following up on the fans losing interest, does it get aggravating for the players? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: It does. I'm pretty sure if you ask Adam who has played nine and would love to get a win -- I think it gets to a stage where it gets difficult to motivate the guys. It's no fun going out and everyone is saying, "They are just going to run over them again." We are trying to change that whole mind-set and we are trying to do it different by having this logo, especially, as well, and playing for something, playing for a team that sort of is our identity, and just come and show up and play for something, play for the Cup and win, and not just come for exhibition. Q. What do you expect from the fans this week? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Hopefully give us the best home-course advantage we can have. Expect them to be tough on the U.S. guys and also probably they will support good golf, but I think they will be a little tougher on the U.S. boys than they will on us. It will be great if it is, because New York was really tough for us. The crowd was really tough. I don't know if you're going to quite see that here, but definitely going to have an advantage having the Australians behind us. Q. Starting out with fourballs, do you generally play better? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Yeah, we start with that. We are normally good with fourballs, and get then of our guys to play, you know, their own ball and foursomes is always tough if someone is a little nervous, which some guys might be, you know, it might be a little tough to start that way on Thursday. But at least when you're playing your own ball, you at least feel like you're in a tournament doing your own thing. Fourball is better in that sense to start the tournament for us. Q. Can you talk about the team bonding so far, how has it been in the room? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: They are great. You don't really need to try and get them involved. Everyone's involved. You don't really have to try and psyche them up. The boys are ready to go. It's great to see the youngsters really ready to run, and like I said, they are informed. They are playing well. It's great having the rookies on the team that's playing nicely, as well. Q. Ernie has been talking about the team building for a year now. LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: I mean, he's been on a lot of things that's probably been missed in the past, and he's done an unreal job with getting us together and getting us ready for this week, and even today was just a foursomes round we played. The boys were ready. They knew way in advance what was going on and who were going to play together and things. It's nice to see no confusion. Everyone knows exactly what needs to be done and we are ready to go. Q. The history, does it make it even more special? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Definitely. Knowing him since a junior and being in his foundation, it's very special playing under him as a captain. Q. Being called the class clown -- is that a good thing -- LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Just try to get the guys relaxed a little sometimes. Now and then a good joke or a fun thing to do is good for the team. Q. Anything planned? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: I have a few up my sleeve this week. Not going to give anything away. We'll see how the week plays out. Q. How important was it to get to Australia early and play in the Australian Open? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: It's always nice when you do two weeks in the same country, or at least the same time zone. You know, to play really well last week helped a lot, coming in here, just knowing I'm over the jet-lag and I'm swinging decent. I'm putting nicely. Definitely helped a lot. Came a lot closer than I thought at the end there last week, but I'm happy I went down and played, yeah. Q. Is it a strange feeling shooting 14-under and not winning? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: No. Should have shot 16-under and walked away with it. Matt played very well. He was very in control of the whole thing. It looked the whole day like he was going to win by three or four and I just made it a little more interesting at the end with an eagle on the last. He was very much in control. Q. How has the team spirit been different? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: I think the bunch of us has been together quite a while, meetings and with e-mails and with Ernie being on top of things and letting us talk to each other. So we all knew exactly what was going on coming in what was going on and what we wanted to achieve and what we wanted to do. This is probably the most ready a team will be on the International side that I've been a part of. Q. Is it unique as a South African to be playing in front of a whole-of-Australia crowd? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: Hopefully this week they will give me some Australia love and treat me like one of theirs. Q. Do you know who you will be teamed up with the first day? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: I do, but you'll have to wait and see Thursday. Q. I know you probably already answered this today, but Patrick Reed, is there any sense that that will linger for the rest of the week? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: I mean, he brought that on himself. I think he's going to have a tough time with the media, anyway. I'm not really going to get into it. I mean, it looked like a very stupid thing he did. Q. How do you see it shaking out? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: It doesn't look great for him, I can say that. It's going to be a tough one to get rid of. Q. Does he need to admit to it? Would that make it better? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: That's going to be all on him what he really feels inside what he did. I mean, obviously it looks bad from the outside. It does not look great. So that's something he needs to feel inside, and that's the only thing that we can probably say for that. Q. If he was on the International Team, would you want him playing? LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN: I think it would be something that everyone will address, the team would probably want to sit with him and talk it out if it was one of us. If it was someone on my team, I know a bunch of us would ask him straight the question, and then probably take it from there. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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