MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 8, 2021

Jose Maria Olazabal

Quick Quotes

Q. How are you progressing in your condition? Is it something that is improving?

JOSÉ MARÍA OLAZÁBAL: Well, at the moment it's stable. I have to take my medication, obviously, but overall the last few months, well, pretty much a year, it's been okay. I still don't feel, I mean, serious problems. I still feel a little bit stiff and all that, but apart from that, I cannot complain.

Q. You've been here for so many years and seen hard conditions. How does this compare as far as the firmness and everything?

JOSÉ MARÍA OLAZÁBAL: Well, I'll tell you what, it reminds me a bit of the '90s when we played. We used to have hard greens and a fast golf course, and this was very, very similar. It reminded me a lot of those years.

Q. Of the year you won?

JOSÉ MARÍA OLAZÁBAL: Yeah, pretty much, '99. They managed to somehow prepare the golf course like we used to have it. Obviously nowadays it's a much longer golf course, but around the greens and on the greens, it's extremely demanding. You need to have great touch, and on top of that, a lot you have to think about when you hit your second shots on to the green, depending on where the flag is, where to attack it, which angle to attack it from. In case you miss it, you cannot miss it on the short side. If you miss it on the short side, you're pretty much dead.

But I think this is what the Masters should be like. I mean, this is -- well, it's unique. This is what is unique about the Masters. I mean, these type of conditions. I would love to see that more often.