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CANADIAN OPEN

September 6, 2006

Trevor Immelman

ANCASTER, ONTARIO

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Trevor Immelman, thank you for joining us today at the Canadian Open.

TREVOR IMMELMAN: I'm really looking forward to the week. I thoroughly enjoyed last year's Canadian Open in Vancouver. And when Mike Weir told me that this is a fantastic golf course, just as good as Shaughnessy, I was pretty excited. So, yeah, I've been looking forward to this tournament for a while now and happy to be here.

Q. I believe you might be the last guy to beat Tiger Woods on the Tour at the Western Open. Can you talk about the effect it has on the field, maybe when he doesn't show up to an event and the way he's playing these days.

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Well, first of all I think we need to try to get him in the field as much as we can. Obviously he is so good for golf. And so good for the PGA TOUR, wherever he plays. But the more he plays the better for us. Sure, he's on a good run right now, but we all know what a fickle game golf is, and that run could come to an end at any tournament. Everything has its season. I think we should all just appreciate the things he's accomplishing right now. And for me, personally, it just makes me want to work harder and improve my game and try to see if I can win some more tournaments.

Q. Tiger came out recently and said he would endorse drug testing on Tour. What's your opinion on that subject?

TREVOR IMMELMAN: I think we should do it for sure. I have no problem with it, whatsoever. I think if we want to have a clean sport, we might just as well do it and comply with the Olympic regulations or whatever governing bodies are out there. It's definitely not something that I lose any sleep over.

Q. Do you think, though, that there are drugs that could enhance a golfer's game?

TREVOR IMMELMAN: You know, to be honest with you, I don't think I know enough about those sorts of performance enhancers to make a fair comment on that. I can't see how any sort of steroids that would make you get stronger could really help that much. Maybe the occasional shot out of the rough. But golf is such a feel oriented game, that I don't think it could affect it that much. But if we're going to keep the world quiet and stop asking these questions, then we just need to go ahead and do the testing and prove that we're a clean sport.

Q. I hate to keep harping on Tiger Woods, here, but just in relation to the first question that was asked about him being in a tournament and not being in a tournament. The way he's playing right now, specifically with the five wins and it just seems that he's unbeatable. Is there a different mindset from the rest of the field? From you personally, had you see him at the top of the leaderboard, is there a different mindset at all? Is there any kind of intimidation factor going on there?

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Not at all for me. I respect Tiger 100 percent for everything that he's achieved. I think he's been incredible for our game and we should all be very thankful that he's been around to improve our Tour and improve golf and take golf to a bigger audience. When I see him up at the top of the leaderboard or near the top of the leaderboard I get excited, especially if I'm in a tournament. Any tournament you win that he's playing in, that's a pretty good feather in your cap. So I love it when he plays well. It brings a different energy to the tournament, the fans going crazy. There's just so much excitement. So I love it. I think it's great.

Q. Could you talk about this course? Have you been able to play it and just your impressions of it?

TREVOR IMMELMAN: I was able to play the front nine yesterday. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's an old style golf course where it seems to be straight driving is going to be a premium this week. And once you've got a stroke or drive away, you're going to have opportunities to take direct aim at a couple of slags out there. Obviously the greens are quite small. But obviously when you're coming in from a fairway you're going to have more of a chance to hit one close and maybe make a birdie. And if it's if the rain keeps up and we have soft conditions, then obviously it makes your second shot a little easier, because it makes the greens or receptive. So I think if the moisture stays around the scores will be a little lower. But I'm really excited to be here. This is an incredible golf course. And it would be great if we could play more courses like this one.

Q. Next year this tournament moves to the week after The British Open. Is that a week that you typically play and will we you next year at Angus Glen?

TREVOR IMMELMAN: I typically play the week after The Open. I have played in Europe in their Player Championship. It's a very tricky situation for next year's schedule because of the way it's been condensed because of the FedEx Cup. I don't think we're all exactly sure what's going to happen. I think players are going to end up playing more, playing more weeks in a row. So it's very difficult to tell. It might even work out better for this tournament. I don't think we'll know that until next year comes around and we see the response we get.

For me personally I'm not a hundred percent sure of my schedule for next year. I don't want to sit here and tell you that I'm definitely going to be here and there's a chance that I'm not. So I'm just trying to wait and see how the rest of this year pans out and try to see what's going to happen next year.

Q. When you guys look at your schedule at the start of a year, you in particular, you know the kind of money you're playing for on a week to week basis. How important is venue, how important is the golf course that you're going to be playing relative to the schedule that you make?

TREVOR IMMELMAN: I think it's very important. I think it's probably the players look at two or three things. Obviously the purses are so fantastic on the PGA TOUR, that it sounds really bad, but you expect a good purse. Secondly, you look at the venue. And thirdly, if you've played it in the past, you decide how much fun have I had when I've been there. When you're a rookie, like I'm a rookie on Tour this career, many times I've asked players, how is that tournament, how is that course? Did you guys have a lot of fun there? And that's how you decide where you're going to go. And when I last year when I spoke to Mike and he said, man, Shaughnessy, great golf course, Vancouver, awesome place. And so I decided to go. And to this day I still think Vancouver is probably the prettiest place anywhere in the world. My wife and I had an unbelievable week. I thoroughly enjoyed the tournament and I ended up finishing 7th, so it was a great week for me.

Same thing this year, Mike said a great golf course, old style golf course, and he explained a bit of it to me. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that I was going to play. So those are probably the three things that you look at, the venue is very important. Like I said, the prize money, you don't worry about, because they're all so good. And lastly, if you're going to have fun out there.

Q. Your own game, you took quite a few weeks off, did you not?

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Five weeks off. We had our first child seven weeks ago.

Q. What about, then how much is it now geared to this course? Is your game back in shape

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Well, it had quite a big effect on me, I took five weeks off, and the PGA was the first tournament back. It was hard coming back to a major. My game was rough, I ended up finishing 34th, I believe. Then the next week we went to Firestone, which is one of my favorite events of the year. My game started improving, I ended up finishing 14th. Then I had last week off, I went home, I knew what I had to work on. And I addressed those things. And I feel like my game is pretty good coming into this week.

Q. What goes first?

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Just the competitive nature that you have inside you, the week to week being used to playing week to week and scoring and if you're hitting a bad shot not letting it affect you and getting up and down and saving pars. That's the first thing that leaves you. Obviously when you've had four or five weeks off and you come back to a tournament, it's also you have more nerves. You feel a little bit more nervous, because you're not as used to playing last week or the week before. So it's just those things, really. I probably didn't do a very good job in those two events of my short game probably wasn't sharp enough. So I addressed those problems last week. And like I said, I really feel good about my game coming into this tournament. I loved what I saw of the golf course. I'm looking forward to a good performance here.

Q. It's a long layoff, I understand that, but you'd obviously be teeing it up for the home side next year in Montreal, if you made The Presidents Cup team. How much do you think about that? Where is that on the set of goals for 2007?

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Well, it's right up there, because I thoroughly enjoyed last year's event at Robert Trent Jones. And it's definitely something that I want to be a part of for the rest of my career. It's definitely up there in my goals for next year. I want to make sure that I'm part of that team. Obviously I have a little more experience with my second time around, so that will be exciting. It would be great to come up here and play in Canada. I think it will be a great event. Definitely for me it's something that I'm striving for.

Q. You are technically a rookie here on the PGA TOUR this year?

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Yes.

Q. (Inaudible.)

TREVOR IMMELMAN: If I had an opportunity to win, that would be a fantastic achievement for me. It really would. It would be very special if that were to happen.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Trevor, thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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