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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 7, 2007

Angel Cabrera

TULSA, OKLAHOMA

KELLY ELBIN: Angel Cabrera, ladies and gentlemen, joining us 87th PGA Championship, the reigning U.S. Open Champion. Angel's best finish in the PGA Championship is a tie for 12th at the 2001 PGA at the Atlanta Athletic Club, and he also tied for 7th when the U.S. Open was played here in 2001.
Welcome back to Southern Hills. Thoughts on what you've seen so far.
ANGEL CABRERA: The course seems to be in very good shape, very well prepared. The rough is difficult, but, well, it's a major, very good course.

Q. How is the rough different from last week?
ANGEL CABRERA: Here sometimes when you go into the rough, you have a chance to go for the green, sometimes.
Last week, you never had a chance to go for the green when you went into the rough.

Q. Can you talk about what it's been like since you've won the U.S. Open and how your life has changed as a first-time major winner?
ANGEL CABRERA: My personal life has remained the same. I haven't changed anything. Sport-wise speaking, it has been very good because now I have a lot more experience and I feel more confident about my golf.

Q. How big is golf back home compared to the other sports? And now that you and Romero have been doing what you've been doing on the global stage, has it become a bigger issue among the residents?
ANGEL CABRERA: Yeah, the last two years it has been growing rapidly, and it's still fourth or fifth in the ranking, first soccer and then football -- no -- football, tennis, rugby, basketball and then probably golf. Well, it has been growing very rapidly the last two years with me winning in the U.S. Open and Romero playing very well, also.

Q. When you won the U.S. Open, did you go and buy lots of the flags and get copies of the trophy? Padraig has just been telling us that he bought 1,000 flags from the 18th green.
ANGEL CABRERA: I haven't bought not even one. (Laughter).

Q. Do you get lots of requests from charities, and what do you give them?
ANGEL CABRERA: The Ping people have sent me 75 pins, flags, and that's all we have.

Q. When you played here in 2001, a lot of people thought the 18th hole was set up pretty unfairly. What was your take on it then?
ANGEL CABRERA: There is not much big of a difference right now from what it was in 2001 on the 18th hole. Probably the green is going to play a little bit slower than it played in '01 but still very difficult.

Q. Have you thought much about the Presidents Cup this year?
ANGEL CABRERA: Well, I haven't really given it much thought yet because I still have to play one major and then the FedExCup events. And when the time comes, I'll definitely think about the Presidents Cup, which is something that I would really like to win.

Q. Would it help or would you like if Romero made the team?
ANGEL CABRERA: That would be nice. Yeah, he's a great player, and we know very well each other's game. We played together at the World Cup last year, so that would be nice.

Q. Lastly, as Major Champion, there comes a lot of offers late in the year especially. Do you know what you're going to do? Will you be in the PGA Grand Slam or do you think you might play in Tiger's tournament in December or have there been other offers?
ANGEL CABRERA: Well, I'm going to play the FedExCup events, and whether I get to the TOUR Championship or not; then play the Presidents Cup, and then I'm going to play the HSBC World Match Play; then the PGA Grand Slam of Golf. Yeah, if I play the final on Sunday, that means I will have to fly very quickly over to the PGA Grand Slam of Golf.
And then, we'll see. There are some opportunities to play in Asia, and some opportunities to play pretty much all over. We'll see.

Q. Do you usually play in November and December or do you take time off?
ANGEL CABRERA: Yes, I do. I usually do.

Q. What are your feelings about playing with your two fellow major champions in the first two rounds this week? And specifically, how well do you know Padraig Harrington and what do you feel about him as a person?
ANGEL CABRERA: Well, I'm very, very happy to be playing with the two other major champions of this year.
And as far as Padraig is concerned, I can tell you that he's a great, great player.

Q. As a person?
ANGEL CABRERA: I didn't really get to know him very well.

Q. I'm wondering, is there a chance that golf may surpass rugby or basketball in popularity any time in the near future? (Laughter)?
ANGEL CABRERA: No. No chance.

Q. What do you make of the three new major champions winning this year, and do you see maybe another new player that has not won a major again winning the PGA Championship?
ANGEL CABRERA: Every single player that is in the field here has a chance to win. So anybody can win. That's probably one of the reasons why you have, also, three different winners this year. That definitely can happen again.

Q. It seems like whenever we talk about a player from your country, there's always been an established professional who has helped him along the way, who has been older and maybe taken you or Andres under their winning. Is that sort of a way that you encourage the younger guys to come along and kind of a necessity, because the infrastructure there is not so strong?
ANGEL CABRERA: Yeah, definitely a necessity. It is very difficult for Argentinian golfers to achieve good things, to get to the PGA TOUR or The European Tour without the help of another professional golfer. There's not much help other than what a golfer can provide.

Q. The number of international players on the PGA TOUR has gone up a lot in the past decade. What challenges do you face as an international player that maybe an American player might not?
ANGEL CABRERA: Being a foreigner, it always makes it tougher. But yeah, it's always a challenge to be part of the PGA TOUR and trying to keep up with the greatest players in the world.

Q. Are the people excited in Argentina for the next major?
ANGEL CABRERA: I think that people in Argentina are following golf more than ever. Me having won the U.S. Open, Romero having played so well lately, and also Jose Coceres playing very well lately; and so that means there are three players with good chances to win the tournament, the PGA Championship. So people are going to follow with a lot of enthusiasm this tournament in Argentina.

Q. How does Romero hit it so far? He's half your size and the guy weighs like 145 pounds.
ANGEL CABRERA: I don't think that hitting the ball far, depends on the weight or height or length of arms or whatever. It's just an ability of the player to hit the ball far.

Q. It might be 100 degrees by the end of the week or close to it; how do you like playing in the warm weather and what will you do for the heat?
ANGEL CABRERA: I'm very used to the hot weather because in Latin America when we play January through February, it's really, really hot, I would say even hotter than it is here right now. Well, you have to drink a lot of water to keep it up.

Q. What created more excitement in Argentina, you winning a major in golf or the World Cup in 2000?
ANGEL CABRERA: Well, it was two different things. The World Cup, it was really nice. It was great. But unfortunately we finished second. So we couldn't win it. But at the U.S. Open, having won the U.S. Open, it made a whole, big difference.

Q. I'm wondering, you played your way up through the South American tours and The European Tour and playing over here; what quality of golf courses do you play when you're down in Argentina and playing in South America, and what's the talent level like down there? How many players are starving and hungry to get to where you are right now?
ANGEL CABRERA: Playing on the Argentine tour is like a first step, Latin America Tour, European Tour and PGA TOUR. The golf courses are not so bad as you may think. There are some really nice golf courses in Argentina.
KELLY ELBIN: U.S. Open Champion, Angel Cabrera.

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