	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

BMW CHAMPIONSHIP

September 4, 2007

Trevor Immelman

LEMONT, ILLINOIS

JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Trevor, for joining us for a few minutes here in the media center at the BMW Championship, an opportunity to defend your title and keep moving up the ladder on the FedExCup Playoff points list. Looks like you are 38th, and you collected a couple points last week by making the cut, and to get in next week obviously you need to finish in the Top 30. Just talk about coming back to Cog Hill and defending your title and then a little bit about the FedExCup, please.
TREVOR IMMELMAN: Well, obviously I'm very excited to be back here at Cog Hill. About a month ago I came and spent a day here doing media day, and it was great to come back and reacquaint myself with the facility and have some of those good feelings come back. You know, it was the same driving in here this morning. It's always exciting coming back to a venue that you've played well at. You know, I'm really looking forward to playing here this week. It's always been a golf course that I've enjoyed.
With the elevated stature of this tournament now being basically the second-to-last tournament in the FedExCup Playoffs, you know, it's going to be a lot of excitement and it's going to be great to be a part of that.

Q. You touched on this a little bit at media day, but you come on-site now, this looks a lot different than it did last July and when you visited media day, and obviously the WGA is still involved in it, but does it feel the same as being a defending champion? There's a lot of difference between the old Western Open and the BMW in a lot of ways.
TREVOR IMMELMAN: Well, yeah, but I think all the changes have been for the better, so I don't think there's a negative spin to that at all.
You know, I definitely feel like the defending champion coming back. We haven't played any other events here, so -- I think the changes that have been made are only going to make this event even bigger and more important in the grander scheme of things. Like I said earlier, I don't think there's one negative aspect to what's been done with this tournament.

Q. Can you give us an update on how you've been feeling and how you've been playing and maybe throw a percentile out where you are in terms of regaining the strength from all that weight you lost and trying to get back to where you were, I guess, what, Masters week, six months ago?
TREVOR IMMELMAN: Well, I would say for the last month or so I've probably been pretty much 100 percent. I broke the 170 barrier a couple weeks ago, which was quite important for me, so that was nice. You know, I've been working hard and putting a lot of effort into getting my strength back, so I do feel like I've fully recovered from that. So that's obviously a relief to be feeling healthy. You know, I would definitely say that's all behind me now.
As far as my game is concerned, obviously I had a little bit of a dip there in the middle of the season. You know, whether that was related to the illness or not, maybe I'll never know, but I've just got to do what it takes to get my game back to where I think it should be. You know, I've been starting to see signs of that in the last couple months. Obviously a nice week at the PGA, and that gave me a lot of confidence to play that well on a golf course that was that demanding.
You know, I think my confidence is on the up, and I'm hoping to finish out the year strong and then come back next year and really get at things.

Q. The TOUR wants to go through the Playoffs one time and talk about whatever changes they want to make. Halfway through, is there anything you would like to see them tweak for next year?
TREVOR IMMELMAN: Well, so far I think it's worked quite smoothly, so there's not too many things that I think could really be changed. You know, the things that I have concerns over I haven't really been able to sit down -- I haven't had the time to sit down with someone from the TOUR and ask them those questions and get explained the answers as to why it's working out the way it has. You know, for me to sit here and criticize when I might not have their opinion on the subject would probably be the wrong thing for me to do at this point.
You know, as a whole, I think it's brought more excitement to the end of this season. I think there's been a great atmosphere at the tournaments. You know, whether you like it or not, players and caddies and you guys in the media have been talking about it. If everybody is talking about it, that's exactly what everybody would have wanted.
You know, we've gained some more exposure to the fans and hopefully getting them involved in it. You know, that's all we want is we want to bring more people to the game and introduce them to golf and become fans of the PGA. So from that aspect, I think it's really worked.

Q. Can you bring us up to speed on you've been trying some different things putting-wise, I guess, belly putter? Rumor was you had the K.J. Choi fat grip you were monkeying around with last week --
TREVOR IMMELMAN: That's not a rumor.

Q. Just a little experimentation to see if you could get a few more in the hole a little quicker?
TREVOR IMMELMAN: Absolutely. That's all I'm trying to do is get the ball in the hole. The belly putter thing, that was probably a stretch. That definitely didn't work out. I just couldn't get around the fact that I had something stuck into my stomach, even though I had actually won a tournament using one. That must have been a fluke because I just couldn't get comfortable with that at all. That lasted for two tournaments, actually, and they were both over in Europe.
Went back to the shorter putter and just kind of been working my way through it. You know, at the end of the day, putting is so much of an art, and it really boils down to your confidence level. So that's really what I've been working on is trying to get out on the putting green and just seeing the ball go into the hole. You know, as soon as putts start going in at the right times, that's how you gain confidence. You know, so it's basically just going through that process. I'm sure it won't be too long before things start working out the way I'd like them to.

Q. In a tournament of this magnitude, how do you guys handle the short turnaround, having played on Monday, then having to go right back on Thursday with a full-up Pro-Am thrown in on Wednesday?
TREVOR IMMELMAN: I actually enjoy it because I probably -- I feel like I have too much time on my hands leading up to a tournament, just kind of messing around. I think it just gives me more time to think about what I'm doing instead of just letting it all happen. So for me I enjoy it because I'm coming here today, do a bit of practice, play nine holes and then play the Pro-Am tomorrow and get right at it. I actually quite enjoy it.

Q. Some of these guys, Sergio and Ernie I don't think have played here, and if they have it's been a while since they have, so people like you and Tiger and some of the others that come here every year might have a little bit of an edge on some of the others?
TREVOR IMMELMAN: Yeah, that is possible, but we are professionals, and we're sort of used to rocking up at tournaments and acquainting ourselves with golf courses in a day or a day and a half that I don't see that posing much of a threat on guys of that caliber.
And secondly, you know, this is just a great old-style golf course. There's no tricks to it. It's all right in front of you. It's not really a course that you need to have played 100 times before you get to know it. I mean, here as soon as you've hit the shot, you know whether it's worked out or not.
You know, I don't see local knowledge playing in as much of a factor as what I do obviously for guys like Tiger and Jim Furyk and those other guys, they've always just played well here. Maybe they might have some more confidence because they're drawing on so many good memories.
But from the point of knowing a golf course better, I don't think that'll affect anybody.
JOAN v.T. ALEXANDER: Thank you, Trevor, for joining us.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297