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ZURICH CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANSMarch 27, 2008Steve ElkingtonAVONDALE, LOUISIANA STEWART MOORE: We'd like to welcome Steve Elkington to the interview room here at the Zurich Classic after a great opening round 68 out there. Everyone has been raving about this golf course just being in flawless condition. Scoring conditions were pretty good this morning. Talk about your round and how it went out there. STEVE ELKINGTON: I agree. I just said to the press there that I think this is the best conditioned course we've played on TOUR this year and probably the best set of greens I've seen in maybe four or five years on TOUR. Being a part of this course, I help designed this course. It was a pleasure to see the course in this kind of condition and people talking about it the way they were. My round was obviously good. I started on the back nine, didn't do much early, kind of scrambled around for a few holes and made a birdie at the turn to turn even, and then I shot 4-under on the front, birdied 1, 2, 4, made a bogey at 6 and birdied 7 and 8. You know, there is an advantage to knowing the course as well as I do being a designer. You know, it's a thinking man's course, this one, even though it's a long scorecard. It's all about where you hit your irons. Q. How involved were you in the design process? STEVE ELKINGTON: Well, you know, we did it all the way from A to Z, Pete and I. My job was to try to create as many different shots or try to help Pete -- you know, Pete Dye is such an unreal designer. We didn't have a whole lot of land here to work with, but I think what made this course so great was the disaster that we had at Katrina when it knocked out another 50 acres of trees. That's helped this course a lot. We had to keep about 80 acres of trees just by law, but 50 got knocked down so there's much more air and I think that's why the course is flourishing. Q. Did you play here last year? STEVE ELKINGTON: I did, yeah. Q. The first year you had to withdraw, didn't you? STEVE ELKINGTON: First year I got food poisoning down here. That was the last time I ever had creamed spinach since then. Q. It was here? STEVE ELKINGTON: Yeah, I'm not going to say the name of the place, but I haven't been able to have spinach since (laughter). Q. I mean, that had to be -- you helped design the course and then you had to pull out? STEVE ELKINGTON: Yeah, that was a bummer. I've been on TOUR 21 years, and I've seen a lot of things happen. Q. Did last year you feel comfortable -- STEVE ELKINGTON: Last year I would have to look at the record, but it seems like I had a real good last round here last year. Seems like I remember shooting a pretty good fourth round and finishing up somewhere in the money pretty good. Q. You're off to a strong start this year. STEVE ELKINGTON: Yeah. Q. What's going well for you? STEVE ELKINGTON: My son who's about 11 now wanted to know where I bought all those trophies that I have (laughter). I've been trying to play more golf and refocus a little bit on trying to get up and win some tournaments. Q. Do you get to -- I know your last victory was '99 at Doral; is that right? STEVE ELKINGTON: Yeah. Q. Do you get to a point where -- I don't want to say comfortable, but does the mindset drop a little bit or do you always want to win? STEVE ELKINGTON: I haven't won a regular event since '99. I've had a couple of close calls in majors. I almost won in '02 at the British Open in a playoff and I got beat by a shot by Mickelson at Baltusrol in the PGA. I could have easily won either one of those, and then I'd be sitting in a different spot. My game, I always try to do well in the biggest tournaments. My record shows it. But I did for a number of years get a little tired of playing a lot of events, and with my young family, it was easy for me not to play them. But now there's so much more money to be playing for, you know, when I came on TOUR I made 75 grand in my first year to keep my card, and to be honest with you I thought that was about right. I thought that was about what I deserved. Now we're asking these kids to make $800,000. All the money is on the TOUR, so you might as well enjoy it. It just so happens the way my career has gone, it's just a nice time for me to get back out and do what I can do best. Q. So it almost sounds like you're reenergized? STEVE ELKINGTON: Your whole career is like that. Everyone's life is like that. I've had years where I wanted to be energized and couldn't do anything. It just so happens that I've got energy and I'm playing well. Q. You said refocused. Are you doing anything different? STEVE ELKINGTON: Not really. I just committed, basically, to playing 25. I did it last year. I made 25 events. I've been only playing about 15 or 16 before that. To add like eight or nine to your schedule, that's two months more, that's a lot to me. I did it last year and it was no problem, and I feel better that I've done it. I think just knowing that I'm going to be out longer. My kids said, hey, dad, you stay out there and see if you can do something (laughter). Q. Sounds like he's going to be an agent or something? STEVE ELKINGTON: Maybe. Q. Do you see low scores this week on this course? STEVE ELKINGTON: You'll have to play well. I mean, I play with Bubba Watson. I told my caddie in the beginning of the week I didn't think it was a long driver's course because it's all about being on the green in regulation. I played with Bubba Watson and he hits the ball long, but he didn't score better than we did, Shigeki Maruyama and I. It's sort of a long Hilton Head or a TPC Sawgrass, it's a thinking man's course. Q. Do you prefer those courses as opposed to the bomber's courses? STEVE ELKINGTON: Well, I would always -- for me I always like a course that takes more skill. Q. Certainly it fits your game better? STEVE ELKINGTON: For me, yeah. You know, I've always enjoyed the TOUR from the fact that each -- just like NASCAR, every track is different, so to speak. I've enjoyed the challenges this track offers. Some of the kids, they just play each one of them the same. But this course you've got to use a different set of tools here. Q. When you helped design this in '04 it opened up, and now four years later, has it brought any surprises to you the way the course has kind of come of age, so to speak? STEVE ELKINGTON: No, I mean, Pete Dye always wanted the course to play fast. We always -- right from the getgo we thought that New Orleans -- when you think New Orleans you always think warm and windy. Like I said earlier, I don't know if you were in here, but when Katrina knocked down the other 50 acres of trees that we had to keep, it changed the course completely. It opened it all the way up, there's much more air coming in, the turf is better. Q. So that's good? STEVE ELKINGTON: Yeah, absolutely. It's playing about as good as it could play right now. The fairways were maybe a little bit firmer, but it's right on the money. Q. No. 6 I think you bogeyed. You were in the trap. Seems like -- STEVE ELKINGTON: 6 is like a par-5 today, yeah. Q. Were you thinking that when y'all designed that? STEVE ELKINGTON: The prevailing wind is kind of more southwest. Today it was more south, southeast. You only have to have it swing 45 degrees for that hole to be a lot different. Instead of being dead into, it would be straight up the right, and that was more intended, where the second shot would be downwind. Q. When you get a stretch that you're playing well, do you feel it coming on? Do you know ahead of time, I've got it now and then you go on that stretch? STEVE ELKINGTON: I wish I had some money for every time I thought I had it. You, too, right? You have to demonstrate it. Tiger demonstrates it every week why he's great. It's one thing to be able to say he's a great player or he's a good player or I'm playing well, but you have to go out and demonstrate it. That's the bottom line. Q. What gets tougher as you get a little older as far as motivating yourself to put the work in to get your game where you want it? STEVE ELKINGTON: I think just travel, just leaving the house. The game is the easy part as far as competing and hitting shots. That's all -- I mean, if I gave up the TOUR, I couldn't give it up just because I love the shots watching go in there. Not only mine, I like watching the other guys'. I like seeing Bubba Watson hit it 350, too. I'm a bit of a fan in that regard. But just the commitment to the TOUR is a lot easier when you're playing for $250 million, and we go to all these -- the FedExCup, which is exciting. Like I say, your career takes on different points. Q. How has your game evolved? How would you stack up the different parts of your game now versus 10, 12 years ago? Are you better in some areas, not as good in some areas? STEVE ELKINGTON: I'm not sure. I never have looked at stats, really. I'm hitting the ball well. At the moment I've always been a second shot player. I've always been able to hit the ball at the flag. That's my game. I'm more of a precision player. STEWART MOORE: Could you go through your birdies? STEVE ELKINGTON: I had one on 18, which was my back nine. I made a nice putt, about a 20-footer. Then on 1 I hit a wedge like this (indicating inches). Then on 2 I made a six-footer. I chipped in on this hole, 4, chipped in from just short. 6th hole made a bogey. 7ths hole I was short in two, chipped on it and made it. 8, I chipped up to two feet. End of FastScripts |
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