WGC WORLD CUP

November 14, 2003

Trevor Immelman

Rory Sabbatini

GORDON SIMPSON: Well played, Trevor, Rory. Great score today, best today, 69. Trevor, take us through today's play and why you got yourself into this position.

TREVOR IMMELMAN: Well, I think we both got out there and we were both pretty pleased it wasn't as windy as yesterday. We played real solid all day. There were no shots that were off the park and we were going, Oh, I hope that's in good shape. We played real solid all day and putted well, too. All in all, it was just probably one of the best rounds that I've played all year. Good thing I had a partner.

GORDON SIMPSON: Rory?

RORY SABBATINI: We played very solidly today and as Trevor said, the thing we were very good at doing was keeping the ball in play and keeping ourselves out of trouble. When we did find a little bit of trouble that we did out there we managed to escape fairly easily and without too much difficulty. When we had opportunities we made the most of them. We played very consistently. We played within ourselves and we just stuck to our game plan, and that's pretty much all I can do out there.

Q. Was 13 the one that was closest to being a disaster? Can you sort of explain what happened, how you played the hole?

RORY SABBATINI: Trevor hit 3-wood off the tee and left it back in the fairway, and we were in good position. I hit a 4-iron on the second shot and I was playing into the wind. I was trying to hit a cut 4-iron in there. I thought it was pretty good when I hit it and it continually drifted right. Even after it landed I thought it was fine, but it managed to creep into the reeds over there. It was an unfortunate miscalculation of the wind. Even in that situation, we just had a little chip there, but Trevor has a great short game and executed with very little difficulty. That was probably the biggest difficulty we ran into out there. But still, in consideration of where it could have been it really wasn't bad.

GORDON SIMPSON: 17 would be satisfying making two there, I would think.

RORY SABBATINI: We got up on the 16th green after we finished, and Trevor said, "Let's make a birdie going in." He hit a good tee shot there, and I got a good read on the putt and made it. And I was thinking that was kind of an unexpected one. That's a hole that you are quite happy to make a three on, let alone in alternate shots. We picked one up on the field there for sure.

Q. How long of a putt was it?

RORY SABBATINI: 40, 45 feet.

GORDON SIMPSON: South Africa has a very good record in this in the last few years. I'm sure you're well aware of that.

TREVOR IMMELMAN: We've got some great plays down in South Africa, some that the world hasn't even heard of. Obviously it's a pity that Ernie and Retief aren't here, from a world championship point of view, but it's great to have an opportunity and hopefully we can do our country proud.

Q. Were you surprised that the scoring today in the field -- you guys were pretty much the exception to the rule. It seemed like most scores were really going high in the alternate shot.

RORY SABBATINI: This golf course is not easy. We saw it yesterday in best ball. To go out there and shoot the score we did, 3-under playing alternate shot is something that I think if we scored that here any day of the year, you would win your match. The situation being this course is playing tough, the fairways are soft, we have hard greens and just enough wind out there to pose a problem. The scores reflect how tough the course is playing. We had a really good day out there. It's not often you can say you shot 3-under and had a really good day. Most World Golf Champion events or even Tour events anywhere in the world, if you have a good day you're looking at 6, 7 under.

The course is playing tough. The scores aren't going to be easy out there. The birdies aren't easy to find because every hole even the easy holes out there are a challenge. There is a lot of difficulty and a lot of trouble to get into. The situation, you have to kind of grind it out and stick with what you know. We were fortunate today. We hit a lot of good shots and we didn't get into too much trouble. There was plenty of it out there.

Q. When you planned beforehand on the round, was that the foremost thing, stay out of trouble, don't beat yourself, as opposed to anything else that you would do out there? Is that the biggest thing?

RORY SABBATINI: I'm guessing Trevor would probably agree with me, we didn't go out there with any set game plan of this or that. We went out there, we let each other play our own games when it was our turn. If there was a time where there was kind of a difficult shot or any situation that had multiple options, we consulted each other and we stuck with what was good for both of us.

That's the toughest part in playing alternate shot, is communicating between the two players and knowing what the other player likes and understanding the way it works. We're fortunate we've played a lot of alternate shot growing up. We have never played together before, but the situation being, we understand how to play it and we're pretty good with communicating with each other what we like and what we don't.

GORDON SIMPSON: Great playing again today, guys. Good luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts.