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THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIPMay 9, 2008Ernie ElsPONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA Q. Were you happy to get it in? ERNIE ELS: Yeah. It was quite difficult. I'd hate to be the guys this afternoon. Really difficult. It really kicked up the last hour. It was blowing all morning, but it's really started kicking up now, so really difficult. Q. The afternoon guys yesterday did not get as much of a break on the wind as the morning guys did yesterday. Is that one of the things that's going to happen, you've just got to kind of forget about it? ERNIE ELS: I think at the end of the week it's going to even out. You've got four days, and not one day is going to be the same out there, we're so close to the coast. The guys really got a good break yesterday morning, obviously, and we had a bit of breeze in the afternoon, but I think it's going to work itself out by Sunday. Q. Anthony just finished 4-under. Is 4-under going to look awful good by the end of the day? ERNIE ELS: Yeah, it's a great score. I don't know what he shot today, but yeah, to be 4-under total, I think that's going to be the leading score. Q. Have you played with him, played with Kim? ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I have. Q. Thoughts? ERNIE ELS: Well, he's very good. I'm not sure, I played with him somewhere last year, some event. Really good player, good attitude, quite confident guy. Q. So they say. ERNIE ELS: Yeah. Q. You won a British Open after playing in a pretty difficult Saturday at Muirfield. Can you relate that to this in any way, shape or form? ERNIE ELS: You know, those golf courses are built for this. You can play the ball on the ground and hit all kinds of different shots. This place you've got water hazards all over the place, so you've got to put the ball in the air. You know what, it's more difficult. The greens are firmer, faster, very difficult, especially as you mentioned 17. I'd hate to play 17 right now. Q. Is part of the difficulty the indecision that sticks in your mind as well as the conditions themselves? ERNIE ELS: Yeah, because the wind, it's southwest, but it keeps moving around a little bit and then you get a gust every now and again. As I said, with so many water hazards around, you have to almost play safe. And even the putts, the greens are so fast. You've got to just keep not screwing up, basically (laughter). You've got to just keep kind of playing defense. You've got to be very aggressive in your mindset and then play the safe shot. Q. Has it changed a little bit from the last couple years? Could you have played it a little more aggressively when it was softer and maybe go flag hunting a little bit more, versus playing for par now? ERNIE ELS: Oh, definitely. We had higher rough in the past, but the fairways were a lit softer and the greens were softer, so you could be a little bit more aggressive. It's a little bit different animal now. Q. Do you enjoy coming here? Is this something you look forward to? ERNIE ELS: Well, you know, after what happened to me the last couple of weeks with my game and everything, this is two big days for me. I knew I had to get my game back on track somehow, and to do it on this course is just quite difficult. But to answer your question, yeah, I do. They really look after us well. They call it THE PLAYERS Championship, our championship. I don't know how accurate that is. Q. What do you mean by that? ERNIE ELS: Well, we don't really run the tournament; they still run the tournament for us. But still, they look after us well, and it's a great place to come, great golf course. Q. How would you, Commissioner, run the tournament if you could? What would you do differently? ERNIE ELS: Well, I think they do a pretty good job. Q. Besides filling in the pond on 17. ERNIE ELS: No, I think they do a pretty good job. I don't want to be negative. Q. But there's a question that's come up over the years of whether the players have or should have any input on how the course is set up, firm and fast, big rough, small rough. Do you think they should? ERNIE ELS: I think they could give us a little bit more input into that. Especially the way the wind is blowing now, there's a couple of flags out there, if it gets even more windy, I think play could be stopped. The ball could be running off some of these greens. They could maybe ask guys a couple more questions how to set the course up. As I said, they do a pretty good job anyway. Q. You talked about how you were working on your game. You've been working with a couple different drivers so far this season, you've got the FT-5 in the bag. I was wondering if you could talk about your decision to go with that particular one and where your swing is under these conditions. ERNIE ELS: My decision to go to the FT-5, the FT-5 launches the ball a little higher. I started playing the softer ball Callaway makes, the i ball, and that ball launches lower, so I needed something to get the ball up in the air. And it didn't quite work for me with the FT-i driver, the square driver, so I went to the FT-5. Basically I've just been working with Butch, you know, just going through sort of the whole process, the whole swing, from setup to ball position to alignment to everything. You know, we've had a couple of really good days. I was down in Vegas for three solid days and worked on it. Q. Last week? ERNIE ELS: Yeah. To do the work on the range is one thing, then to get out on the course is another thing. Again, I chose one of the toughest courses in the world to try something new, so there's a couple of tough days for me. Q. If the wind stays up would you go back to the lower one to try and keep it underneath this breeze? ERNIE ELS: No, I'm hitting good with this one. Q. Are you happy with what you've done for two days if you take out two holes? ERNIE ELS: Yeah, if I take out two holes I'm leading the tournament. I hit some really -- a lot better golf shots, so I want to keep working. I think I'm on track. Q. How do you feel headed into the weekend? ERNIE ELS: I'm feeling good. I actually feel like I have a chance. End of FastScripts |
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