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BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 23, 2008

Robert Karlsson

VIRGINIA WATER, ENGLAND

STEVE TODD: Thanks for coming in, Robert. 3-under par in slightly different conditions today.
ROBERT KARLSSON: Yeah, it was quite different. Yesterday afternoon it was really, really bouncy and a little bit of wind yesterday, so it was quite different from today where there was a lot more moisture on the greens, and a bit easier I would say condition-wise.
STEVE TODD: And just the one mistake on 15, then that sparked a nice run of birdies there for you.
ROBERT KARLSSON: Yeah, I hit two decent shots, like also on 14, I got in a divot on the fairway and hit a sort of poor second shot and missed a 6-footer at the end.
Then I hit three good approach shots on the last three so I had three tap-in birdies which was a nice finish.
STEVE TODD: Why don't you talk us through your birdies and we'll go to some questions.
ROBERT KARLSSON: 4 was 3-wood, 4-iron, chip to two feet.
8 was a 4-iron, 8-iron, six feet.
16 was a 9-iron to a foot.
17 was a sand wedge to two feet.
18 was a lob-wedge to a foot.
6, I hit a second shot in the bunker and didn't get up-and-down.
15, I hit the second shot left of the green, chipped it up to probably five feet and missed it.

Q. On the last, you opted to lay up rather than have a go for the second?
ROBERT KARLSSON: I was in the rough and I was lucky enough to get a decent lie and get it up to there. When I got it up, it was a very good yardage. But that was a little bit more luck to get it that perfect, but I had a decent lie in the rough so I could hit it up there.

Q. Is it rare to find yourself in a divot, or do you find that there's more of them being left; that people are repairing them less? I seem to notice quite a few.
ROBERT KARLSSON: Yeah, around here the one that I was in was an old one that was unfilled and quite short of the fairway, as well.
I would say it's a couple of holes here where you get quite big chunks like down the 7th, because everything rolls down to the same area and 11, there's a lot of tee shots that end up in the same areas, right between those two bunkers but there's not much here.

Q. But in general, not just here, are people not going back as well as they used to?
ROBERT KARLSSON: I wouldn't say it's a big difference. I think certain courses, I wouldn't say it's a big difference, no.

Q. You raised a few eyebrows by not going to PLAYERS but you must feel vindicated straightaway; can you tell us why and is this also a reflection of you continuing to play well?
ROBERT KARLSSON: What happened was after Augusta, I thought I played myself into the players with the amount of World Ranking points I got. But then I took a couple of weeks off, and ten days before the tournament, I saw I was still 48th on the World Ranking. And what I read in all of the books and everything, it said they pick the Top-50 on the Monday of the tournament.
So, what am I going to do? I wasn't playing that week. Am I going to go to America and prepare for playing? And if I don't get in Monday, I'd have to fly back to Italy so didn't feel like very good preparation. I just decided okay, let's do my thing and decided to get a decent preparation in Europe and go to Italy and know what I'm doing instead of not knowing what's going to happen. At the end of the day, it was a good decision.

Q. Shaping up to be three good weeks in a row; are you even thinking about technique at the moment or are you going with the flow?
ROBERT KARLSSON: I have a few things I'm working on but I have a good control of what it is. It's not really a change. It's more like a few checkpoints that I work from.

Q. Just on a similar thing, what was the spark for this rich vein of form you're in?
ROBERT KARLSSON: I was at home, and I played well in Augusta, as well. I would say probably the spark was playing Paul Casey in that match play. It was quite a painful one. No, but I played really well and got knocked out in the first round after shooting 65. It was like, hmm, well, I think I can play so, it was quite nice. That was the first round, before a long time, and also before Christmas that I played really, really well and got a good score together and since then I played pretty good. Didn't play good in New Orleans; Miami played well, but didn't finish it off well, so sort of it built from there.

Q. Yesterday you holed a lot of big putts for birdies, and this looks like a lot of 6-footers today?
ROBERT KARLSSON: I hit a lot of good putts between ten and 20 feet that didn't go in today. There was a good goalkeeper today. I wasn't as happy with the putting today as yesterday. I don't know how they didn't go in.

Q. After your first Ryder Cup experience of 2006, how consciously have you built your schedule to get back there again this year?
ROBERT KARLSSON: I haven't built a schedule at all to do that, but obviously it's at the back of my mind that I want to come back obviously. If you start playing to get into The Ryder Cup, you're digging yourself a big hole. So just focus on what I can do and then we'll see in September what's happening.

Q. Have you spoken to Nick Faldo at all since he's taken over captaincy?
ROBERT KARLSSON: Not about that. He's had that dinner, first of all, at Seve Trophy and I think it was the Match Play, that was it. But it wasn't -- it hasn't been anything -- it's way too early for that.

Q. You were one of the guys who have been down to Weybridge at Nick's suggestion to do the diagnostic thing?
ROBERT KARLSSON: Yeah.

Q. It's about five hours, wasn't it?
ROBERT KARLSSON: I didn't do all of it. I didn't do all of it. I'm working with David Richardson with fitness stuff anyway, so I didn't do a lot of the screenings for flexibility and stuff because we do that all the time anyway. So I did more of a general health thing and I also did cardio.

Q. Did you get anything out of it that you don't know before?
ROBERT KARLSSON: I wouldn't say, no, it was quite good. It was interesting. It's a great opportunity. It's a fantastic opportunity for all of the players and depending on how much you're doing before or not, it's good, some people can go through the whole program.

Q. How nervous were you at The K Club? Was it scary stuff?
ROBERT KARLSSON: It was the most nervous I've been on the golf course, but in a bit of a different way. It's a bit hard to describe it. It's sort of -- you don't really get nervous about the occasional shot, but it's more like it's a big high the whole time and it's nervousness and excitement and the whole atmosphere together in a whole package. It was like your pulse is like 140 the whole week.
But I mean, when I warmed up the first day, Tiger teed off and when I was over the ball, you heard this "oohh" off the first tee, and my caddie is like, "Have look on TV, have a look," and saw Tiger hit his 5-wood straight in the water on the first. I was like, okay, if he can do that, I'll be just fine.

Q. Playing Tiger, what was that experience like?
ROBERT KARLSSON: That was great. That was the first day. But in the singles, just you learn pretty much what you already know. You can't give him the little finger because he will take the whole hand; that's about what you learn. It's always great to play the greatest players in the world, so I mean, I played him probably three or four other occasions in L.A. and Shanghai, so every time, it's great to always -- it's hard to say yes, I learned this, but every time you're there, you get more comfortable about it. Especially in China, we have about 5,000 people and 8,000 cameras. So you can see how professional he was about that. It was fantastic to see.

Q. Even with 13 clubs in his bag?
ROBERT KARLSSON: I wish he would have dropped the putter, though. It would have been a lot better.

Q. Could you chart the way your ambitions in major championships have changed? I would imagine you go with raised expectations.
ROBERT KARLSSON: I mean, expectations, I definitely see now when I finished off really good in a couple of really good tournaments, that I have more of a chance.
My game has improved so much, I can see more of a way around it. But I wouldn't say I raised my expectations, but it feels a lot more comfortable standing on the first tee. Four or five years ago on the U.S. Open course, I was like, wow, I hope it's going to end quickly because it's going to be a lot of walking in heavy grass.

Q. How will you feel when you go to Torrey Pines now?
ROBERT KARLSSON: Well, I've never played the course but I feel like I have a lot more shots in the bag and a lot more tools in the bag, and it's just to find the best way to use them. There's no guarantees there will be a good result of making the cut or anything because it's a very, very difficult course and it will long. But I feel like I have a lot bigger game to take there -- so it's going to be exciting.

Q. Could you have got to where you got any quicker, or do you think it's just a game that takes a hell of a lot of learning?
ROBERT KARLSSON: For some people. It's hard to say. I mean, I worked a lot on mental things to become a lot more relaxed on the golf course. Some of that drive I had early on in the career was very, very important to be able to put in the hours, to be able to keep going over the years, even though there's lots more coming.
But the drive on the golf course very often got a little bit too pushy and tried too hard and there was a big problem with patience on the golf course. So those are the things I've learned a lot more lately and also take a lot more shot to shot and leave it behind and not beat up on myself too badly when I make bogeys and stuff like that.
I guess for some people it takes longer and it depends a bit on what kind of personality you are, I guess.

Q. Just going back to today, having seen the conditions, do you expect the scoring to be a little bit better than it was yesterday?
ROBERT KARLSSON: I would say, with a bit softer greens and with the pins more accessible, you could see 65, 64, 66 out there, I would expect someone doing it.
But you never know. It's still a tricky course and you still have to do it. But I would think the scoring -- I really don't know what it was yesterday but I would think it's going to be a little bit lower today.

Q. Just going back to your younger days, were you guilt I of trying to seek perfection?
ROBERT KARLSSON: Yes, definitely.

Q. Too technical?
ROBERT KARLSSON: Too technical. Wanted to have it too quickly and thought the only way to play a golf round was to hit 14 fairways and 18 greens and 30 putts and get a 66, but that's not the way it works. A bit of a stubborn young man, I think.
STEVE TODD: Thanks a lot for coming in, Robert.

End of FastScripts

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