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PORTUGAL MASTERSOctober 15, 2008Robert KarlssonVILAMOURA, PORTUGAL RODDY WILLIAMS: Clearly the man in form at the moment, you've won your last two tournaments, is it going to be three in a row this week? ROBERT KARLSSON: Like it to be. RODDY WILLIAMS: You played well last year coming into this tournament, the good form you're in at the moment and memories from last year, you must be fairly confident. ROBERT KARLSSON: Yeah, coming back to a course you've played well at before is nice. Although this year it's a totally different course than last year, where there was not very much rough on it, and at least one new tee on 7. So it's totally changing that hole. But it's a good test. It will be tougher this year than last year. But I think we are good to go. RODDY WILLIAMS: Obviously the three-in-a-row record, Order of Merit, all sorts of things up in the air. ROBERT KARLSSON: Well, the most important thing is to not make it anything special or think just because I'm on top of the leaderboard right now or on top of the Order of Merit, just keep doing what I'm doing. Q. More rough? ROBERT KARLSSON: A lot more rough. Q. How long is it? ROBERT KARLSSON: Hard to say. They are fairly wide fairways, but when you miss it, it's trouble. Lost a number of balls in the rough. It must be five or six inches in places, and then sort of 50, 60 yards out. In some areas it seems to be sort of right of 1, right of 3, there's a few patches where it's really thick. Q. When you are in form do you want the conditions tougher? ROBERT KARLSSON: Yeah, the better you play, the harder you want it. That's pretty much the idea. The problem here at the moment, anyway, the greens are really soft, but I think there's been a bit of rain, and hopefully it can dry out a bit. I know it's going to be a really good test. On a course like this, the guys that play well are not going to miss many fairways anyway, so that's the thing. So you would think, there are still going to be a number of really low scores, but if you miss it, it's going to spread out a little bit more, definitely. Q. Do you think about being the first Swede to win The Order of Merit? ROBERT KARLSSON: Yeah, a little bit, but it's not really a huge thing to be the first Swede -- it would be a huge thing for me it happens, but to be first Swede obviously would be nice. I mean, if it happens, just have to keep going because I think Swedes in general, it has been like -- we have a lot of good players but still probably haven't produced in the big things yet, not the majors, not the Order of Merit, stuff like that, so to be the first one, hopefully it can be me this year. Q. But to beat Harrington after the year he has had? ROBERT KARLSSON: It would be fantastic, but probably played about twice as many as he has, but there's also the thing about the Order of Merit. It's no about your average position. It's about how much you make over the season and your choice of events becomes quite a big part of it. Q. If you were ever more confident in your career, when was it? ROBERT KARLSSON: No. I mean, sort of grows a bit, especially I played really, really well in that long period and probably hit the ball better than I've done now, but at the end of the day, I didn't manage to pull it off when I had a couple of good chances and things just didn't really happen. And I learned from the things that went wrong then, and all of a sudden it was very easy to win those two events, which it wouldn't have been if I had not played that well earlier on in May. Obviously it was huge to win two in a row but to be up there consistently now again, it's been great and it short of shows that I learned a lot and didn't make myself get too disappointed about the things that I missed earlier on in the season. I'm really happy with it. Q. You have been very gracious about Harrington's achievements - what do you think about them? ROBERT KARLSSON: Well, I mean, obviously a long time ago -- a European has won two Majors. Obviously itis playing fantastic and especially good now, because now it's a good new European generation coming into sort of the peak. There's been many guys of people that expected to win majors, Thomas had a number of chances, Lee, Darren, and now Padraig has done it twice in the same year and obviously it's fantastic for European golf. Q. Does it change the way you think? ROBERT KARLSSON: Yeah, obviously, definitely, it changes quite a bit when you see somebody you play with regularly is winning. It's like, yeah, I've beaten him many times, so if he can do it, obviously it opens up for me, as well. It definitely helps. Q. Order of Merit this year, Majors next year? ROBERT KARLSSON: Well, we'll see. Let's take care of this tournament and then we'll see. Obviously you can see how for people it feeds off each other, so it's a good thing. Q. You came close yourself this year? ROBERT KARLSSON: Yeah, Masters and U.S. Open are the ones I was closest. It's not so easy to win it from 50th, but U.S. Open was fantastic to play the way I did, to play on a U.S. Open course and to play with Tiger on Saturday. A few more putts and a couple less mistakes, and I would have been right there. Q. Are you comfortable in that position now? ROBERT KARLSSON: More and more I would say, you feel more comfortable about it. I would say Augusta last year was a little bit of a turning point where suddenly I made so many mistakes and came off like 30th or 35th and I saw that my game was good enough -- I don't know how many shots I threw away. So I looked forward to this time at Augusta, and this time it was a lot better. I could see a number of shots -- but after that I couldn't really see myself get to where Trevor was, I think he was six or seven ahead so, there was a big gap. But you get more and more comfortable with it over time, and obviously now, as well, when you see on the World Ranking, I'm ahead of Ernie and I think I'm ahead of Furyk, as well, a number of those guys who have been regular features and winners on the majors. Obviously that makes it easier, definitely. Q. What were the mistakes you made around Augusta? ROBERT KARLSSON: Around Augusta, you sort of learn the first time, even in the practise rounds, it's a different golf course, and you just cannot play -- you can't learn as much as you need in two or three practise rounds and going there two months early is a waste of time because it's a totally different golf course. So I mean, to try to find and get as much information from someone like Fanny, or you can only get so much, but when you're right there, it's like, I can do this. No, can't be done. I guess that was the way I had to play it this year, and a big difference from the year before. But it's also very different conditions from 2007. 2007 was so difficult with the wind and the cold. I don't remember that much about this year, but fairly difficult this year, as well. But it is a golf course where it's always easy to throw away shots, holes like the par 3s like 6 and 16, they look pretty easy, but it's easy to make bogeys and get yourself in the wrong place, there's no chance. Q. Is there a sense of panic? ROBERT KARLSSON: It was a chance and I had to do it and you can't try to overpower and play overaggressive on that course straightaway. Usually you play two shots at a time. Q. Big difference between the first and second Ryder Cups? ROBERT KARLSSON: Yeah, a big difference, but 2006 was also the first time that I felt like I played really, really well. And this year it felt -- this year I felt, I wasn't surprised that I was on the team. It was just great to be in it. But I wasn't -- I wasn't looking forward to it, like, what's going to happen now and it's going to be huge. Yeah, it's going to be huge but I know what's going to happen more or less, you know, the dinners and pretty much the proceedings and what it's going to feel like on the first tee and all of those sort of things. Q. When did you know you would be playing with Harrington? ROBERT KARLSSON: When we said let's give it a go on the Thursday. Maybe it would be a good pairing and we said, let's give it a go and play a few holes and see what it feels like, so done, okay, let's go. Q. What influence has Seve had on you? ROBERT KARLSSON: Yeah, obviously, it was him, Nicklaus, Watson. Guys when I grew up, there wasn't much majors and stuff on TV live, a little bit, the Masters, but watched a lot of older ones, British Open and stuff like that. Obviously it was Seve and Nicklaus and Watson was probably the three big ones. I would say, I don't know the history that good, but I know that he was probably the one that he actually took the game and the Tour from being a British tour to a European Tour both in The Ryder Cup and in the bigger picture, as well. He was one of the big impacts of that. Hopefully he can get well. Q. Have you treated yourself since the win? ROBERT KARLSSON: No, I haven't, but that was sort of -- sort of, I got an upgrade a little bit on the Mercedes. I don't actually remember which one I bought. I think it was a GLK or a new model, anyway. Now I can go and get a different one but I haven't got it all sorted out yet. It takes quite a bit of time. I got the Mercedes, but the one that I had, or the one that I got, it was actually too small, but I think I can afford it now. Q. you didn't upgrade to a Volvo? ROBERT KARLSSON: No, it's a Mercedes. Q. Have you been to the Casino in Monaco? I've been there once and we went in with Gareth and we had -- with we went out and spent the money. He put the money on roulette, he won and we spent the money in the bar on the way out. Even if you win 200 there, it's not more than two drinks. Q. Playing in The Ryder Cup in the States, your profile is going to be higher - will you play more events next year? ROBERT KARLSSON: And also the two majors. It's easy to pick up the membership and I knew to sign up for 15 events and not really interested in playing 15, especially with The Race to Dubai coming here, as well. So I'm probably looking at playing 10 to 12 next year. Depending on what happens, it could be eight next year, then TPC, and then if the Wachovia tournament survives back in the States; you just can't beat that tournament, it's best in the world, except from the majors, and then one close to Augusta. Q. If you don't join, how many can you play? ROBERT KARLSSON: 12. It costs me three events. But the thing is, if I make enough money to get joint membership, I can get as many as I want. But you do that with the intention to become a member the next year, and I didn't do this year, so I don't really know -- I'm not going to do it again because it might piss them off a bit. Q. How many events do you play each year? ROBERT KARLSSON: I think I had about 53 on the World Rankings and then add on a couple of more, so it would be probable 56 or 57 over the last two years, so it would be 28 probably, 28 or 29. But it's not so easy, there's too many good events around, that's the thing. Yeah, if you can be about 25, that would be good. You would like to remember what the kids look like. Q. Do you get a bonus in any of your contracts for winning the Order of Merit? ROBERT KARLSSON: No. There weren't any thoughts of that in 2005. To be honest, I don't know, it could be in there. I don't really know. I don't know -- the year before. No, the Titleist complex is just being renegotiated right now but that could have been three years, sort of renegotiated a couple of times. Q. When you were 115th you were happy with anything? Very happy with anything. Q. Some players can't get enough golf when they are playing well? ROBERT KARLSSON: Not really. I would say it's not the golf itself. It's more the things that happens around it, the weeks where you win, I still have to learn that on the week after, I have a bit of a tough time. The way I played in The Ryder Cup after the Friday was not pretty. It was not good. I have had a couple of times where I've won and finished second the week directly after it, Deutsche Bank/Quinn Masters, and BMW/Switzerland and both of those weeks I started off very poorly, and there's usually so much stuff going on. And also, it takes a bit out of you, because it is special to win. Because of that long run and the emotions get higher, that's just the way it is. So I just have to learn a bit there. But it's not the golf. The golf you can just keep playing, that's fine. But it's all the stuff around it, and especially this week, this is the first time I'm in the Top-10 in the world and all of a sudden, I've been SKY and more questions for other TV and first time ever I'm making a press conference before the tournament, so it's everything outside. It's more and more important to find how do you deal with that and how much more time do you need to take off and how are you going to prepare for this. It's a new situation, but it's a good one. Q. Are you surprised how tired Harrington is? ROBERT KARLSSON: Some people do. Yeah, I'm not surprised. Also, he's probably a little bit too nice, as well, so he's saying yes to most interviews and stuff like that, so it's a new thing for him, as well. Made that mistake last year and it probably is the same this year. It is a new situation and usually you're very, very happy to get all of the interviews and all of the attention that you can get, so now all of a sudden it's about you have to learn to say no and see which ones are the most important ones that you have to do and you say no to the rest. That's just the way it is. RODDY WILLIAMS: Thank you for saying yes to us. Good luck this week. End of FastScripts |
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