|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
VOLVO MASTERSOctober 29, 2008Robert KarlssonSAN ROQUE, SPAIN MICHAEL GIBBONS: Thank you for joining us. Obviously a big week for you, a chance to win the Order of Merit and become the first Swedish player to do so. Maybe give us your thoughts on that. ROBERT KARLSSON: I tried to make this as much as possible a separate week. I mean, it's a big event this, one, so my focus is going to be to do my best this week and I will see on Sunday if it's going to be enough. If I start playing match play against Padraig and Westwood, I think we are going to put ourselves in a lot of trouble. So I'm pretty sure they are going to go out and try to do their best, and I mean, I think need to finish second or something like that, so I can't play on safety or anything like that. This is a separate event and I'll do my stuff this week. MICHAEL GIBBONS: And the form continuing to be strong? ROBERT KARLSSON: It's been all right. MICHAEL GIBBONS: The preparations this week, everybody is saying it's very tough out there conditions-wise, etc. ROBERT KARLSSON: It's a bit more rough than usual, the greens are a bit quick, just hope it won't be too windy but I think it will be. That's what they said, the forecast, it's going to be very difficult as usual when we play here. But we know what it's like to play here, it's not the first time. Q. How serious is the Order of Merit taken? ROBERT KARLSSON: The Order of Merit is a bit of a funny thing because it's so much depending on how many tournaments you're playing. Padraig, I don't know how many he's played, maybe 12, but I've played 23 or something like that, so it's a bit unfair. It's like Manchester United playing Arsenal, and one has to play 12 matches and the other 22; it's not really a fair judgment of the season I think. But if I win it, I'm not going to complain, put it that way. Q. What would you have done with Justin, with him being first out on his own, what would you have done? ROBERT KARLSSON: Well, I think it's the only -- it should be pretty clear in the rules, what it says. I'm not aware of what the -- it's a bit an unusual situation, as well, when you have one guy who has not qualified who is actually going to play the event. But I think it's going to be all his events except that tomorrow might be a cool warmup for him but apart from that, it will be good for him. I think he will be playing on perfect greens. If it were me, I wouldn't mind actually. Q. Lee was in here a moment ago, and he said two nice things about you and your recent success; one was that you had had a fantastic -- I think he used excellent putting this year, and the second was that from 100 yards in, he said he thought that your pitching from 100 yards in was fantastic. Would you agree with both of those perceptions? ROBERT KARLSSON: Yeah, I must say. (Laughter) That would be a bit odd otherwise, if you were leading the Order of Merit and you were putting bad, it sounds a bit bad. Definitely I think all parts of the game has been good, but if you're going to win tournaments and be up in the top, you need to putt well and you need to do well from 100 yards and in, because that's where you get your scores. So it's probably quite a fair comment. Q. It seems a very fair assessment? ROBERT KARLSSON: Yeah, and I met Dave Pelz and that's how the game works apparently. He's got all the stats. If you pitch and chip well, usually putt well, because you're going to leave yourself easy putts. And if you pitch well, usually make a high percentage of pars when you're in trouble off the tee, and you can also make a lot of birdies from par 5s. So that's sort of how you build your scores, both on par 5s and keep them together when you're playing badly. So I mean, it's quite a simple assessment. That's pretty much how the game works. Especially those shots between 30 and 100 yards is where you either keep your score together or make birdies from. Q. If he had not said that, would you have said, asked, why you played so well this year, would you have cited those two? ROBERT KARLSSON: Not the putting, I wouldn't. Not the putting as a separate thing, no. But definitely when I've had good weeks, like Portugal was a good putting week, definitely Dunhill was a good putting week. So my top results always comes together with a good putting week, but I think that's pretty much with every player sort of sees a difference. Usually it's not a huge difference on how you play tee-to-green usually but the really tough weeks are always the good putter weeks. Q. Have you had a chance to sort of gauge what reaction has been like back in Sweden, and is there an expectation to win this week? ROBERT KARLSSON: I was in Sweden last week so I know what it feels like, but -- Q. Do you feel the weight of expectations? ROBERT KARLSSON: Not really, not from there. It's such a funny situation, as well. If Padraig wins and I finish third, I'm not going to be very disappointed, am I. I've had a great week, a great year, but yes, he beat me. If he finishes 40th, and I finish 60th; it's such a funny situation. I'm going to assess this week as any other week, even though I mean obviously it's more attention to it and I'm going to do the best I can to stay away from all of those sort of things. It's what I'm going to be reminded I guess about two hours every day from press and stuff like that. But my focus is to play this tournament as a separate thing, and if I play well, it's going to be harder for him to beat me. But at the end of the day, if Padraig wins, it's going to take a fantastic week out of me, because this is a hard golf course with a really good field, and if he wins, I need to finish second. So I mean, it's a tough task at hand. Q. You used to be viewed as a bit of a streaky player; is that fair, you did used to be? ROBERT KARLSSON: Used to be. Q. This transformation into Mr. Consistent, what do you put it down to? ROBERT KARLSSON: Thanks for the compliment. It has been a lot because I worked on my attitude on and off the golf course. I'm not wasting a lot of energy on bad shots and I'm not wait wasting a lot of energies on bad rounds. My toughest situation this year was obviously that 74 or whatever it was on the BMW PGA in the last round, and I came back the week after and finished second in Wales. And that was such a big proof for me that I can handle pretty much any situation now, and that is the week that I am the most proud of in probably my career actually, so play as well as I did the week after I've had a really bad last round and made a mess of it. Q. Can you just say what wasting energy, what would you have done in the old days? ROBERT KARLSSON: I would have been pissed off, I would have wasted two days of being really, really angry and got to the Welsh tournament and felt very, very disappointed. I would not have been able to leave that week behind, and now it's like, okay, it's a new week now, what happened, what happened, I'm going to learn from this. I had that sort of focus the whole year, has been, okay, either I play well and I learn from that, or I don't play well and I have to learn from that. Whatever happens I'm going to learn, and as long as I take that focus with me, at the end of the day, no matter what happens, I have to become a stronger person and a stronger player. So then I can never lose. I can only grow and I can only get better. As long as I have that focus within me, and then no round no matter what happens, if it's 80 or 60 is not going to be a waste. But it would have been any all the time judged myself from the results. That's where I was very, very inconsistent, because when I had a good day, I was really, really upbeat, and when I had a bad day, I beat myself up pretty badly. So that's just the way it was. It's tough to play well when there's so much up-and-down and your temper and you judge yourself so much from the results. Q. Overall will you be keeping an eye on the other three Order of Merit contenders over the week? ROBERT KARLSSON: I don't think I need to. I think other people will do that for me. Q. If you were paired with Padraig, hypothetical situation on Sunday, does it become a match-play situation? ROBERT KARLSSON: Do you want an honest answer? Well, it's going to be difficult not to be in a match-play situation, but also, you have to remember around this golf course, it can happen a lot, big swings. It's definitely if it's difficult weather. So I mean, this is definitely going to be one of the most challenging weeks I've ever played, but I'm looking forward to it. As I said, no matter where I finish this week, I'm going to become a better player from it. So I'm looking forward to it. Q. Padraig describes you as a friends. Have you guys been close socially over the years? ROBERT KARLSSON: Padraig? We've played quite a bit together, that's for sure, but not really socially. It has become more and more. Also when you grow up and you have kids of similar ages -- it's really bad when you don't remember your friends's wife name, isn't it? Q. Caroline. ROBERT KARLSSON: She's been around so much nowadays. (Laughter). Q. Do you still remember your own wife? ROBERT KARLSSON: No, I do remember. (Laughter) Caroline, she's great, when she's around as well. She's been dreaming about me, as well, which is a bad sign. She actually dreamt before the US PGA that it was going to be a playoff in the US PGA between me and Padraig, and she came up to me and said on the first: I don't know if this is true or not, I can't believe this, you were in a playoff and you were going to win and now you're leading the PGA. And then he won at the end. So she's a scary person. (Laughter). Q. Just from what you were saying before about your transformation, it sounds like you almost change your personality. How do you actually go about doing that to yourself? ROBERT KARLSSON: Well, you don't really change your personality, but when I change the focus, I understood what I was doing and judging myself on the results, was very, very tough on myself and on people around me and family lie, and my kids as well. So it was like, I can't keep doing this, because I will drive myself mad. And I started to work with AnnChristine Lundstrom, been working with him and since then the focus has been on changing sort of my reactions and actions on the golf course and we have just been working on that over a number of years and all of a sudden, I mean, I don't like changing penalty when it's that, but definitely I have become a lot more focused on the things that I can control and not really care about the outcome more than sort of something that I have to learn from, not judge as much from the outcomes as I did before. Q. Any mantras you repeat to yourself or anything like that? ROBERT KARLSSON: No. I'm a very firm believer that I'm the one in charge of my own choices and if I hit a bad shot, I just sort of see -- before, I would have reacted immediately and slapped the club in the bag or shown that I was disappointed with the shot. And now, trying to find that little space of time, when the ball lands in the water until I slam the club and say, okay, what is actually to see that I have a choice here, am I going to do it or not; is it going to make any difference with the round if I throw this golf club on the bag. And just if you can stop yourself right there, then you can get better and better and better at it and all of a sudden it's no big thing, as well. Q. Do you think that the victory here or Order of Merit would make you a bit of a celebrity in Sweden? ROBERT KARLSSON: It's actually starting a little bit already. I was back in Sweden last week, and I've never had a week like that in Sweden before, especially my hometown, because I'm helping them a little bit with the golf course, so I was there to do some re-design with it. But I mean, the phone was going constantly, even back at my parents, my dad's house and stuff like that. So gave him some directions on how to handle it, so it's changed a little bit, definitely. But it's good fun, though. Q. If it changes after this week? ROBERT KARLSSON: Well, it's going to be different. I mean, I just have to find the strength and you have to deal with it. My caddie just said early on in the week, "Don't complain. Four years ago, we had problems to get an extra dozen golf balls. So don't complain if there's too many press conferences." You've got to putt things into perspective. Q. In Sweden, where do you rank along sign Annika Sorenstam? ROBERT KARLSSON: Well, I don't think we're in the same neighborhood yet. She's been the best golfer in the world for a long, long time. Unfortunately she's stopping I guess playing this year. But I would say I'm probably the third-best Swede ever, if you look on the World Rankings, and she's the best woman ever if you include all the other nations, so I think I have quite a bit to go yet. I think Jesper is still the biggest male golfer in Sweden and Henrik has been higher than I have been in the World Rankings, so I think I am probably third. Jesper, he's also lived a celebrity life and made more of it, sort of outside the golf course. Probably Henrik and I are a bit more sort of, I would say, when you're not really that interested in the celebrity stuff, but yes per has been hanging around. He's also come from a celebrity family; his dad is a big comedian. So he was probably more known even when he was not a very good player, so a big difference. And Annika, she has her own tournament and spent a lot of time in America, and so for the Swedish public, they probably see her once a week every year or that sort of thing, but celebrity status, she would be one of the biggest ones ever in Sweden, I would think. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|