BUICK CLASSIC

June 18, 2003

Ernie Els

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thanks for joining us, two-time past champion of the Buick Classic. If we could start with some opening comments about coming back to Westchester.

ERNIE ELS: It's always good to be back here, an old traditional, old-fashioned golf course. It's always nice to play here. I look forward to it before or after the U.S. Open.

Your preparation going into the U.S. Open, it's so that you are trying to get your game into good form. When this tournament is before the U.S. Open, it's wonderful, because you go from a very tough golf course, like here at Westchester, and going to the U.S. Open helps you be prepared. After the U.S. Open, you know you've played it already and now you come to this golf course. It's a nice time slot, either before or after the Open. I don't see any problems with that.

The design of the course is a great, old traditional design. The golf course obviously plays totally different this week. It's very wet. The rough is probably the highest I've ever seen in my life, even worse than Bethpage, I think, last year. (Laughter.) If you go into the rough, you're going to have a serious problem.

When the golf course is wet, you're going to see good golf scores. I think the guys will shoot well this week. The greens are soft and a little slower than normal.

Q. Jim Furyk was in here before saying he wasn't sure if he's going to be able to concentrate this week. I know you won here the week after you won at Congressional; were you able to just kind of come out of that haze and play well? How did that work?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I mean, after a big win like that, you can either go one way or the other way. Really, just let the steam come off you and take it easy, or just go out there and play.

I really enjoy coming here. I only got here on Wednesday morning. I went to Orlando after the U.S. Open at Congressional and I wanted to get out there and play again. As it turned out, I had a good week and won again. Definitely, depends how the guy feels; it might feel easier or he might just go out there and grind well again.

Q. Did you expect to play well?

ERNIE ELS: Yes, I felt after all the hard work I put into the U.S. Open -- I had missed the cut before the U.S. Open. Doing all that work and then having a great week at Congressional, I felt why not just keep it going.

Q. Tiger spent the last few weeks trying to parry questions about whether he is in a slump; I wonder if you think that because he's won so much that he needs to reinvent ways to challenge himself, now that he's at a different plane than most people?

ERNIE ELS: I think you guys have put him there in your own words and your own minds. When you play this game, the way we play it as professionals, you see a guy at 27 years old with eight majors and 30 -- I don't know how many events he's won on the PGA TOUR -- so to me it's just diabolical what you guys write -- sometimes to try to knock him off his pedestal or whatever you're trying to do. I think it's crazy what you guys are doing, to be honest.

To us as players, we laugh at it and I think Tiger should laugh at it, because it's crazy, as I said. The guy plays seven events, wins three, doesn't finish outside of the Top-25 and he's in a slump; I mean, it's ridiculous.

As I say, he's won eight majors and he's 27 years old. I mean, if I had his record, I would not be out here. I would be out of here. (Laughter.) It's ridiculous. It's not even -- I cannot take it serious.

Q. Have you ever felt that you were in a slump at any time in your career?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I think in '98, I had a back problem and then I tried to play through it and it didn't work. I really didn't have a good '98.

But, you know, I didn't win a golf tournament on this tour in 2000, but I had a good year, I felt. I haven't been in a bad one -- touch wood. (Laughing).

Yeah, you go up and down. After the start I had, I'm also getting questions, what's wrong, some people are trying to blame my wrist but I'm physically 100%. You just do what you think that you have to do; that's work on your game, get better on your weaknesses and just wait for the time to come.

As I said to the guys last week, I feel I'm a lot closer. But, yeah, you go through ups and downs. You've just got to get yourself out of those downs.

Q. So by PGA pro standards, as long as he's reasonably healthy and keeping the ball in play and feels comfortable over putts, that's not really a slump; whether you're winning or not, as long as you feel comfortable or not, you're not in a slump, defining "a slump" in PGA terms?

ERNIE ELS: I think a slump is when you miss cuts, and depending on your level of play -- even No. 2 in the world, so if I don't finish in the Top-10 reasonably enough times, I feel I'm not doing what I should be doing.

I come out each and every week feeling like I can win a golf tournament. That's my focus, my plan, what I focus on. When I don't do that, I at least want to have a Top-10. I feel that's a good week.

And then you learn from if you finish fifth like I did last week, where did I go wrong, how can I get better. And last week, I didn't get off to good starts and I had problems here and there with the driver, so that's what I've got to work on this week and see if I can get better. I think that's what you've got to keep working on.

Just being healthy and just making the cut, that's not going to do it for me, either. It depends on what your level is, where you want to go to. And sometimes, if I can come back to Tiger, your level and your minds, he's got to win every week, but that's physically impossible. He's done what he can do as a human being. It just depends on your own level of where you want to go with your career.

Q. You talked at Mercedes, there was a lot of questioning about, was the gap closing, you had a pretty good fall, winter and then you obviously won Mercedes and Sony. Do you still believe that the gap is, in fact, closing and are the reasons just -- I think Tiger is alluding that the gap is closing as well, not just because of how good players are out here or how strong they are but there's other factors involved as well; would you agree with that, that the gap is, in fact, closing on him?

ERNIE ELS: Well, you know, I would say yes. Partially because, what you said, Tiger is not maybe playing at the level he did when he was winning all those majors. That's one reason.

Another reason is guys like myself, my level, guys like Jim Furyk, Vijay, David Toms, Nick Price, a lot of the guys are playing at a very good level of golf and winning golf tournaments. Those are the guys that have been around for a long time now. We have been around maybe ten years now. We are at the stage of our careers where we're trying to break through, win majors, win more golf tournaments. I think that's happened this year.

And another factor is that Tiger has maybe not been, especially the last month or so, he has not been quite on top of his game. So those two factors work together; you close the gap. But when he plays like he can play, like he did at the start of the year, like at Bay Hill and so forth, you know, it's going to be very hard to beat.

But coming back to us, I think our group of players are playing very good golf this year.

Q. So is it sort of like Jordan when he was in his prime, when other players would match up against him, they would say, gee, I hope he has that off night, but if he's totally on, you know you just can't stop him?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I would like to believe that even if he's on, I've still got a chance. (Laughter.) You've got to think like that. Obviously when Tiger is on, he's as tough as they come, as they have ever been out here. It's hard to compare him to other people in other sports. I think Jordan definitely was outstanding, obviously. I would say Tiger, the way he played in 2000, that was unbelievable stuff there. Who knows if he's going to play like that again. But when he plays like that, he's probably almost unstoppable.

But you've got to think competing against him and the rest of the PGA TOUR, whenever they play with their good stuff, you still want to feel like you're in there with a chance.

Q. Are there reasons that you can see that maybe Tiger has been slightly off, dating back to the Masters? I know everybody talks about a slump but it's hard to argue he's in a slump when he's won three tournaments already this year; can you put your finger at all on maybe what has been a little bit different for him?

ERNIE ELS: As I say, it's hard to explain it. I wish Tiger was sitting here, you can ask him that question. It's difficult for me to comment on Tiger Woods and on his career, on the way he's playing right now. I played with him last week, I think both of us were quite conservative the first day, even the first few days. I was thinking of playing my U.S. Open type golf, and that was to try to hit it on the fairway, hit it on the green and take my chances. Maybe it wasn't quite the right approach because the golf course definitely played very easy the first few days and maybe that was a little too conservative.

But the field did drop back over the weekend, and I think if I kept my approach and if I could have got off to better starts on Saturday and Sunday, I could have had a different tournament.

I think Tiger did miss quite a few fairways the first day, and it's difficult to be aggressive from there. He shot at even par. He shot 4-under the second round. I thought he played very well. He did get the putter rolling again.

You know, I don't know what happened over the weekend for him but the golf course definitely got a little bit tougher and probably he wasn't hitting as many fairways as he wanted to. Maybe he couldn't be as aggressive as he wanted to. Again, the golf course got firmer; the less fairways you hit, the less birdie chances you're going to have. That's basically what -- I think probably what happened. That is probably what happened at the Masters; he's probably not hitting as many fairways.

Q. So you don't buy that it isn't any kind of psychological --

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I just commented moments ago, I think you guys have been pretty harsh on him. I think the print media and maybe the television media -- I think obviously, he's a victim of his own cause, in a way; isn't he. Winning eight majors at 27 years old and winning 40 times on the PGA TOUR is incredible in anybody's book. So the slightest little -- I don't even want to say -- kink is just going to be big, big news.

I've been reading some of the articles, and I must say, it's really not what you guys think it is. I think it's not even a story in my book. He hasn't finished out of the Top-20 all year and he's won three times, so that's not a bad year.

Q. Obviously you've won three majors. There was some discussion after Olympia Fields that it wasn't a good test, and that maybe because you didn't, obviously, as you said didn't play your best the first two days or didn't go at it the right way, the No. 1 player in the world who will remain nameless didn't play his best, even Kenny Perry came in very hot, didn't play his best until the end and that's the reason why Furyk won. Can you comment on how hard it is to win a major, and what the accomplishment means no matter how you get there?

ERNIE ELS: Absolutely. To win a major, you've got to -- to me, the biggest thing, it's a mental battle. It's a struggle to keep yourself calm. Let's face it, from Thursday till Sunday, you have four days. You have to keep yourself calm, you have to keep yourself focused. You have to go to sleep on the lead, you have to wake from the lead, you go to breakfast, you have to warm up, it's such a mental struggle in a lot of ways, and especially U.S. Opens, because it's the toughest test. I think you're right. I think it was a very fair test this time, to say the least, and especially the first couple of days. I think the course with the conditions we had, which was soft -- the golf course did start showing it's teeth by the weekend, especially Sunday. So I think it was a good test.

If the weather was the same as it was on Sunday all week, I think 4-under would have been a great score, even with rough not as heavy as it used to be. So I think the venue was great.

The way Jim played, I mean, he shot 2-over on the front nine. I remember I was on the putting green hitting putts when they were coming through the first nine and I saw the board, he was 2-over, the other guy that was playing with him was 2-over and he didn't do much. I saw he finished at 67, and so he must have had a great back nine; so he just kept it going.

He showed his mental toughness. He basically led the tournament from the second day onwards. To do that in one major, is incredible. I'm still on a high from my British Open last year, and to come back to Tiger, to do it like he did it for I don't know how many -- four years, to have a major in those four years, is amazing.

You just cannot understand how tough it is with the pressure and the questions after every round. And if you look at or read any newspaper, there's always -- you guys need to write stories, and if you read it, there's doubt always that creeps in. So you've got to always battle over that, too. It's pretty difficult.

Q. You mentioned at the outset your fondness for this course, could you be a little more specific, especially 12, 11 and 8?

ERNIE ELS: Those are some of the toughest par 4s we play all year on TOUR.

What makes this golf course special is basically not one water hazard. The golf courses we play on TOUR nowadays, TPC courses, it's water hazards and bunkers.

What sets this golf course apart is there's not too many fairway bunkers on this golf course. There's basically not one straight hole on this golf course. That means you've got to shape your tee shots most of the time. The greens normally are very firm, very fast and very undulating; they have got a lot of slope to them. You've got to be very precise with your iron shots.

It's very much like a major setup. Maybe not as long yardage-wise but you really have to shape your shots around here and putt very well if you want to win.

Q. Because of the rain today, and it looks like it may keep up to some degree, what do you think is going to be the right number, close to the right number?

ERNIE ELS: Well, when it's soft like this, it gives you a much better chance to be aggressive. I played the back nine today and I said to Ricci, even if I leave myself longer shots into the greens this year, I really need to put it in the fairway. That's my game plan, put it in the fairway and go in with longer clubs. I feel my putter is working a lot better, so I feel I have a much better chance that way.

If you go in the rough, you could lose your ball, it's so thick.

Q. Is the rough this year tougher than it ever has been here?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah.

Q. Is it tougher than last week?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah. I mean, this is almost like Bethpage was last year. It's really high. If you go in there this year, you can't get it to the green. It's really high. It's almost twice as long as last week.

Q. When you won your first major, how did the euphoria last, and how long was it till you had a bad day after that?

ERNIE ELS: About five years. (Laughter.)

It took a while. I tell you, '94 was great. I had a great time. I won six times after that. That year, I enjoyed it.

Q. What advice would you give to kids who want to pursue golf as a career?

ERNIE ELS: As a career? Wow. I think when you start the game, you don't really want to think about it as a career. You must view it as fun and love of the sport and learn the rules of the game. There are so many rules that we have to follow in this game.

If you still want to pursue it when you get old and stronger, probably take lessons from a pro. And watch television, find somebody that you like to see play golf, and get a role model and kind of follow your role model.

But basically, when you start playing this game, I don't think you want to do it for the money. I think you need to do it for the love of the game.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thank you very much.

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