BELLSOUTH CLASSIC

April 7, 2002

Retief Goosen

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: We'd like to welcome Retief Goosen, winner of the 2002 BellSouth Classic. Retief, why don't you get us started real quick with some opening comments.

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, it was quite an opening round, as well. I really didn't hit any bad shots the first two holes, just my tee shot on the first hole I hit a bit right, but the second hole I hit a very good wedge, came up short, but all of us came up short. The wind really fooled us there. At first I was two ahead, then I was two behind; I was just trying to concentrate on staying focused. I still had 16 holes left to play, and now the pressure is on Phil that he has to keep on playing well and for me to today chase him.

But the chip-in on the fifth hole really got me going again, and from then I started playing a little bit better, hitting a few better iron shots into the greens and made a couple of good putts, as well. So I'm very happy.

4, yeah, it was not a bad shot. I just saw Bob Tway in front of me holing a putt from the back of the green. It was one of those, I just had a pitch perfect, and I flipped it nicely over quite a tight lie, and it's always good luck going in. So it was a great feeling to see it go in.

Q. In the press tent watching the scoreboard, it looked like a wild and crazy tournament with a lot of fluctuations. Did you feel it out there, or was there more of a calm about it than it was to us watching?

RETIEF GOOSEN: No, it was really tough out there today. The wind was probably the strongest it's been the whole week. I was just trying to stay focused.

I was shaky coming down these last few holes. The third shot into 18, I told myself, just hit it right down there on the front right of the green. That's the only place you want to go. It was nice to see that end up over there, and I knew that I had it in the bag then.

Q. With conditions as kind of perilous as they were with the greens rock hard and fast, doesn't it favor a guy like yourself who is it pretty steady -- after you righted yourself, nobody is going to shoot 8-under for 12 holes or anything like that?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Jesper Parnevik, the round of golf he played today, it was like shooting 60, I think. It was an unbelievable round.

I'm very happy the way I finished off, after being two behind. Like I say, I played quite solid coming in. Made a couple of bad mistakes here. Like on 13, the bunker shot, I should have really putted with a sand wedge instead of a lob-wedge.

In general, I'm very happy with the way I played. Then again, I didn't play all that well this week, but I was chipping and putting great. So I knew today was going to be a grinding sort of day, anyway. You've just got to work your way around the course. Nobody was really going to shoot any low scores.

Q. You having not had much success at Augusta; does this give you newfound excitement to go over there?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Definitely. I'm going to have to drive it a little bit better around Augusta. This course, some of these holes, you can play it off-line and get away with, it but very similar to this week. I think I've learned a lot this week. Depends on what the greens are going to be like over there, if it's going to firm or if it rains it might be soft again.

Q. Can you compare the way you felt last year going into the Masters? You had just injured yourself, was it in the third round or fourth round?

RETIEF GOOSEN: It was actually in the third round on Sunday morning with 36 holes. I remember it being very cold and windy and I was hitting balls on the range, and when I hit my second driver, I pulled a muscle in my chest and that really put me out for Augusta, as well, though I did play. But I never really got on the golf course until Wednesday afternoon at Augusta.

So this year I'm going into Augusta little bit better shape than I have done in the past and I'm looking forward to it.

Q. (Inaudible.)

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, I try and win every week when I get out here. Doesn't matter what tournament it is. A win is a win. It didn't matter where you play or what tour you play. It's pretty tough to win everywhere in the world where you play now.

And, yeah, Augusta, I'm going to treat it like another tournament next week. I'm not going to overpractice or something like that. I will have two practice rounds and treat it like every event I play.

Q. (Inaudible.)

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, it's been quite a few wins, and it's been a great ten months or nine months for me. It's something we all work for. I don't really know how to explain it. You know, Lee Westwood was sort of struggling and suddenly his game came alive and he won so many golf tournaments. Now he's playing through a bit of a slump again, so this game is very up-and-down.

Q. Given some of the things you've been through if your life, given a near-death experience with lightning and the U.S. Open experience, are you less likely to get upset about losing three strokes in the first couple of holes than maybe some other people?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, I do. Winning or losing today, I'm going to wake up tomorrow morning and have to do it all over again. Yeah, I take it a little bit easier out there on the golf course now than I used to in the past, and not so hard on myself and just try and enjoy the game a little bit more.

Q. You won on the eve of the British Open last year. Did you find that that took something out of you, because the first round was the round that cost you last year, wasn't it?

RETIEF GOOSEN: The British Open -- yeah, it can, yeah. I'll probably take the day off tomorrow to try and rest a little bit and play on Tuesday and Wednesday. Yeah, you can get a little bit drained the week before a major, but then again, your confidence is a lot better now than it would have been than if I had just had a week off. I think it's a good thing, playing the week before a major.

Q. Could you compare how you were playing at the Open with, say, how you are playing now?

RETIEF GOOSEN: U.S. Open, I know I was hitting the ball a lot better off the tee, and my irons -- although, I putted much better on the weekend of the U.S. Open. I say anybody winning a tournament these days, they are pretty much leading the putting stats that week so it all really comes down to making putts. Keep on making putts, your confidence just seems to go and you go at more flags that you would normally not go at.

Q. How much more confidence, after winning the Johnnie Walker on the same sort of greens, winning here with the same sort of greens, do you get now going to Augusta with the same sort of greens?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, I like hard and fast courses, I suppose. I prefer courses to be in really tough -- rather than just an iron (inaudible) contest. I've won on really tough courses. I like it when it's tough out there and you really have to grind your way around.

Q. The three-shot swing between you and Phil No. 4, was it that big a deal do you think or did it just turn things back to the way they were at the beginning of the round?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, I think it was pretty much we had a long way to go. I know I made a great par on the next hole. I drove it in the bunker then chipped out and made a good sand wedge to about ten feet. But I knew the game was still a long ways from going. I thought he played actually quite nicely. He just didn't make the right putts at the right time. He started holing a few good putts on 15 and 16, but he never really got it going. So in way, I think I was quite a bit lucky.

Q. Do you have any thought on how different your career might have been from the point after the Open had you not won in that playoff? If it makes it easier to win now having been through that experience and survived it?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, I think I would have learned a lot, anyway, if I didn't win the U.S. Open. I think I realized that I could play under this these sort of pressures and conditions. Now when I go out there and even if it's hard and fast, I've got a chance.

Who knows what it would have been like if I didn't win it, but I was the lucky one to win it and it's been good since then.

Q. I doubt there was any connection, but when you started out today as you did, were there ever any flashbacks to the U.S. Open, or do you ever have any flashbacks?

RETIEF GOOSEN: No, not really, no. Like I said, I didn't play bad in the first few holes today. Just the tee shot on the first, missing in the rough on the right but I had two good putts on the first hole and didn't go in the hole. Hit a good wedge on the second and bounced off the lip of the bunker back into the bunker. And then hit a very good bunker shot. I probably just landed it a foot too short of where I needed to land it and rolled it back into the bunker. But I knew it was going to be tough throughout and nobody is going to be running away with it; so I just had to hang in there.

Q. Just one lightning question, I promise, but do you still have any lingering health problems from that?

RETIEF GOOSEN: No, I don't.

Q. Any after effects still?

RETIEF GOOSEN: No, I don't. I had -- straight after the lightning incident, I had a crack in my heartbeat but through exercising and working out in the gym, building up the heart muscle stronger again, that's all gone now. I've lost a little bit of hearing in my left ear, but otherwise, I'm still going. (Laughter.)

Q. You've been winning all over the world for last ten months and there are a lot of American players who have a real hard time getting out of this country that complain about travel. Talk about the difficulties of playing an international schedule like yourself, and are you surprised the Americans don't try to get out of the country more and play internationally?

RETIEF GOOSEN: I think it's a great experience, playing internationally. There's a lot of money outside America, as well, that you can make. Like last week, I just flew back to London for five days and flew back here again Sunday. So it's not all that tough, really. I've done 36-hour trips flying to Hawaii from South Africa ; that is a tough one.

Yeah, I think it probably can be good for your golf, playing a little bit worldwide, different conditions, different atmosphere and different courses. You know, there's a lot to see outside of America, as well.

Q. Some snicker some of the complaints Americans have not wanting to go overseas once or twice a year, yet you guys do it so much and there's a lot of complaining?

RETIEF GOOSEN: I suppose we are used to it. We have been doing it our whole career, traveling back and forth from South Africa or London. It's their decision whether they want to travel. I know it's tough traveling with families. That's probably what keeps me from not going.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: If we could, real quick, let's go over your birdies and bogies. You talked about the first few holes, as far as the club you hit on No. 1.

RETIEF GOOSEN: 3-wood, 6-iron to about 25 feet and 3-putted.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: 2, you say you hit a pitching wedge.

RETIEF GOOSEN: Pitching wedge in the front trap, then left it in the trap and then got it out to about four feet and missed that putt.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Your eagle on No. 4.

RETIEF GOOSEN: Driver, 2-iron just over the back of the green and chipped in from probably 30 yards. Par.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Birdie on 6.

RETIEF GOOSEN: Driver, 3-wood just over the back of the green. Chipped down to about a foot.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Birdie on 12.

RETIEF GOOSEN: Driver, 8-iron to four feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Birdie on 15.

RETIEF GOOSEN: Hit 3-wood, wedge, probably to 15 feet.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: More questions?

Q. The first hole of your first Masters, was it the most nervous you've ever been on a golf course?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, you're always going to be nervous. I think you get nervous but you get nervous to a point. I don't think you get any more nervous. I think it's just how you get used to it. The more you put yourself in pressure situations you learn how to handle it and you start learning a little bit about yourself and I think that's how you get better.

Q. (Inaudible.)

RETIEF GOOSEN: I've hit in the trees I've hit in the bunker --

Q. (Inaudible.)

RETIEF GOOSEN: I this I made 5, if I remember.

Q. What did you tell yourself after those first two holes today, and just what was your mindset from that point?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Well, you know, I just told myself, I've just got to keep going. I'm not doing going to play every hole like this. I've just got to try and hang in there now, focus my way around, trying to make pars, forget about birdies, make pars and if the birdies come, that's a bonus.

Like I say, hit a nice drive on 4 and that sort of settled me down and obviously the chip-in really got me going again. From then on, I was just trying to stay ahead.

Q. (Inaudible) -- say you and Ernie are the two hottest golfers in the world right now. Do you think that's an accurate assessment?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Well, we've had quite a bit of success since January. It's nice that me and are knee are playing well. We've both been working hard at it. It's great to play well. There's a lot of players playing well at the moment. Tiger is playing well and Sergio is playing well. Yeah, winning-wise, Ernie and me have probably won the most tournaments recently but long way to go this year.

Q. (Inaudible.)

RETIEF GOOSEN: I haven't actually spoken to Jos (Vanstiphout) probably for a month. He's going to be at Augusta next week.

Q. Augusta has begun good to foreign golfers; do you guys think about that, the possibilities of another victory by South Africa?

RETIEF GOOSEN: Yeah, there's been quite a few international players that have won on this tour this year and done well. So it's nice to see the guys starting to play well. I'm not really thinking about that there's a lot of international players that have won at Augusta. Tiger has won there a few times now, and Mark O'Meara. It's going to be tough. It's going to be a whole new experience for everybody next week. I think the holes have been changed. Let's hope it's nice weather for a change.

JOEL SCHUCHMANN: Thank you very much and congratulations.

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