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BALLANTINE'S CHAMPIONSHIPApril 23, 2009Ernie ElsJEJU ISLAND, SOUTH KOREA MICHAEL GIBBONS: Ernie, thanks for joining us. A good, solid start. Maybe start us off, give us your assessment of the round today. ERNIE ELS: Yeah, thanks. It was a solid round of golf. I didn't have a bogey on the card, which I haven't done for a while. It was a beautiful day out there. Weather-wise, it was beautiful. Total contrast to yesterday. The golf course is really there for the taking. You know, I felt like I left some shots out there, but I feel kind of fresh and my swing felt really good, and looking forward to the rest of the week now. MICHAEL GIBBONS: And given the poor weather forecast we have for the coming days, did that place extra importance of getting on the leaderboard today and making a few birdies? ERNIE ELS: You know, I mean, it did cross my mind a little bit. I was hoping for good weather for the rest of the week, like today, but I don't think we are going to get it, as you say. You know, I don't know what's going to happen. We'll just have to take it day by day. Whatever happens, we are going to have to try and finish the golf tournament. Q. So in your game today, which hole did you feel was the most difficult, and which hole do you think will determine your success at the tournament? ERNIE ELS: Well, we've got 54 left. Depends on the weather conditions. Today, we didn't have any breeze, so some of the short holes were playing quite long. But you know, if you keep the ball in play, you can score on the golf course and I kind of did that. I would like to get my second shots a bit closer. But today, as I say, the golf course was for the taking. There weren't too many difficult ones. Q. Because of the amount of break in Jeju Island, did you feel the amount of break on your round today? ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I took that into consideration. Obviously the whole golf course is built on the side of a mountain, so you take that into consideration. But the designer of the course also did a very good job of counter acting that on the greens. They are a little bit tricky. I had a bit of a difficult time on some of the greens reading them. Q. In your game today, if you could mention one thing that went really well and one thing that didn't go very well. ERNIE ELS: Well, I think I've got to mention on the 10th hole, I made eagle today. I hit a good drive and a 5-iron to about ten feet and made a nice putt there for eagle. So that was the highlight. And I would say the lowlight was the very next hole. I hit a very good shot in for my second shot to about five feet and missed the putt. I feel if I made that putt, things could have been a little different. I could have been maybe top of the leaderboard. Q. So the course setting is a bit difficult this year; the rough is much longer than last year, but if you look at the scores, the scores are actually better than last year. So does that mean that the lengths of the rough do not really determine your play? ERNIE ELS: No, as I say, I think today was a beautiful weather today. There was no wind. You could keep the ball in play pretty easily. But you know, if we had wind like we did yesterday, you'll see the golf course totally change, and I think you'll see that in the coming days with the rain and wind coming. You'll see big changes. If you miss fairways here, you're going to get in trouble. So you'll see the scores change in the next couple of days. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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