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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONAL

August 5, 2009

Martin Kaymer

AKRON, OHIO

SCOTT CROCKETT: Martin, thanks very much for coming in and joining us. Thanks for your patience in waiting, and welcome to the Bridgestone Invitational. Give us your thoughts on the week ahead and looking forward to competing here.
MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, I think it's a great golf course. It fits my game. There are a lot of tee shots left to right. That's my normal shape, a little fade, so I feel really comfortable on this golf course.
I didn't play very well last year, so that's why I'm here, to play better this year.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Have you had a practice round this week? Have you had a couple of rounds?
MARTIN KAYMER: I played Monday about 18, and yesterday and today I took it a little bit easier. I played yesterday the back nine and today just walked the front nine. I played it last year like seven times. I played Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and then the tournament, so I think I know what I can expect tomorrow.
SCOTT CROCKETT: And obviously your form is in exceptional circumstances. You had key wins back to back. You must be please with the way things are going this year.
MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, after the two wins and the British Open, I was a little downhill. My energy, it was gone. It was very good for me to have the last two weeks off. I relaxed a little bit, took it really easy, didn't play a lot of golf. The last four or five days I played a little bit more golf, and I'm back in my form that I was before.

Q. You talked to a couple of us in Ponte Vedra earlier this year, in Jacksonville, at some point along the line hoping to make enough money over here to have cards on both Tours. Was that the plan then and still the plan going ahead?
MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, that was why -- I thought about it early in the season to play on the U.S. Tour maybe more often next year. But I've changed my mind a little bit. I love to come to America. I'm living in Phoenix at the moment, and I just love to be here.
But the way it worked out this year was very, very good, I think. I played all the big events in America, I played a few more at the beginning of the season in America, and I could play in Europe, too. I hope I can do the same next year. That's my plan. Definitely for next year and for 2011, as well, and then we'll see how I feel in 2011, if I want to play more in America of course I will try my very best to get the card then. But for now I feel very good how it is.

Q. Will you have maybe a dozen events by the end of the year?
MARTIN KAYMER: I can only play 12 events in America as a non-member. Unfortunately I can only play this week and next week and then I'm done for America, unfortunately. I would love to play the Frye's Open, which is in Phoenix, since it's next door to my apartment. That would have been great, but maybe next year.

Q. How much time do you actually spend in Phoenix?
MARTIN KAYMER: You mean the whole year?

Q. Yeah.
MARTIN KAYMER: I'll be two and a half months probably. I'll be there always in the winter, from right after the World Cup. I usually go to America straightaway from China until the first event on the European Tour, which is in Abu Dhabi, so that gives me five to six weeks in America, and then during the year another three to four weeks. So yeah, probably two and a half, three months.

Q. Why there?
MARTIN KAYMER: Actually four or five years ago everything started there. Some friends of mine, they have a house there since 20 years. I was complaining about the weather in Germany, that it was so bad I couldn't play golf. I couldn't work on my short game. So they said, yeah, come over to Phoenix and practice here in the winter. And I said, well, you're leaving probably on the 10th, 12th of December and I'm going to be by myself for Christmas, my birthday is on the 28th, and for the year. They said, we're offering, you can come whenever you want. I said, okay, I'll be there.
That was four years ago. So I went there. I went there in 2005, 2006, 2007, all the winters, and I spent all the winters by myself, and after a while you become friends with a lot of guys there. A German guy who went to ASU, he practiced there and played for the team, so through him I've got a lot of friends that play golf. I really like the area there. You can play all year long. It's dry heat, so it's not like Florida where you sweat like crazy. I sweat like crazy last week when I was in Phoenix because it was 115, 120, but that's okay, I just really like the area.

Q. You had the whole house to yourself?
MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah.

Q. Were you 20 years old at the time?
MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, I was 20. My family, they were home having -- were celebrating Christmas, and I was by myself watching The Golf Channel.

Q. Sorry to hear that.
MARTIN KAYMER: That was all right. That's just how it is sometimes. Obviously it helped me a lot to improve my game, so that was the most important.

Q. How cold would it be in Germany at that time of the year?
MARTIN KAYMER: You don't want to know. I mean, Celsius it's got to be minus five, minus 10. So I don't know how much Fahrenheit that is.

Q. Cold.
MARTIN KAYMER: Cold. And when it's snowing it's impossible to work on the short game. You can't. So that was the reason for me to go to Phoenix.

Q. More on a serious note, knowing this course so well, how do you think it's going to help you going into the PGA next week?
MARTIN KAYMER: Well, I think this golf course is unbelievable good preparation for such a big event, what we're going to play next week. This week and next week, unfortunately my only tournaments in America that I can play this year. Unfortunately I can play only two more. But next week is our last major, and I didn't perform very well the last few, or the last three that have been played already. I played well at the British Open, but I was never really up there, like top 20, top 10, and this is my goal for next week. I hope I can get in a good form after this week and hopefully be in contention next weekend.

Q. What is your relationship with Fanny Sunesson?
MARTIN KAYMER: She's coaching me since probably five, almost six years now. When I turned professional she helped me a lot with the -- I mean, what's going on on the Tour, what I have to look after, all the travel things and the golf courses, about the strategy. She helps me always. During the tournament -- we're going to meet up tonight, for example, and speak about the golf course a little bit, which is important here. We have to be a little more careful and all this stuff. And that goes on since, yeah, almost five, six years now.

Q. She's more of a course management type person?
MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, I wouldn't call her a mental coach. That would be too much. But she helps me talking about my thoughts, about the golf courses and about strategy. Mental coach would be a little bit too much.

Q. What would you call Fanny?
MARTIN KAYMER: My coach.

Q. How did that all begin?
MARTIN KAYMER: She got an invitation from the German national team, and she -- she can help us. She didn't get an invitation, we were asking her if she could help us with course management and course strategy. I was still an amateur, and they asked her if she could help us. It started over there.
I really liked her as a person. Such a nice character, nice person to hang out with, have dinner. I just like to be around her.

Q. Does she speak German?
MARTIN KAYMER: She can understand a little bit. She knows Swedish and German. They're kind of similar, so we can speak English.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Do you speak Swedish?
MARTIN KAYMER: I can speak a little bit.

Q. All the important words?
MARTIN KAYMER: The nice words, yes.

Q. The Race to Dubai reportedly has been cut 25 percent. Just want to get your take.
MARTIN KAYMER: I read that yesterday, too. You want my comment on this?

Q. Yeah, what did you think?
MARTIN KAYMER: Well, I think -- okay, we've got less money now, but I hope that it doesn't affect the players, that they don't want to come anymore. I am not there for the money. You know, I think it's a new era starting there, so I think everybody should enjoy to be there, and hopefully we can be there the next few years.
At Dubai, I know that everybody, they are struggling now, but I hope that they can come back and that we can go more often to Dubai and continue with the Race to Dubai. I heard a lot of rumors that it won't be -- that the Race to Dubai is not extending next year or two years anymore, so I don't hope so, but I hope it doesn't have any effect on the players that don't want to come.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Martin, thanks for that. Good luck this week.

End of FastScripts

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