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WGC CADILLAC CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 8, 2011Martin KaymerMIAMI, FLORIDA GORDON SIMPSON: Good morning, everyone, nice to see you all here at Doral for the World Golf Championships Cadillac Championship. And with me is Martin Kaymer, the new world No. 1. Martin, are you getting used to hearing that now. MARTIN KAYMER: Since a week, yeah. GORDON SIMPSON: Tell us what you've been doing the last seven days since the Accenture and also if you maybe have received some interesting communications from Germany or elsewhere about being world No. 1. MARTIN KAYMER: Well, I didn't do anything special last week. It was very nice, on Monday evening, my brother and a friend of mine, they flew into Scottsdale to spend a few days with me, and then they told me on Tuesday, we have to go to the airport again. I said, why, are you flying out again and they said no, we have another surprise for you. In the evening we went back to the airport and my dad, he came in, as well. And he just wanted to say congratulate you for being No. 1 in the world. He says next time in Germany who knows if you're still No. 1, so I just wanted to take the opportunity to say congratulations, and, yeah, the next day he flew out again in it Germany. GORDON SIMPSON: He obviously doesn't have any faith in you (laughter). MARTIN KAYMER: He probably has. Would I have done the same probably. That was probably -- not a lot of parents do that and it was nice. It was a 30-hour trip for pretty much 24 hours he was there. GORDON SIMPSON: I'm sure you enjoyed seeing him. MARTIN KAYMER: We played a couple of rounds in Whisper Rock, so it was nice. Had my dad and me against my brother and my friend. We had a good time together. Q. Could we get your father's name and brother's name and the name of your friends? MARTIN KAYMER: My friend, Patrick; my brother, Philip and my dad, Horst. Q. I've already seen it written several places that you have already become a favorite at the Masters this year, and it's not a course that you've done particularly well at the times you've been at before. Is there something about the course that troubles you, or what? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, I've played three times and I've never made it to the weekend, so my goal is to play on Saturday and Sunday this year. But yeah, I struggled a little bit with the draw the last few years, and my coach and me, we are working on it pretty much since two years, and now you can ask, why does it take two years. I'm pretty happy with my swing, I don't want to change it totally, we just want to get there step-by-step. Yeah, the last few months, we worked on it a little bit more in order to play well there and that was probably my biggest advantage -- my biggest disadvantage, that I couldn't hit the draw there. Obviously that makes a big difference. If you fade the ball only, you make the golf course even more difficult. Q. Were you deciding to make those changes because of Augusta, and if so, is that because you put that much importance on it, or what were the reasons? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, it is an important tournament, but we have a lot of other important tournaments during the year. I just needed to add that golf shot to my options, anyways. I just want to add another shape or how do you say -- like another -- if you only fade the ball or hit it straight, you need to draw it at one stage anyways. So I just need to add another golf shot to my -- Q. Arsenal? MARTIN KAYMER: To my what? Arsenal? If you say that, okay. (Laughter). Q. Just to follow up, when you run into a situation where it's better to draw the ball than fade the ball what, do you do? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, I can draw the ball. You know, with the irons it's no problem. I just struggle with the woods a little bit. Obviously that's important in Augusta. But I'll get there. At one stage I will hit draws. Once in awhile I try it, if I have a wide fairway, then I try it. Q. Do you get any phone calls, text messages, letters from anybody famous back home or older players or anybody along those lines after you made it to No. 1? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, I talked to Bernhard Langer last week on Wednesday. He called me. We actually wanted to meet up here. I think he was here yesterday but I came in yesterday late so we couldn't meet up yesterday. A few soccer players, people that you've never heard of, Oliver Bierhoff, he's the manager of the German national team. So a few of those guys. But obviously a lot of friends were texting me. A lot of friends from school that I haven't heard of since a long time. I got a lot of e-mails, text messages from them, and it's nice, because you know, obviously when you're on the road all the time, you cannot keep the contact and once in awhile, you get an e-mail from them, so that was nice. Q. What did Bernhard have to say? MARTIN KAYMER: You know, he just said he's very proud of how he kept everything together; that I have a very good family and people around me who keep everything in the line; that I never really lose my focus on things; I don't lose the ground underneath my feet. He said: That is the most important thing and you do it very well; not a lot of athletes have so many good people around you. He said, I can just give you one bit of advice, keep the circle as small as possible. It was a nice chat. And we talked a little about the Masters that we might play a practice round again. Q. I thought Joachim Löw was the manager of the national team. MARTIN KAYMER: I think he's the coach. Q. A subtle difference, but anyway, back to world No. 1. How does it feel coming into a tournament of this stature a month ahead of the Masters being world No. 1, does that give you an edge in any way or does it make life a little more difficult? MARTIN KAYMER: To be honest there's no difference. Last week, the Honda, I was a little -- with Lee Westwood, I think the second day, he was playing well, or the first day he was playing well. He was Top-10, and then he got a lot of phone calls, oh, you might be No. 2, No. 3 next week going into Doral. And I said to be honest with you, I said, I really don't care. I've been No. 1 in the world at least for seven days (laughter). No one can take it away from me. No one can take it ever away from me, and that was my goal when I started playing golf; that I want to be the No. 1 at one stage, and I've been that. Whatever comes, comes now. It would be nice to be one day longer than No. 1 in the world than Bernhard Langer, then I can say -- I think he was three weeks No. 1. But if it happens, it happens. If not, that's fine, too. But there's no extra pressure or anything. Q. When you're playing on The European Tour, are you based in Germany? MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah. Q. Can you say anything about how much your German mind-set or heritage, if at all, contributes to your being the golfer you are? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, I think the Germans, we are obviously very organized people and I think when you are on the road, it helps if you are organized. It calms you down. I'm a very calm person, especially on the golf course, very patient on the golf course; but we are. If you watch Bernhard Langer, how he is, his level of excitement is pretty level. There's no up and downs, nothing really happens there. I think that obviously helps big time in golf if you have not a lot of emotions. But the biggest thing is the patience. I'm not very patient off the golf course, not at all. But on the golf course, I don't know, as long as you do your very best, you can't do anything more than that. If you make -- if you play one of best rounds of your life, do you it; if you play 80 and you did your best, that's fine, too. There's no need to freak out on the golf course. There's more important things in life than golf, so I just see it as a game, what it is. It's a challenge what you do every day, and I think I just approach it in a very relaxed way. Q. Just to follow up, have you heard anything about Germany's chances of getting The Ryder Cup in 2018? MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, I think they decide it next month, I think in April. GORDON SIMPSON: May 17. MARTIN KAYMER: I think it's a very tight battle with France. I think the French government is so much more involved than the German government. So we might struggle on that side a little bit, but obviously the Langer brothers and me, we are trying to make it as popular as possible, or make golf as popular as possible in Germany to get a little more support, but I think it will be a difficult one. Q. Was there a relief when you became No. 1 after we've asked you for so long? You never showed signs of getting aggravated but it must have been getting worn on you a little bits? MARTIN KAYMER: It's not a relief, it's just a different question now. It's now, how do you feel being No. 1. So what I said, for me, honestly, it doesn't change. I just don't see it as such a big deal as maybe you guys do or other players do. It is a nice thing, but it doesn't change my life. Yes, I'm maybe a little more busy, that's for sure, more work for Johan, my manager, but besides that, nothing is changing. Q. I know it's just a number, but you're talking about how great it would be to hold onto this for more than a week or. So can you relate to the hundreds of weeks that Tiger held that position? MARTIN KAYMER: I don't think that I will make that. I don't believe that. (Laughter) and I cannot compare myself with him. Obviously what he did the last five, six years, or the last ten years, is incredible. And I think there's no one else who can beat that. Especially now, how tight it is up there, how many good players, maybe 15, 20 years ago, there were only 50 or 60 guys who can win a golf tournament. Now everybody who enters a tournament can win. So it can change weekly, the No. 1 in the world I think at the moment. Q. A couple of years ago I think it was, you played a practice round at Augusta with Jack Nicklaus -- MARTIN KAYMER: Gary Player. Q. Was that last year? MARTIN KAYMER: It was my first year in Augusta in 2008. I was supposed to play with Bernhard Langer only, nine holes, but then Gary Player ask Jack Nicklaus came up and they asked if they can join us. (Laughter) Okay. Q. He was very complimentary of your game afterwards. I'm wondering if he gave you any insights into Augusta -- MARTIN KAYMER: Who is that, Jack Nicklaus? Q. Jack. MARTIN KAYMER: Well, I was talking more to Gary Player. I think he was talking more than Jack Nicklaus. It was a very funny chat we had. You know, he was talking about the past ten, 15, 20, 30 years playing Augusta, how it has changed and what is good and what is bad at Augusta these days. It was a very interesting chat. Once in awhile I talk to Gary Player, he called me after the PGA Championship when I won there. I saw him at the Laureus Sports Awards in Abu Dhabi a few months ago. It's always a pleasure to talk to him. He's obviously very into his fitness but it's nice to receive those compliments. Q. Do you know how the rankings work? MARTIN KAYMER: I don't want to know. I think it's too complicated. And I don't know if they want to change something, I heard it on the GOLF CHANNEL with you guys, they talked about it. I think they changed it once already. It would be nice to make it a little more easier for us that we know where we have to finish at certain tournaments to become this and that, yeah. It's a little complicated, but I don't know. Q. A few weeks after the PGA, you said that once it settled in, you had a feeling of, wow, I just won a Major Championship. Curious, last week after it settled in and your family came over, your dad and your brother, was there a moment it settled in and can you compare it to the time when you said, wow, I'm Major Champion? MARTIN KAYMER: Last week when we had dinner, I think on Wednesday night. We were sitting down at a steakhouse in Scottsdale, and a few guys, they came up to me and congratulated me. And then the end of the dinner, they served me a big desert and it says, congratulations, No. 1 in the world. And then, you know, my dad and me, we were just looking at each other in a strange way and then we both thought I think the same thing; how cool it is to be -- there's no one else in the world who is better in the sport than you. It was a very satisfying feeling, and for us at the table, it was a very strange atmosphere. It was very proud. Everybody on this table has achieved something great, but at the end of the day, it was me who played golf, but without those three people there, and obviously with a few others, I wouldn't have achieved that. I cannot compare that moment to the PGA, because the PGA, it was a tournament, and obviously a big tournament, but to be the No. 1 in the world, is so much bigger. It's like a life goal. But that night, that was pretty much where I realized that I'm No. 1 in the world. Q. You were obviously too young to even comprehend when Bernhard was No. 1 in the world. He was the first who ever had that title. Do you think that now, 25 years later, that your being No. 1 might have more of an impact on golf in Germany than when it was something brand new when he got that title? MARTIN KAYMER: I'm sure that because of the time that we are living in now, that I have a bigger chance of making golf more popular in Germany than he did. I think golf could be as big as tennis in Germany if I would have the same success that Bernhard had. That would make a huge difference. Obviously I'm on a very good way to have success and to be successful in the future, but I think my chances to make golf popular in Germany, they are there and they are possible. Q. Your last 12 months has been pretty spectacular. Have you had a chance to look at that and go, won a major, three tournaments in a row, has it all happened quicker than you expected? You said it was a goal but it's happened pretty fast? MARTIN KAYMER: If you had told me 12 months, I would have think you are a little crazy and it would not happen. Of course I would never expect it. But a lot of people ask me, so you must be the happiest person in the world now. And I said, yeah, I'm happy, and I'm satisfied, but there's still something missing. I don't know what I have to do to be really happy and really satisfied with everything I've done. Everything I've achieved is great and nobody would have expected it. I would never expect that. But there's still something missing and I don't know what it is, what I have to win, what I have to do more. There's still something missing. And maybe I will find out in the next 12 months. Q. Just talk about how satisfying it is to be part of this European surge and the fact that European golf might be as strong as it's ever been right now? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, it's nice to be on the top of those four, that's a good thing. I think it's good for golf in the whole world. Obviously it would be fantastic if Tiger comes back and finds back to his form. That would be great to against the greatest player whoever played the game in his top form and see if I can it still compete against him. I don't believe so; if he plays the same way that he played in 2000, I might struggle, but it would be nice to have that challenge. That would be great. But obviously now where we are standing, four Europeans in the top four, I think Rory, if he would have won last week, he could have been No. 5 or something -- that's World Rankings again there, I don't know how that works. It's just amazing what's going on at the moment. Q. When did you feel like you were completely over the foot issue, and did that sort of -- was that sort of at the beginning of this spurt that you've had over the last year or so or are you still over it? MARTIN KAYMER: The injury was 2009 in I think September and it took me only, yeah, two or three months to get over it. But still, sometimes if I have some weird lies, I can still feel it. It's just a pain that I have. I cannot make it worse. So pain is fine. My dad always said, pain is only in your head, it will go away. But sometimes it bothers me still, but it's no, sir especially that I have to -- costs me a golf shot or anything. Q. Given what you said about how many players can win a tournament now, do you think we'll ever see a point again where one player dominates the game like Tiger did? MARTIN KAYMER: I can't see it at the moment. We did see it a few years ago, but at the moment, I can't see it now. The. GORDON SIMPSON: Thanks for joining us today and good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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