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BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 24, 2011

Charl Schwartzel

SURREY, ENGLAND

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Charl, many thanks for joining us. Welcome to the BMW PGA Championship. I'm sure you never tire of being introduced as the Masters Champion. Great to have you here.
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: Thank you.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Give us an update on your game at the moment and how you're playing.
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I'm in pretty good form. I thought I played pretty good at the Match Play last week. Against Luke Donald, he just played slightly better that day.
Game feels good. I played nine holes this morning. Saw the changes on 15, took a bunker out there, which I thought that's good for that hole, and 18 also looks a bit better. So I've always played well around this golf course. Looking forward to the week.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Do you come here with expectations, Charl, as a Major winner?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: You know, every week I pitch up, I expect -- you expect from yourself to play well and see if you can win the tournament. So it's no different for me this week. I think by winning a Major, probably this gives you a little bit more confidence. We've got a strong field this week. So in my mind, like I say, it gives me confidence that I have beaten everyone here before.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Any questions for the Masters Champion?

Q. Did you treat yourself to anything special after winning the Masters, did you buy a new car or something like that?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: No, I did not. No, not yet. We actually moved into a house, into a new house in South Africa, and that was pretty cool.

Q. Martin Kaymer just said that he considered you to be, as he said, one of us, one of The European Tour. Obviously winning the Major, there will be a lot of pressure on you to go and play more in the States, but do you still feel yourself to be a European Tour player?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: Yeah, definitely. This is for me where it started. I've been here almost nine years in Europe. This is where I learned. I really enjoy playing here. So this year, it looks like I'll play pretty much 50/50 on both sides. So as long as I can, I'll try and play that sort of schedule.
I like playing a lot of these events, and you know, I go where I like to play.

Q. Similar sort of question, but as a sort of international, but also as a European Tour Member, what's your sort of take of the moment of the European dominance, the World Rankings? Just something that just goes around in cycles?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I mean, America's been dominant for a long time. And the European golf is so strong, I don't think that's any surprise. I think world golf is getting stronger, and at the end of the day, America is a big place. But the world is slightly bigger.

Q. Is there an underlying sort of --
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: No, I just think golf has been -- especially in Asia and everywhere now, there's so much tournaments everywhere. So if you take the amount of players getting introduced to golf, I don't think there's any surprise.

Q. Do you ever allow yourself a moment of reflection, sort of pinch yourself, not just winning in Augusta but the manner of your victory there?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I think everyone looking from the outside -- I watched it afterwards. It looked pretty spectacular.
While you're doing it, you're so in the moment, that when I made the putt on 18, I made it to win. And everyone said, "You just made four birdies to win." I wasn't even conscious of making four birdies at that stage. I was just trying to win the tournament.
From the outside, I think it was pretty spectacular, just doing it, that you're caught up in the moment so much. But I think it was good to watch, though.

Q. Does the green jacket go everywhere with you?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: Yeah, I travel with it. It goes pretty much everywhere. I didn't get to keep it -- no point in leaving it at home.

Q. Do you put it on every day?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I don't.

Q. Did you for a while?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I did for a while.

Q. Do you wear it going out?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: No.

Q. Will you wear it tonight to the dinner?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: Yes, I will.

Q. Probably been asked this question already, but what's the best piece of advice you've had since you won at Augusta on how to sort of cope with being a Major Champion?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: No, not really, haven't had any sort of that advice. No.

Q. People like Gary Player, Ernie Els, they say anything to you?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: They congratulated me. No, nothing, no advice.

Q. Speaking of Ernie Els, he brought up the idea that you had to go out and win in all sorts of places to be really seen as a top international golfer, you couldn't just stay at home. I suppose in South Africa, that would be obvious because you would have to choose one of the two tours. But do you think that's true of all golfers; that they really need to test themselves everywhere?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I think if you want to call yourself a world golfer, you definitely have to. I think if I was playing for $6 million on my doorstep every week, it would be difficult to leave; you'll keep playing there.
But as a South African, I had to make up my mind and I wanted to come to Europe. This is where I wanted to start. You know, if you don't go to college in America, I think this is the place to start. A lot of guys went to college and they just keep on playing in America. But for me, this was the obvious choice.

Q. What's it been like for the pair of you, with Louis winning the Open last year, and you seeing him enjoying all of that, and then for you to sort of join the club this year.
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: Repeat that?

Q. How has the dynamic between you, your relationship changed in the sense of what you saw him going through and now you sort of joining him?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: It was good to see him win and that just sort of inspired me. Now that I won, I think we both sort of got like a little silent smile; we've got that first Major.
But, you know, I think both of us want to keep going, so we've got that rivalry; it never stops. If you win the one, people -- well, if you haven't won a Major, they say when are you going to win a major. And you win one, they say when are you going to win the next. And then you get to top 10 in the world, they want to know, when are you going to be No. 1. It never stops. And it's the same here. We both won one, and why stop, see if we can't get another one.

Q. A lot of players say when they win a Major, everything changes, their life changes and they get recognized where they golf have you found that, any Major changes?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: Yeah, definitely. You win normal events, it's fantastic. It's nice to win anything.
But the next week, someone will win, and that guy will be the hero for the week. People sort of forget very quickly. And with a Major, it doesn't seem -- no one forgets. And I think that I didn't realise how big it was. Wherever you go, people recognise you, where people used to only recognise you in your golf clothes, but now any casual wear. It's a good problem.

Q. Just looking back on that final Sunday, there was a time when if Tiger went on the charge, there was a sense that other players would go backwards because he was so intimidating. He certainly was on the charge on front nine and noise coming across the course. Did that affect you in any sense?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: It affected me in a positive way.

Q. In a positive way?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: It's something that I always wanted. I enjoyed seeing his name up there, because I wanted to play -- I wanted to play against him when he is starting to play at his best in a Major Championship. Surprisingly, I didn't feel any -- I didn't feel very scared. I was excited to see his name and to go head-to-head down the last nine holes. You know, that was what I felt.

Q. And is there a sense that people talk about his aura is gone, that he doesn't have the aura he once had; is that part of it? Would you have been scared, say, four years ago, if that had been Tiger on the charge?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: Yeah, because four years ago, I don't have the confidence I've got now. So it does go both ways. He was at his best. Now he's coming out of a slump. But then I have so much confidence, and I felt so in control. So that also gave me confidence.
So you can sort of weigh it up.

Q. When you look ahead to the three remaining Majors this year, and you look at the game and what you've done this year, what sort of courses set up best for you to win another Major?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I don't know Congressional very well. I've watched it on TV when Ernie won. That's as far as I know.
I always thought the U.S. Open would be one that I could win. I play well around tough courses, ones that you have to work hard to make pars. So I am looking forward to the U.S. Open.
The British Open, 2003, I didn't do well there. But then in 2002, the course right next door to Royal St. George's, I won (English Open Stroke Play Championships). A bit of a better player now than I was in 2003.

Q. What about the PGA, Atlanta Athletic Club?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I have no idea what it looks like. If you were to ask me one, I would say maybe the U.S. Open would be one I could contend.

Q. Did you have a World Ranking target for this season?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: It was Top-10.

Q. Now?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: Now, well, you're asking me the same question as I said (smiling).
The World Rankings are quite volatile right now. There's so much to grab this week. You go and win and all of a sudden you jump forward three, and then once you're there, No. 1 is only two spots away.
You've got to take it one step at a time. Would I love to be No. 1. I feel that I can be No. 1 in the world. But it's all a progress, all step-by-step.

Q. And did it mean anything yesterday when you saw your name above Tiger's for the first time?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: Did I have a smile (laughter). (Shrugging shoulders).
He's going the other way and I'm going forward. But like I said, it's very volatile at this stage. The points are so close. Anyone plays well, you jump a few spots. I did smile.

Q. Smile, because his name is still significant?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I had more of a smile because I went into the Top-10, because that was one of my goals for a long time. He moved out -- he has not played for a while. You know, the U.S. Open comes, all of a sudden, he can jump ahead of you again.
It would have been nice to go ahead of him when he was 1 to say you took him out that way. But now it's 12, 13 or 14.

Q. Are you involved in the current caddie rotation or shakeup that's going on?
CHARL SCHWARTZEL: No, I'm not. I changed caddies the beginning of the year.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Charl, many thanks for joining us. Good luck this week.

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