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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONALAugust 2, 2011Martin KaymerAKRON, OHIO JOEL SCHUCHMANN: At this time we'd like to welcome Martin Kaymer to the interview room. You have one more week to enjoy the title of PGA Champion, and I'm sure you'd like to get off to a good start this week playing in your fourth Bridgestone Invitational here at the World Golf Championships. Maybe just a few opening comments about coming back to Firestone, and obviously a few comments about defending your title next week in Atlanta. MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, it's amazing. It has been a year already, obviously. But it's nice to be back here. I think this is one of the best golf courses we play all year. The conditions here are even better than last year, I think. The greens are very fast, very American-like, I would say. And obviously this is always a fantastic preparation for the PGA Championships. The golf course here really suits my eye. You can hit a lot of cuts from the tee boxes. I always struggled here when I came here with my putting, but this week I feel a little bit better. I feel good about my game. Obviously next week is a big week for me to defend my first major, and it will be interesting. But I've been there, I think, three months ago. I played that golf course, and it's very difficult, very long and very tight, and I think they have three different kind of grasses. They have Bermudagrass as rough, and then I think bentgrass on the fairways, and kind of a mix on the greens. So it will be very interesting. I think that there won't be a lot of low scores. JOEL SCHUCHMANN: You tied for 22nd here last year. When you left Akron last year on Sunday, how did you feel about your form heading into the PGA Championship? MARTIN KAYMER: I felt okay. I didn't feel great because my putting was not so good. And obviously the majors, it's a lot about short game, because you will miss fairways, you will miss greens. It's about grinding it out and saving those shots and scores. And I was struggling with my putting, but then when I came to the PGA last year, I felt so confident straightaway on that golf course because I said many times that that golf course was, I think, a British Open golf course in America, and that is why I liked it straightaway and my putting was fantastic all week. It's one of those things, it happens or it doesn't happen. Last year worked out great. I don't know, I'm feeling okay about my game, which is always a little -- it can become really good all of a sudden or it can be okay. But it's not going to be really bad, that's for sure. Q. We were kind of chatting about this last night at the airport. I was wondering if you could sort of go back and tell us about the mayhem of that little event you had with Schuco and the reaction you got and the armed policemen and what a famous guy you are in Germany now? MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, the event started on Saturday already, Saturday was a little playoff, Bubba Watson and Dustin Johnson against me and a young, upcoming German golf professional, and I think they were expecting around 5,000 people on Saturday, but there were nearly 10,000 already there. Yeah, I had four bodyguards at the beginning. And then when I played, I had only two left. And when I finished, we were completed again with four because there were so many people I just couldn't move, and so many kids and young people, as well, between 20 and 35. And I've never seen that before in Germany. Usually they are over 45, 50 years old. But now golf has become so popular, especially in my area, and then on Sunday we were, I think, 14 or 16 professionals playing against kind of like each other but with some amateurs together, and that place was -- it was packed. You know, it was so many people, and the bodyguards were back to work, as well. I think it was great for German golf. It's getting more and more -- I get recognized more and more on the street, and yeah, I'm really happy, you know. It's a very exciting time for us in Germany at the moment. Q. How does that make you feel that in your own way you're responsible for some of those younger guys being out there? MARTIN KAYMER: A lot of people ask me if I feel the pressure of being the golf star there, like what Boris Becker was in tennis a few years ago, and I'm okay with that. I'm just playing golf. I'm just trying to bring golf closer to the German culture or to the German people because it is a great sport and it teaches you a lot of values in life. And I think it made me into the person that I am today, and I'm very glad that I picked up golf at the age of 10. I think it can help a lot of teenagers in Germany, as well. Q. In the aftermath of winning at Whistling Straits, how would you compare the pressure of living up to re-set expectations versus the confidence gained by having won a major already? MARTIN KAYMER: What? Q. Which was greater - the pressure of new expectation having been a major champion or the confidence that came with having won a major? MARTIN KAYMER: I think the confidence. The confidence that you gain from winning a major, I never had that before, even when I played well. Obviously you can't really compare it, but when I played on the Challenge Tour, I won a lot of tournaments -- I was dominating that Tour. It didn't matter where we played, didn't matter when we played, I was always playing to win, and I finished always in the top three in all the tournaments I played. But when you win a major, that is world class. There is no one who could beat you in one of the biggest tournaments you play all year, and that gives you so much confidence and so much satisfaction that you put into all the years for how much work you put into it, and you sacrifice a lot of things, as well. That is the payback, what you get. I was never that satisfied with myself on the golf course. Q. You're certainly used to an unrelenting focus in Germany, in your homeland. Given the unrelenting focus on Woods, what do you think are reasonable expectations for him this week? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, obviously he doesn't -- I think he doesn't have to worry about the cut, but I really hope that he will play well. We need him. We really need him. He's the best player who ever played that game, and obviously he's struggling a little bit at the moment, but I just hope that he can go back to basics and show us how great of a golf player he is. You know, I had only the chance to play with him a couple times, in Dubai and THE PLAYERS Championship but he played only nine holes. But I really hope that he will win soon because we need that again. I think the PGA TOUR needs that, as well, to get golf going in the world. Obviously what Rory did at the U.S. Open was huge already. But Tiger, he has been so successful over the years, I don't know, seven, eight years he was No. 1 in the world, and now he's in the mid 20s. It will be great if he comes back and shows us all or proves that he's the best player who ever played that game. Q. After winning the major last year, do you feel like your personal life is under a microscope? Do you have a sense that people care about what you do in your free time? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, I think that that was the start of getting more popular, but the last, let's say, three, four months, it has been ridiculous in Germany. There has been so much media around my person, about my family, about my personal life, about a lot. Q. Any ridiculous examples? MARTIN KAYMER: Ridiculous in a positive way because there has been so much. Maybe "ridiculous" is not the right word, but let's say -- I need more English words. It was a lot. It was growing so much the last four, five months that I was never expecting that, especially not with that sport in my country. And a lot of celebrities, they're sending me emails and want to meet me. A lot of soccer players from Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, from those big soccer clubs, big, national players. Those are my role models. And then they call me and want to have dinner with me, want to know more about that sport and how I feel about certain things in my sport, and it's just very interesting. Yeah, it's a little -- I think we're on a very good way to make golf very popular. Q. And before this, what were kind of the stereotypes in Germany about golf? How did people see golf there? Was it seen as like a cool sport or a stuffy sport where people didn't have any fun? MARTIN KAYMER: It was more like an elite sport for old people, retired people who just want to walk four, five hours somewhere on some nice grass. But that has changed a lot. Obviously I'm trying to tell the people in Germany that, what I said earlier, that it teaches you a lot of values in life. Golf became so much more modern through Tiger Woods, as well. The last 12, 15 years, he made golf very interesting, very exciting for everybody. It's exciting to watch, to see him playing, and I think all those things that I think the German population understands that now, and especially that event we had last weekend. I got a lot of emails on my Facebook page or on my web page that they were surprised how exciting golf could be. It has definitely changed. Q. How do you blow off steam? When things get really intense or when you're very stressed out, how do you kind of -- what's your release at the end of the day? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, I must say -- I really have to say that on Saturday and Sunday last week, it was difficult times for me sometimes because there was so much going on. Even when I played -- I was not nervous, I was just so -- I was not calm inside. When I was standing over a putt, I was kind of like shaking because I was not used to be surrounded by so many people, and it was a lot for me. And then when I was sitting in my car after the round, I just needed to get home to get dressed again for the dinner. And when I was home, I needed to leave straightaway for the dinner to get there in time, but I said, I just can't do it now. I sat down for 15 minutes on my balcony, I ate bread and drank some milk or something, and just watched into the trees and just chilled a little bit, because it was too much. Sometimes I think -- this is just a new role that I'm entering there or a new life, you know, that I need to get used to, and sometimes I think it's important to take your own time to realize and to adjust yourself a little bit in order to handle all those things. Q. Tiger is in the process of trying to find a new caddie and get that situation straightened out. When you have taken on a new caddie, how long does it take for you and your caddie to kind of get to know each other and adjust to each other's personalities, I think, more than anything? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, first of all, I know a lot of people, a lot of friends of mine would love to caddie for Tiger. If he needs someone, I think I can find him someone. But usually it takes, I think, two, three weeks. That is what happened with my ex-caddie, with Craig. It took him only two, three weeks to get used to me, to learn more about my golf, how I play golf courses. Obviously every player is different. And he caddied for Casey before, and the same with Christian Donald, he caddied for Casey before. Yeah, Casey plays a little different than me. Maybe he played a little bit more aggressive, and takes obviously different lines once in a while and maybe chipped different, and I think it takes a couple weeks, three weeks, to get used to the player. Q. What's more important for him to get used to, your lines, your distances, or your personality when you want to be spoken to, when you don't want the caddie to speak to you, that type of thing? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, I think it's a mix of everything. The golf clubs, the distances, I think they are fairly simple, it's just sometimes players like to hit full shots, sometimes they like to hit three quarter shots, depending on the pin position, where the pin is, either right or left or someplace, they cannot hit the draw, some people cannot hit a fade. You just need to know those things, and that's why I think it's very important that you talk a lot the first two weeks, that you talk -- that a player is honest, too, I cannot hit this shot or I don't feel comfortable hitting those shots. I think it's just a communication thing. Q. And then also, those nine holes at THE PLAYERS Championship, obviously you were concentrating on your own game, but did you sense a strain or a chill between Tiger and Stevie? MARTIN KAYMER: No, no. I mean, obviously I played with him only once, and I don't think there was any strains. I don't know how they usually are, if they talk a lot or if they don't talk. I just know that -- I think Stevie, he was always walking ahead, but I don't know if that's normal or not. I didn't pay attention. I don't know if there was any strange thing. Q. Just as a follow-up question, when you were sitting on your balcony on Saturday night having a glass of milk, were you shocked or pinching yourself that this was happening to you? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, I was not shocked, I was just very surprised how much is going on in my city, around my person. I was just very surprised. It was nothing negative, not at all. That is where we want to go, in that direction. I just didn't realize that it can happen that quick and that fast. Q. Overwhelming? MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, it was just a little bit too much, and that's why I just needed to relax a little bit and talk to my dad about it and to my brother. It's just a thing that I need to get used to, and I'm sure I will feel comfortable in that situation. Q. Have you had advice from other players that have won majors or the like? MARTIN KAYMER: I think it's not about winning majors, it's not about winning anything, it's just about all of a sudden you're kind of like a celebrity, and you need to get used to that. People follow you home and take pictures of your house or your car or of your friends, and they ask -- they call friends to get information about you. That's just something that I need to get used to. You just read those things or watch movies about it, but you don't think it will happen to you. I'm in that process now, but it's fine. You just need to realize it and think about how you can handle situations. Q. At the start of the interview, you talked about the fact that your golf game is sort of okay. Is it in a better state with a week to go to the major as opposed to, say, a week before Whistling Straits? MARTIN KAYMER: Last year, it was just a matter of time that I would win, I thought. I was playing great golf. It was just I needed a lot of patience. And now I feel like I've done a lot of good things the last few weeks. I've played a lot of good golf in France, in the British Open, as well. I made a couple mistakes on Saturday at the British Open, a couple on Sunday, so that never put me in a position to win. But I think I'm on a very good way to win again, I just need to be patient. I'm not playing worse or better than last year, it's just -- it will happen. Q. Earlier this year, you said that even more important to you than being a great golfer was being a good person. How much has that been tested about the demands that you've had trying to remain a good person with everyone wanting a piece of you? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, I think it's not been -- I think it doesn't have to be tested if you are just a nice person. It doesn't feel like a test. It's just the way you are. You don't need to play any role, you don't need to be different, so I didn't feel that I've been tested. It's just a lot at the moment, what is going on. And everything started with the PGA Championship, and then in March when I became the No. 1 player in the world, that has been a huge impact on Germany. I mean, I'm not tested to be a good person. I think I'm a decent person. I'm not too bad. That's been fine. Q. You have to learn to say no, though, sometimes, right? MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, of course you have to say no, but you can say no in a nice way. Q. Any of the coverage back home, are they talking about your social life and your girlfriends and stuff like that? Has that become a point -- MARTIN KAYMER: Girlfriends, you say? Q. Is it just one or 12 or I don't know. Are they curious about that, too? MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, they are more interested in my family life. They're talking more to my coaches, my physiotherapists, what kind of stuff we are working on. It's more about the people around me who are more involved in, let's say, the official parts or the public, what the public wants to know about me. So they have the need to answer probably more questions than me. And then we come back to that point where it's so much -- so important that you have good people around you who keeps everything together who don't forget why they work with me, not to become a celebrity. They work with me or I work with them to be successful and to have fun in what we do. So I think for everyone in my family, for me, and in my, let's say, inner circle, it's a little bit of a change right now. Q. When you first started getting really good at golf, did you ever have aspirations of coming to America and joining the PGA TOUR, and if so, have those plans or goals changed at all? MARTIN KAYMER: I can tell you one story. There was one year, the national team had a little bit of a trip. They went to play PGA National in Florida, and I always wanted to go to America one day, and at that stage I was still in school and I couldn't go. I said to my dad, I really want to go there. Is it not possible you can take me out of school for a week or two weeks. He said, well, you've got to go. That's your first priority, to go to school. I said, but I really want to go to America, I've never been there. He said, just keep working and you will play on the PGA TOUR one year and then you will be there all year long. I said, but that's my dream just to go there and play golf, those golf courses. And then finally a year later, I made it, I think, to Phoenix. It was my first time being in America, I think. And then I could feel that I really wanted to be there one day to play on the PGA TOUR, to compete against the best players, and then I think there was a time when Tiger -- I think the year 2000, when he had that incredible year, that I want to compete against him on the PGA TOUR, I want to be here and I want to join, and yeah, just show the Americans, as well, that there's not only one German who can play golf, there's a younger one, too, who can hit the ball. Q. What are your thoughts or plans on taking up membership over here? Is it in your future? MARTIN KAYMER: For sure, yeah, of course. I mean, I can't tell when it's going to be. At the moment I like my position that I can play a little bit in Europe, a little bit in America. I play all the tournaments I want to play, so there's no need to join only the European Tour or only the PGA TOUR or both. I don't need to join the PGA TOUR. Obviously I would love to play the FedExCup, but I'm 26 years old and I need to think about my life, as well, how I feel, you know, and how much I want to travel. I'm not a machine, and I want to have a private life, as well, and I need my own time, as well, to get ready for tournaments. I just don't want to play tournaments because I have to play. If I go there, I want to play well. I want to enjoy being there, and if you travel to some countries or if you play too many tournaments, I don't think that you can enjoy every tournament you play. Q. Have you ever been back to Palm Beach Gardens? MARTIN KAYMER: No. Q. Can you talk about the 12th hole and how you approach it as far as from a tactical standpoint? Is it a birdie hole or do you just want to try and get 3 and get out of there? MARTIN KAYMER: I think 12 is the shortest par-3 we have here, and this is pretty simple to explain. It's a very small green. You need to keep it -- I mean, it's good if you keep it below the hole. I think this is one of those things where you hit the front of the green, middle front, then you always have a chance to make a 2. But if you make a 3, it's always a good score there. Yeah, it is not a difficult par-3, but it's just a mid-iron. You can expect for the best players in the world to hit the green. Sometimes you can miss it, but that is probably the easiest par-3 that we have on the golf course. Q. What about the longer one on the back side, 15, 221 down hill? MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, I think all the par-3s here are very difficult. 15, yeah, it's a long iron, 4-iron, 3-iron, you just want to hit it somewhere on the green and make your two putts. Q. When did you film that trick shot video, bouncing it off the bell, out of the helicopter? MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, we did it in May, the week before the PGA Championship in Wentworth. Q. So it's fairly new? MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, but we got a lot of clicks on YouTube already. Q. How much of that is just computerized? MARTIN KAYMER: You don't believe in my skills? (Laughter.) Q. The one out of the helicopter is when I thought you probably did something to this to trick it up a little. MARTIN KAYMER: Well, we are working on the second part. I think it was a great success, it was nice. And that's another thing. That was huge in German TV, on the biggest TV channels, because it was fun, it was nice, and it showed the Germans that golf is not that stiff. You can play around and hit the ball from -- I was in the middle of a city and hit a ball -- I'll just call it a radar, where you are going to flash me and you drive too fast. Is that what you call it, a radar? I hit a golf ball and it flashed. Those things are fun. It was nice to do. I think it was interesting for the German population to see what you can do, and it's a fun game. Q. There were people walking around that must have been wondering what you guys were doing? MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, but I'm No. 3 in the world. I can aim. I'm not hitting them. Q. They don't know that. MARTIN KAYMER: Now they know me a little better. Q. Do you know Dustin Johnson very well? Have you had a conversation with him about how easily he could have been in your shoes if the circumstances would have been a little different last year? I was just curious if you know him very well. MARTIN KAYMER: Well, Dustin and I, we get along well. We've played a lot of tournaments together. We played last week, that event that we had in Germany, played on Saturday and Sunday together. He's a very relaxed person, I think, very chilled. It's nice to be around him. But I never talked to him about the PGA. I mean, I don't feel comfortable with that. It was obviously a horrible thing, what happened to him. It was very unlucky because he deserved to be there on Sunday afternoon to play against Bubba and me. So I never talked about it with him. Q. That thing last weekend, was it your home course in Düsseldorf? MARTIN KAYMER: It was not my home course, but my parents' house is five minutes from there. The German Open was there when Vijay won in 1994, Hubbelrath. Q. That's in Düsseldorf? MARTIN KAYMER: That's in Düsseldorf, yes. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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