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WGC HSBC CHAMPIONS

November 6, 2011

Martin Kaymer

SHANGHAI, CHINA

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Martin, first of all many, many congratulations, WGC HSBC Champions winner. Must have a nice feel to it.
MARTIN KAYMER : Yeah, you know, so far it has been an okay season, but with that win, it has been a good season. I won an HSBC tournament in Abu Dhabi this year in January, and it's nice to finish off with an HSBC tournament.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Martin, maybe just talk us through the round today. It was an absolutely stunning performance, and especially your back nine. Give us your assessment of that.
MARTIN KAYMER: It was a good round, for sure. It started off a little slow. But then I holed a bunker shot on 7 for birdie and pretty much since then, I didn't miss a lot of golf shots. I didn't miss a lot of putts. I made a nice birdie on 8. Missed a very, very short putt on 9 from 2 1/2, three feet. And then, yeah, I think I shot 9-under the last 12 holes.
The last time that that happened I think was when I shot the 59 five years ago, when I shot 14-under the last 16 holes. That was a good round. But today felt very comfortable over the putts. I hit a lot of good irons. My putts, they were not very difficult. Most of them were quite short, besides one on 17.
So I just played really good golf, and finally I'm glad that it came together, because the last few weeks, I played good golf already, but it has not happened yet. And this week, it was nice that it happened here, the World Golf Championships event.

Q. Of the nine birdies, which one was the most important in the scheme of the tournament?
MARTIN KAYMER: 17. Obviously the plan is -- always the plan on 16 was to make birdie there, the short par 4, but I couldn't manage to make three there. Made a great birdie on 17 and I think that put me in a position where I felt like if I birdied 18, it's all done, even par could be enough.
17, I think that was the winning putt today. I was in-between clubs, I was in between 5 and 4 but I wanted to stay aggressive. It was a back flag. I was hitting the irons beautiful today so I thought if I hit a good 4-iron or a nice 4-iron, it could get there no problem.
I left myself a tough putt, but, you know, today was one of those days where you make a lot.

Q. Can you tell us where that 59 was?
MARTIN KAYMER: Golf club in Germany in Habsburg.

Q. Was it a friendly round of golf, rather than a professional one?
MARTIN KAYMER: No, no, no, it was a tournament. It was my first year as a professional in 2006. It was an the EPD Tour, pretty much the lowest tour in Germany. But I needed somewhere to start off and that was my first year when I played professional golf. I don't know what tournament it was.
I think I played maybe six or seven tournaments before that as a professional and that day I shot 59 and that was quite nice, because I started off with par, bogey, and then shot -- yeah, made a few birdies in a row.

Q. Such a strong start to the year in Abu Dhabi, what happened since then, do you think, and how important is it to win now going forward?
MARTIN KAYMER: Well, before that, what I said earlier already, it was an okay season; now it's a good season. I played brilliant golf in Abu Dhabi, and when I became the No. 1 in the world in March, or pretty much -- I think it was in February after the World Golf Championships event in Arizona, my life has changed a little bit; not only mine, for the people I work with, my family.
And sometimes it's maybe for some people, it's easy to -- let's say, for me, it was a tough stretch of months, because it's not normal that at my age you become No. 1 in the world. All of a sudden, you have more attention. Doesn't matter really where you go. In my own country, I became the German golf face. In America, a lot of people recognised me because obviously golf is a little bit bigger in America than in Germany.
But it has been, you know, a little awkward situation sometimes, because I was just not used to be that much in the spotlight. And it took some time to get used to it, and hopefully it will happen again, because I know what's going to happen, I know how to approach that thing.
And obviously with that win, it has put me in a very nice position now, because I won a major last year, I won a World Golf Championships a year later, so all of the big vents in the world, I [] put my name on it, which is nice. Now I just try to collect more majors and World Golf Championships events.

Q. First question, how do you rate this golf course after the four days of the tournament? Do you like it? What sort of strategy do you like to play?
MARTIN KAYMER: Well, I think it has been never as good as it was this year. I think you can play very aggressive. The good thing is that you can use a lot of pin positions on those greens.
The par 5s, I really like the par 5s. If you hit the fairway, you can get rewarded for it and go for the green. If not, you get penalised and you have to lay up. I think it's kind of like a ball-striking golf course; if you hit the ball well, you can shoot very low scores.
You can see it this week, we could play very aggressive, and that is what I prefer, play those golf courses, but it can play difficult, too. The other years, I can remember it was not as easy, if you want to say it was easy this week, but it was not.

Q. How do you compare to other major tournament golf courses that you have played?
MARTIN KAYMER: Well, a Major, the Majors that I've played so far in my career, they were always really, really difficult golf courses. They were longer. There was thicker rough. Not only around the fairways, but around the greens. It was even more important to hit fairways; and here, you could miss some fairways and you still had a shot to the green, and that's probably the biggest difference. The length of the golf course and the rough.

Q. Congratulations on a great win. It's been a great tournament, but obviously I presume you've heard the last 36 hours it has been overshadowed slightly by this racism row. Do you agree with the PGA organisers that there is no place for racism in this sport, and do you think the apology made by Steve Williams is enough?
MARTIN KAYMER: Well, to be honest with you, I haven't really followed it. I was just there at the caddie's party when I heard it and obviously a lot of people have been surprised.
I think that he could have used different words. I think racists in general is not good, doesn't matter where you are, whether you are on the golf course or anywhere else, and I didn't even know that he has apologised -- did he, you said?
Yeah, I think you can talk to Steve about it. I hope it doesn't have too much effect on Adam, you know, because Adam is a very lovely guy. He's a great player and I hope it doesn't affect him too much.
But if it was right or wrong, obviously to be racist, it's never good. It should not be on the golf course or anywhere else. But I don't really know if he really meant it like this, you know.

Q. You watched Prison Break last night?
MARTIN KAYMER: I watched it all week, yeah.

Q. Do you feel like a prison right now?
MARTIN KAYMER: A Prison Break? I know when I was planning my trip here to Shanghai to the tournament, I know the city is always quite far away. You probably stay in your hotel room pretty much the entire stay. So I thought, why not take one of those episodes with me and watch it.

Q. Does the episode keeping you more relaxed or it's a distraction for you?
MARTIN KAYMER: A what?

Q. Distraction.
MARTIN KAYMER: No. I won, so -- (laughter) every time when I came back to the hotel room, it was like 3.30, 4.00, and obviously around here, there's not too much to do. Shanghai is too far away. I went to the gym and then afterwards, you're back home in your room and you think, hmm, what to do. Watch some DVDs, went down to dinner, watched more Prison Break and get a good night's sleep.

Q. There's a lot of people who have talked about the adjustment it takes when you get to No. 1 and get the attention. I wonder if you can think of some specific examples of what kind of a burden it became, either on time or attention or what have you.
MARTIN KAYMER: Well, the biggest thing what has changed, there was a tournament that I played in Germany, it was a sponsor day of SchÃ¼co, and it was for two days, Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday after the round, I went back to my car, and a couple of people, they came up to me and wanted to talk to me. I suppose I answered the questions and went back to my car, drove back to my parent's house which was only five minutes away and they were just following me and taking pictures when I went out of the car.
When I went into the house, you know, they were waiting for me, and when I came back the next morning. It was a little awkward and that takes some -- I don't think I would have gotten that attention if I wouldn't have been No. 1 in the world. But obviously that has changed a little bit, and that takes some time to realise in what position you are and what position you are in, and how much it reflects on the people around you and on yourself.

Q. Getting back to No. 1 in the world, will it be easier or harder this time around?
MARTIN KAYMER: As long as the little English one is up there, it's going to be very difficult. He's a very, very solid player, and obviously through Christian, my caddie and Luke's brother, I get a lot of information about the way he practises, the way he plays. (Laughter).
But still, obviously he's a very nice guy and he deserves to be No. 1 in the world. He deserves to be No. 1 in Europe. It will be difficult, but you know, that is what the sport is about, to challenge yourself, challenge the other players that you play with week-in, week-out, and of course I will try to give him a hard time.
But, we'll see. It's not easy to get him away from the No. 1 spot.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about the Chinese player, Zhang; can you talk about him a little bit?
MARTIN KAYMER: It was exciting to play with him. There was so many people out there, and obviously the Asian crowds, they are a little different than we are in Europe.
But it was fun to play. I think he was a little bit nervous on the first three, four holes. He made a huge putt on the first for par, and I mean, he was screaming already. You know, he was very excited about that round. It was a big round for him, a big tournament to play in front of the crowds here in Asia.
He played very solid golf. He's a long hitter. His putting is brilliant, so I can see him playing well in the future. To be honest with you, I never heard of him before, but since today, you know, you've got to watch out, there are more players coming from Asia and he's probably one of the better ones here.

Q. You've been playing very well since your rookie year. You've been handling your emotions, your temper very well all through the tournaments your professional years. Can you tell us how you keep yourself very, very calm?
MARTIN KAYMER: I think the most important is the people around you, first of all, because success can change I think and can change a person. I think it happened a lot of times before but that is obviously not my goal. I would like to stay the person I am.
I think a lot of people think maybe because all of my work and my commitment to that job, that that's why I'm playing so well, and obviously that's one big part. But another big part is definitely the people that I have around me. It's very difficult to find good people who think the same way or the same attitude that you have, and I think fortunately I found good people around me and I think that was one main part.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Martin, thank you very much, many congratulations once again.

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