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DUBAI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY DP WORLDDecember 7, 2011Robert KarlssonDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES MICHAEL GIBBONS: Robert, thanks for joining us. Welcome back to the Dubai World Championship. I suppose start us off 12 months ago with reflections of your victory. ROBERT KARLSSON: Yeah, it was the biggest win of my career. And obviously it was fantastic to beat such a great player in the playoff. So yeah, it was a great ending of a season, it was quite good, but all of a sudden it ended up being a great season. So, it was fantastic. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Thoughts? You played the Pro‑Am yesterday, the golf course is in tiptop shape. ROBERT KARLSSON: Yeah, it's different this year. They have overseeded the fairways and the rough, so the course will play quite different I think. It will play longer, because the ball is not running as much on the fairway, and I think the rough is going to play a little bit more consistent. The bermudarough usually can get some vicious flyers and things like that, but I think it's very grassy and overseeded, it's a lot more consistent and slightly more moisture in it. So the short game will probably be more easier and consistent. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Thoughts on your own game, good performance last year, played well. ROBERT KARLSSON: I was happy with how I played last week. Things have been coming along over the last few weeks. It's been a bit in patches. I played one really good round in Singapore, and then HSBC was good, as well in, patches, but really poor in patches. It was nice to put a good week together last week. Q. You were saying at the start of the year to set up camp in the States; can I have your reflections on the year, how it's gone both on the course and off the course? ROBERT KARLSSON: Off the course is obviously American bureaucracy, takes a bit of time to get used to. It's quite time‑consuming to get everything in order, to get all the green cards and everything that comes with changing location. So that was a bit of a mess that's taken a bit of time. On the course, it's not a huge difference. I've played 12 events a number of times before, and now this year I had to play 15. The tricky thing with it, though, is you don't know how many of the FedEx tournaments I was going to be in, so I wanted to make sure I was not going to come into a situation where I had to play more events after the FedEx. So I planned to have my 15th was going to be the PGA just in case I missed out on the FedEx. Now, I didn't, so I played three FedEx events. So ended up playing 18 events over there, and I think this is my 30th or 31st event this year. So it ended up being a lot of golf. In America, though, the tournaments are probably a little bit more even. I would say the fields are a little bit more bunched up, if you have a good round or a good weekend, you can make great progress. If you're not playing so good, you can go quite quickly backwards. The same with the cuts, if you're not playing good, you'll miss a cut straightaway. So it is slightly different from here. The courses are a bit‑‑ obviously more like these courses every week which we have a bit more of a spread of courses. We don't play many courses like Hong Kong in America. It's more resort‑type golf courses. It's been good. It's been a good learning process, and I'm happy with the decision we have taken with the family, and we are very happy where we are. Q. Will you go for the same again next year, or bearing in mind that you played 31 tournaments this year? ROBERT KARLSSON: I'm going to have a serious evaluation of what I did this year. But hopefully the goal for the next year is try to keep my status on both sides for now and then we'll see where we end up. I don't think I've seen the schedule for Europe, the full calendar year yet, so we'll see how it looks. But probably going to play a little bit more in America. I mean, pretty similar early on up until the U.S. Open and then play a little bit more in Europe from there onwards. Q. Do you see more European players doing what you have done; G‑Mac and Rory are going to play more next year in America, as well. ROBERT KARLSSON: I don't know what their status is, if they are going to pick up their card. I think Rory was, wasn't he. I mean, I can see why. Obviously the American tour limits you to 12 events if you're not a member, and with a number of Majors and World Golf Championship events, if you're in all of them, it's not many more tournaments and if you want to have the possibility to build a schedule the way you want it and you feel happy with, I think you need to be a member of both tours, otherwise you're always going to be a bit limited on one side or the other. The downside is that it is going to be a lot of golf, but Rory is young, so he'll be fine. (Laughter). Q. When you say the course will play very differently, is it more or less conducive to your game this year compared to last, and why? ROBERT KARLSSON: Well, last year was pretty good I thought (chuckling). No, I mean, I think it's going to play slightly longer. I think holes like the par5 on the front, 7, is going to be quite a big difference. I mean, yesterday I hit a great drive and a great 3‑wood and I was still 20, 30 yards short of the green. Last year, we got up there quite easily, and then, I don't know if the wind direction was slightly different or if just it was the firmness of the fairway. But the way that it is set up now, it is playing even more into the hands of the longer player, the way it is right now. Because I think also the rough, the rough is slightly more consistent, so it's easier if you miss the fairways this year. But, I mean, if you look at the winner's, Westwood and myself, and Rory did well the year before, so it is a tournament or a course that is suited for the longer hitter. Q. What about Ryder Cup? ROBERT KARLSSON: It's not this week, is it? (Laughing). No, Ryder Cup, it's‑‑ I mean, it's fantastic. If you've been in one, you want to be in them all. That's just the way it is. But I cannot plan my season to try to qualify for one event in September, especially not with the quality of golfers it is in Europe right now, because you can play your best golf and not get in, anyway. I mean, it's pretty much you can say there's probably four or five places already booked in, so I think it's about 150 players playing for five spots. You've got to expect that Rory, Lee, Kaymer, Westwood, it's pretty much guaranteed on the team. So it's six spots to play for. And to play my season to try to steal one of those spots, it's not going to be that easy. So I'm going to plan my season like I did the year when I got in. I planned it the way I wanted to play it and the way that I feel is the best possibility for myself to play my best golf, and if I do, that hopefully I get in that team. Q. With you saying the course is playing a bit longer, I presume you would possibly favour Rory over Luke in the overall picture the next four rounds? ROBERT KARLSSON: Yes; but, Luke has another weapon that he has been taking himself to the top of the world, and that's his short game. But Rory has a huge advantage getting up to the greens, that's just the way it is. If you look at the par 5s, they are very long. I don't know how they are going to set up 18. Yesterday we played it 1 million yards it felt like. But 14 is a long par 5. 7 is a long par 5, and 2‑‑ I don't think Luke can get up on any of them the way they were set up on yesterday, and I think Rory can get on at least three. So up to the greens, Rory has a huge advantage. But, there's more to the game than that. The golf course is definitely, even more than last year, set up for the longer hitter. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Robert, thanks for joining us. Good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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