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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIPFebruary 21, 2012Charl SchwartzelMARANA, ARIZONA CHRIS REIMER: Charl, welcome here to the media center. Your first round match up this week with Gary Woodland. Talk about being here for the Accenture Match Play Championship overall. CHARL SCHWARTZEL: Always exciting for me. A lot of different things can happen. It's one of those weeks where you could pull off a win by not playing that good. You could start off badly but get a guy that's playing even worse and then beat him and then eventually find your game and win the golf tournament. There's not many ‑‑ no other week works that way. If you don't play well on one, you are not going to win the tournament. This is one of those where you can still work out and you can still win a World Golf Championship. I'm exciting to be here. It's my first time back in America. I have had a nice time off and I just ‑‑ I love this golf course. This is my favorite ‑‑ almost my favorite week of the year other than Augusta. I love being here. It's got a great feel to it. Q. Couple of years ago you beat Sergio in round one or round two here and people are like, who is this guy who just beat Sergio now and times have changed. People would be surprised if you were to lose? CHARL SCHWARTZEL:  That the way I suppose I have evolved after I've learned. I came out ‑‑ you always got to start at the bottom. You don't start at the top. I came out and I was the under dog when I came here the first time. I working myself up the ranks. And maybe in a couple of years' time be the favorite. Like I said, it's just a format that you play with a guy and sometimes its's easier to be the under dog in a format like this. Sergio that time, everyone expected him to win. In my mind I had nothing to lose. I think that's the danger of playing someone that's maybe ranked worse than you are is that they probably feel they don't have anything to lose and sometimes that's when they play your best. Q. One of the things I've been writing about lately is force of will and one of the best examples of that are your four closing birdies at Augusta. Can you talk a little bit about the mindset, how you balance knowing you have to do something and at the same time just being present to the shot and target and all of that, how you balance those two things? A.I mean, the mind is the strongest club that you have got in golf. Believing that you can do it, you can't beat that. I finished ‑‑ when I finished at a Augusta, I had a mindset that it's going to be now or never. I went full out for it. I put all my heart in it. I fully believed that if I played my best now that I am going to pull it off. And I had no doubt. When you have doubt it becomes an obstacle. I don't know if I am answering your question here. Q.  How much of your attention is on the need to make those birdies and how much of your attention is on playing the game? CHARL SCHWARTZEL: It's difficult to say really because the one leads to the other. Q. How do you do that? CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I don't know. It happens. Sometimes in this game there are questions that if you ‑‑ that it's difficult to put into words. You just are out there and you play the game to the best that you can and if you force it, or you try and force it, you are not going to make it happen. I don't know. I don't know actually how to answer your question. Sorry. Q. What is your favorite hole at Augusta and why and maybe give me an example of a time when you played it and you had a good result and a bad result? CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I like 15, 16, 17 and 18. That's pretty cool. Q. Narrow it down. CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I love 12. I think it's such a short par 3 that it's got so much ‑‑ give you so much trouble yet it can make you win a golf tournament. It's only a 9‑iron and sometimes even a wedge. You've never guys take so long at the tee box as on the 12th at Augusta. It just a simple straightforward 150 yard drive. I think it's an amazing hole. It makes you think and it's got a reward like you can't believe. Q. As one of this year's four defending Major champions, do you think that allows you to get into the head of your opponent or to intimidate an opponent a little bit more than perhaps this time last year? CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I suppose. I hope so. Any intimidation I can put onto my playing partner is good. I think when you have won a tournament like that ‑‑ or anyone in this field wants to win those tournaments and if a guy achieves it, it puts him in almost a different category and guys look at him differently. I do think it plays a bit of a role. Q. Playing a guy like Gary Woodland who hits it forever, is length an advantage here or is it that everyone can hit the ball long here? CHARL SCHWARTZEL: It's always great to have length especially in this golf course. I would say it's pretty wide open. If you can hit it a long way down, you have got advantage. Saying that, these greens are this golf course's defense. If you hit in the wrong places, you are going to lose the hole. So I think there's a lot more to hitting it far on this golf course. It will be a great advantage but there is a lot more to it. You have got to think before you hit that second shot where you actually want to hit it. Sometimes it's like Augusta, 30 feet below the hole would be much better than just above it. Q. Any changes this year, your second year as a double member from whatever you learned last year from trying to bide time with your home and being a family guy, playing both Tours and serving two masters? A.I mean last year I played to me which felt like too much. Or I jumped around too much. This year I would ‑‑ it's difficult, but I'm going to try to not jump around as many times as I did. I still want to play both Tours but I want to play on one Tour ‑‑ play the other one maybe minimum events. Play Europe a minimum events this year and play more in the US. Last year I played unbelievably consistent golf, I thought myself; nothing like Luke did. I still never missed a cut in any event and I finished mostly up there just about every single week. I missed a third chance by such small margins. I would could play one more event and basically almost finished last and I would have been in the Tour championship. I just didn't give myself a fair enough chance. So what I want to do is give myself a fair enough chance to compete, whether it be the U.S. Tour or the European Tour. You just have to decide. Play one more, focus on ‑‑ give yourself a good chance to compete. I don't want to the play around the middle of both Tours, it makes no sense. Q. Which way do you think that decision is ‑‑ if you win one here ‑‑ CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I think that's probably the position I'm in. You have got to see how your year starts. If you win a tournament out there, one of the big ones, or you win some of these World Golf Championships, it can decide which way you want to focus on. I really want to ‑‑ I enjoyed playing out here last year, it was my first year and I am very comfortable with it. I feel very at peace with myself out here. I feel like I belong. I want to give myself a chance here. I played Europe for nine years. Busy with the tenth. I want to challenge myself to new goals and things. I would like to do a majority here. CHRIS REIMER: How impressive is what Luke Donald did last year being at the top of both Tours? CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I don't think people actually realize how impressive that was. I try and have consistency. That's one of the biggest things that I try and do is play consistent golf week in and week out. I thought I did it pretty well. I didn't miss a cut out there. I finished mostly top 20 almost every week. And he just took that to a different level and finish the top 5 every week. It's phenomenal. To do that week in and week out, that takes a lot. Q. So you were talking about how you were at peace with who you are as a player. You played in Europe for nine years and then you have the Augusta win. So now instead of being known on the European Tour, you are known worldwide, so what does that do for you in terms of your sense of yourself? Or was there any difference after the Augusta win? CHARL SCHWARTZEL: Yeah, of course. After Augusta, you ‑‑ I gained so much confidence, and especially winning in America. I mean, obviously, to win in America, that was my first time to win in America and to do it in a tournament like that, it gave me so much confidence around. And also, you know, when you come to a new place, when you start ‑‑ I went to Europe first, and you feel like people don't know who you are and eventually they get to know you and you start feeling more comfortable. It was the same thing when I came to America, you can sense that people look at you and they don't know who you are. I mean, it does make you feel uncomfortable. After a big win like that, all of a sudden overnight everyone knew who you were. You could sense it. You are walking around the golf course, people call out your name, players respect you. You earn some sort of respect after winning something like that. It does you so much good self‑confidence wise when you are out here. Now all of a sudden you took away the effect of trying to show them who you were on the golf course and still trying to play good golf. That's taken care of and now you can focus on playing the game and almost feel like people are willing you on. If they don't know you, why are they going to will you on? Q. So a lot less Schwarzenegger, right? CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I wish I was that strong. Q. Were you actually flag hunting on the last four holes at Augusta? Obviously, within certain tolerance ranges and you don't want to miss on certain sides, but were you at that point with so many guys and so thick that you almost couldn't keep track of what was happening going at every stick or is that ‑‑ CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I was going at sticks, but in a different way, using slopes. You know, I was still playing‑‑ Q. Like 16? CHARL SCHWARTZEL: ‑‑ playing sensible. That was Jack's advice. He played conservative but aggressive in the same way. And he explained to me on a lot of the holes I used to that. It actually makes sense if you think about most of it. To hear it from a guy like that that's won there so many times, it helps. I mean, trying to win your first major championship, you feel like you can very easily start forcing it. 15 was a 6‑iron. With that sort of flag, you are driving straight at it. There wasn't much to it. At 16, why would you hit straight at it if you can hit into the slope and get the same result and you have got more margin of error. Obviously, you aim for the slope and let the ball ‑‑ if you pull it, you are going to get it stuck and everything thinks you are firing straight at it. Q. What was your club there? CHARL SCHWARTZEL: 8‑iron. The shot is at the slope. Anytime of the week, anywhere, you are going to go at the slope and it's going to finish in the same place. 17, you just cannot go long. That's really the only thing on 17. If you go over with that flag, you have got nothing. The ball flew oddly over the front part of the bunker because I wasn't going to hit it long. Q. What club was that? CHARL SCHWARTZEL: It was a little 9‑iron. Just you can't afford to pitch it anywhere past the middle of the green because it's going to finish over it. It's just playing sensible. 18, I had a time where I could not hit it long. I could not get on top of the slope. That's probably going to be the last place you want to it hit it if you go way long. It just makes sense using those sort of things. But in the same breath, it's still aggressive because you are also finishing in spots where you can make the putts. Q. Charl, we're on both par 3s, No. 6 and 12. Take us through your strategy of playing those holes from tee to the green? CHARL SCHWARTZEL: 6 this week, I find that a very difficult green to get the ball close. You know, it's one of those holes where you ‑‑ I suppose if you tee off first ‑‑ it's not difficult to hit the green, but you're trying to hit the green to give yourself at least the worst case of par. The last thing you want to do in these formats is give it all away. I found that I won that hole many times with a par. No. 6 especially. Especially when the flag is middle to left. I find when it's to the right side, I've got a slope to stop the ball. It's one of those holes where you can actually win it with a par, No. 6. It's a tough par 3. No. 12, obviously a lot longer. But I almost want to say more biradial than No. 6 because you are coming up from so high that the ball can stop. They are key holes. Obviously when you are playing those sort of holes, you are not going to be thinking of birdies but the last thing you want to do is make bogeys and give it all away. If you are up first, you are probably going for the middle of the green and trying to get it to put some pressure on your opponent, I suppose. Q. Just curious, do you just focus on what you're playing or do you look at the brackets? CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I don't even know in which bracket I am. I don't look at it. I know I'm playing Gary, who is ranked 25, I think it is. I think it's ‑‑ no one can actually get into who you are going to play next, so what does it matter if I look at who I am going to play because the underdog might win. You have got to play the guy you pick up on the day. That's as simple as it is in this format. You can sit here and say this guy is going to win, this one is going to win, but there's no getting tees with this one. Q. Do you recall having any feeling or idea on the practice range that Sunday morning that you might have a special day? CHARL SCHWARTZEL: I woke up that morning and I felt like I was going to won. I honestly did. I don't want to be too out there, but I felt that. I had this complete calmness about it, too. I think that's the best part about it. It's all good to say I'm going to win today, but you are all nervous inside so then you are actually have doubts. I felt so calm. I was so convinced that I could do it. Obviously I couldn't have asked for a much better start. It put me right in there. You know, I felt it coming all week even from Houston. In Houston, I played so well and I wasn't getting any results. In Augusta, I was playing so consistently but never got on a birdy run where you make two or three birdies in a row to move your score up the board. Making one every couple of holes and moving very slowly but it was there. It was just about to happen. I don't think it was going to happen as it did the first three holes, but it did. It pushed me right up it. Q. How often do you wake up on Sunday with that feeling? Don't say every single Sunday or that would ruin the whole story? Is that a rare thing? CHARL SCHWARTZEL: It's a rare thing. It's never happened. For some reason, I won the Open earlier in that year. I was a nervous wreck playing that last nine holes. I was hitting the ball so badly and I put so much pressure on myself to make pars and not throw it away, where this is the complete opposite. I felt like I was playing so well and I was in control of it. You don't get that feeling very often. I might have had glimpses of it before, but never as much as I had that specific week. CHRIS REIMER: Great job. Good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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