THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 26, 1999

Ernie Els

ERNIE ELS: It was good. I had to shoot a good round to get back into it. I think we got lucky with the weather this afternoon. Watched a bit of golf yesterday afternoon on television and looked really tough. The wind was blowing and the greens were really getting firmer, and it wasn't too much wind out there today. It was really just a pleasant day; just very playable I thought. I played well. I made two eagles today. I made eagle on 11, my second hole, and I made another eagle on No. 2, my 11th hole. So that always helps your cause. Made two bogeys, you know, bogeyed 14 and bogeyed No. 3. I missed 6-foot putts there. But other than that, I have kept the ball in play. I hit my driver a lot better than I did yesterday. I think that is the big key this week to get the ball in play off the tee and then take your chances from there. I played a nice solid round of golf.

ERNIE ELS: I think so, Jeff. Yesterday I really didn't hit the ball very well and, to be honest, but I think I got away with shooting 73 yesterday. I think I only hit eight or nine greens. Maybe, you know, five or six, seven fairways. So it was really a scramble yesterday. I found a little key yesterday evening on the practice range, and it worked pretty nice today. So hopefully I will have it for the next two days at least. Yeah, definitely my tee shots were better today. When you do that, when you hit it a pretty long way, that is why I eagled two holes today. I hit it pretty a long way down the fairway, and I had a chance for going for the green in two on the par 5s. Actually played the par 5s, 6-under par today. Pretty good.

ERNIE ELS: Just the feeling, you know, we go out there, if you have one good positive swing-thought, you know, kind of think-- yesterday I was trying to get a little bit more speed in my swing, and it was getting way too slow. I was probably doing it the wrong way. I was, you know, kind of jerking the club away from the start of my swing. I kind of got something going there yesterday afternoon. Just really a feeling I got; it kind of worked. It might be not -- might not be there tomorrow morning, but let's hope so. Let's hope it is there.

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, the third shot actually thought I over-hit it a little bit, and it worked out perfect. I had 97 to the hole, and I have got a 56 and 60-degree sand iron in my bag. I really had to just hit it very soft with a 56-degree sand iron. And I thought I over-hit it, but it just worked out beautifully.

ERNIE ELS: The eagle on 11. My second hole was driver and 3-wood, and I had pretty nice bounce kind of off, you know, the side of the hill short of the green, and ran up to about eight feet. On two was drive and 4-iron to three feet. Quite accessible flag there today on two.

ERNIE ELS: You just answered your question. I think, yeah, you need a bit of experience. I agree with Bruce there. We have played it -- I have played it in the last seven years, played it in soft conditions when Greg Norman won. I think he shot 24-under par that year. I played it in really hard and fast conditions where Lee Janzen won a couple years ago. And I think this is another one of those years where it is really fast and firm. And if the wind blows, I think 5-under might be a really good score again. It is really -- you got to know the course, sure. A lot of the guys have played the course right now. You just got to try and play to your strengths really. Got to try and, you know, if you are a good ball-striker, go with that. If you don't make the putts, just-don't-lose-it-out-there-kind-of-thing. In a way, you have got to have a major mentality out there this week; especially U.S. Open kind of mentality. So yeah, hopefully bit of experience will help. I think it won't hurt you at all. But still got to do the job out there. I mean, you might find a guy like Joe Ozaki, I think he played well here last year also. He loves fast greens. In Japan they putt on very, very fast greens.

ERNIE ELS: I think this has got a different -- little different feel than a normal Tour event. A lot of the guys rank this as another major and I think that feeling is there. We have got a lot of international players here this week. A lot of -- I think this field will almost be at The Masters in a couple week's time. Most of the players here will play other major events this year, so, yeah, it has got a different feel. Obviously the money has got a bit of an appeal also, $900,000. You might take the rest of the year off if you win this tournament. It is an unique tournament. It is THE PLAYERS Championship, everything here this week is really what the players want and the guys really take it quite seriously. Why not? We have got a 10-year exemption here and there is a lot of things that go into this tournament.

ERNIE ELS: Other majors. I think this really has gone up a step, definitely from the regular Tour events, this is definitely right up there.

ERNIE ELS: Definitely. You won't find any faster greens I don't think. I don't even think Augusta will be faster than this, no way. Actually when I was here on Tuesday I thought the golf course was just perfect. I really thought Tuesday's course was probably better than today's course because it gave everybody a chance. The fairways were softer. You could keep the ball in the fairways easier. You still had to hit good shots to stop it on the greens and the greens had a lot of speed. I was really impressed with the golf course on Tuesday. Yeah, to come back to your question, these greens are as fast as you will ever see. They must be running at 12.

ERNIE ELS: Well, I played yesterday morning. The greens were nice and fresh. The course was -- no wind at all yesterday morning. I was actually a little surprised that the scores weren't better. Afternoon, the guys I thought, wrong end of the draw this week. We definitely got lucky with the draw. We didn't have the wind this afternoon and, yeah, some of the greens were still very firm. I think No. 3 was as far an fast as yesterday afternoon probably. I had a chip from back of the green there and it was -- almost came to a standstill about a foot from the hole. Went another eight feet by and I mean, but the greens were a little bit more accessible.