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WGC HSBC CHAMPIONSOctober 30, 2012Martin KaymerGiles MorganSHENZHEN, CHINA MICHAEL GIBBONS: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our opening press conference of the 2012 WGC ‑ HSBC Champions. I'm delighted to welcome to our top table our defending champion, Martin Kaymer, and Mr.Giles Morgan, HSBC's Global Head of Sponsorship and Events. I'd like to invite Giles to say some opening comments. GILES MORGAN: Firstly, warm welcome to the eighth HSBC Champions and the third time this event has been staged here at Mission Hills. In 2013 HSBC celebrates ten years in golf, and this event is our 29th professional golf tournament since 2003. Since the first World Match Play at Wentworth in the United Kingdom, we have staged events in the United States, Indonesia, New Zealand, Brazil, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, and of course, here in China; truly an international sponsor of golf, and we hope a sponsor that has been a catalyst for the growth of the game around the world. Alongside those tournaments we have been committed to the development of the sport around the world, particularly through the 'HSBC Golf Roots' Programme in the U.K. and here in China with the CGA‑HSBC China Junior Golf Program. Underpinning our entire portfolio which currently spans five continents is, of course, the World Golf Championships ‑ HSBC Champions, which is the flagship event here in Asia and which attracts year‑on‑year, the strongest field in Asia. We are delighted to welcome you all here to Mission Hills and it is a great pleasure here to see our defending champion, Martin Kaymer here off his 2011 wins in both Abu Dhabi at the HSBC Championship and of course at the WGC ‑ HSBC Champions, as well. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Martin, I'm sure you're looking forward to another HSBC event, having won four of Giles' tournaments? MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, I've done well in those events in the past. Obviously I won last year in Abu Dhabi and fortunate to win here. The two wins that I had, they were both from HSBC, so I quite fancy this one. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Give us a quick assessment of the golf course. MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, I did play 7, 8 and 9 and plays very similar than in the past. It looks very good. The greens, they are fine. I think they changed the grass and it's less grain on the greens now, which I think makes the golf course even better, and I think it's very exciting finish. Obviously 15 is a quite exciting par 5 where a lot can happen, and then 18, you need to be brave with a tee shot and then yeah, I think par is always a good score but it's definitely a very exciting finish on that golf course. Q. Interesting that you've won HSBC and Abu Dhabi out here; one is at the beginning of the season, one is at the end of the season. How come you can stay so fresh‑‑ how hard is it to be fresh in January and still be fresh at the end of the year after a year like this? MARTIN KAYMER: First, I wasn't that fresh last year coming to the second HSBC tournament because it was a very long season for me but Abu Dhabi, I have plenty of time to rest and prepare for the HSBC tournament in Abu Dhabi on a golf course I like a lot, and straightaway, if you have five, six weeks off and you can't wait to play golf again, and I think that was one of the reasons why I did go there. And last year, in China, I just had a very good last 12 holes of the tournament. I made nine birdies, and therefore, I could win the tournament. I was playing well already coming into that week last year, but that didn't really happen for me. It was pretty much‑‑ very similar this year. I played well but it didn't really go my way. So I hope to have that Sunday last year this year again. Q. How are the fatigue levels after you've had The Ryder Cup and this long run of events, just wonder how you're feeling? MARTIN KAYMER: I feel very good. Obviously The Ryder Cup gave me a lot of motivations, a lot of confidence, because what happened that Sunday afternoon was very big in my career and will stay with me forever. I was playing very well, even before the Ryder Cup. I just couldn't get the proper results that I was hoping for. That has not really changed. I played good golf but it's not really going my way. It's a time of patience. It's a time of my career where I need to relax a little bit and try to let it happen and not try to force it. But The Ryder Cup was just, yeah a very special moment, and what I said many times already, it's a gift that I'm very thankful for that me as an athlete has the possibility or had the possibility to make something huge happen for myself, for Europe, and that was a very proud moment. Q. When I watched you at the KLM Open, you spent hours trying to perfect the fade into those trees on the driving range; is the fade now back dug into your system? MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, I think to bury that topic for the next few years, we can say it's over, I'm done, I'm very happy the way I hit the ball and my fade is back, the natural shot (smiling). Q. Next year the HSBC Champions is probably going to become an official event on the PGA TOUR, so everybody is talking about this possible effect. GILES MORGAN: I think it would be the wrong time to talk about possibilities. We are looking forward to running this tournament during the week, and towards the end of the week, we'll be looking to make more media announcements. Q. The tournament has obviously moved from Shanghai this year; what are your first impressions of Mission Hills? GILES MORGAN: Well, I came to have a look around the golf course last week and it's absolutely stunning, really, really beautiful and catching up with some of the players this morning who had already been around, players who haven't played here before, were absolutely blown away by how beautiful the course is and how it is playing. I think we are in for real feast of golf and if Martin can replicate what he did last year in the final 12 holes, we are going to have one hell of a finish. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Gentlemen, many thanks for joining us. Gentlemen, thanks for joining us. Giles, thanks for your support, as always. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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