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NISSAN IRISH OPEN

May 18, 2005

Jose Maria Olazabal

MAYNOOTH, IRELAND

GORDON SIMPSON: Well, Jose Maria, welcome back to Europe. A nice summer's day for you to come back to play.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Really lovely.

GORDON SIMPSON: You've had some good form in the States. Maybe you'd like to reflect on the season so far in America.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, the season has been really good. The results could have been maybe a little better. I had a couple of chances that I missed, but I don't think consideration, the situation out of that, I'll take it. I'm really happy with how things are going. All I can do is just keep on trying to play solid golf.

GORDON SIMPSON: Do you feel it's about time that you were back in the winner's enclosure again?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, all you can do is just play good golf and knock on the door, and sooner or later, the door will open. It's just a matter of playing good golf, giving myself chances, and if I do that, as I said, the win will come.

GORDON SIMPSON: And this golf course obviously it's a new one on the European Tour schedule, and Padraig was just saying, it's very easy to see who designed it. Do you have the same feeling?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, I would agree on that, yes. (Laughing).

I think it's going to be an extremely tough week overall. The landing areas are very narrow. The bunkers are very deep. There is a lot of movement on the greens and the green side bunkers are also extremely deep. You might hit a shot that is not a bad shot, I mean, not a great shot but not a bad shot, and end up like 12, 15 feet below the green in a bunker. It's going to be really tough to save pars. If the wind blows, that's going to make it even harder. So it's going to be a tough test this week. It's going to test the skills, the patience, pretty much everything.

Q. Have you set your sights on being back here in Ireland for the Ryder Cup next year?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, first there is a few things that I have to take care of. Obviously I need to increase. I am improving in my rankings so I could be able to play the major events which at the moment I'm not in. That's one goal that is before the Ryder Cup. Ryder Cup points start in September this year, so there is a lot of time ahead. As I said, I've always said this, that if I play good golf, I should make the team. If I don't make the team, it's because I haven't played good golf, so I don't deserve to be there. Obviously I would love to be part of the Ryder Cup. I mean, the last two I'll do the best I can to be in it obviously.

Q. How much have you missed it?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, you miss it, obviously, and especially after seeing how good the boys played, you know, you miss it even more.

Q. Will you expect the atmosphere to be special?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, it should be. I'm pretty sure it would be. The crowds, I know the crowds are going to be huge. They have great knowledge of the game. They have respect, both sides. In that sense I think it should be extremely fair, too.

Q. Are you still playing in the States on invites?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: It's still an invite, there's no change in that, correct.

Q. What's your schedule?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I'm going to play this and next week over here. I'll go back to the States the week of Memorial and the Booz Allen. In order to get in the U.S. Open, I need to play extremely well these two weeks. The deadline I think is the 30th of this month. So that's going to be, you know, a question mark. If I don't get in the Top 50, then what I'll do is just play the qualifying rounds for the Open, for the U.S. Open, somewhere in the States.

Q. The week of Memorial?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Yeah, there's one there. I will probably play that one. And after that, I think it's going to be French, and again, I'm in the same situation as I was last year. The deadline for the British Open, again, is the same date, the 30th of this month. So most probably I will have to qualify for that at Sunningdale; play Loch Lomond. If I get in the British, I'll play the Open.

And after that, I think it's the German, Deutsche Bank. That much I know. And then I'll play somewhere around the PGA in the States. THE international is an event that I always play and hopefully PGA. The situation for the PGA is better because there is a way to get in there if you're in the Top 70 of the year round winnings or whatever, and I should be in there no problem.

Q. Getting sponsor's invites, are you pleased, have you had many responses?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Yes, it's always a question mark or some awareness in the back of your mind when a situation is like this and how the sponsors are going to respond to your request, but so far, it's been really good.

Q. Is this going to be an especially tough week?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Oh, without a question. I think we have the best weather possible yesterday, and even in those weather conditions, it looked to me like the golf course was playing tough, and that was with flags right in the middle of the greens and things like that. So it's going to challenging every part of the game and every part of the individual, also without a question.

Q. How many rounds have you had?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I played yesterday and I'll play today, yeah.

Q. How much tougher would this course be than the States?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: First of all, the landing areas are quite narrower, that's for sure. We know Monty can hit it very straight, and I think his gauge is different to the rest. (Laughter). The only thing I might dislike a bit is how deep the bunkers are. I think some of them are just a little too deep. Apart from that, the golf course is fair. It's extremely tough but it's fair. Narrow fairways, you have to hit the ball straight and if I hit the ball straight you have a chance to go for the green. If not, I mean, you're going to struggle to make par all day long.

Q. Extremely narrow or silly narrow?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, silly, not silly, silly, but I think they are quite narrow.

Q. I mean, how narrow

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: It depends. Certain holes it varies. For instance the second hole it depends on how you play the hole. If you try to hit a driver, there is no more than 15 or 16 yards width over there. But where you have to land the ball. If you play short and safe, obviously it's more generous, the holes.

6 is another very narrow hole, short hole, but it's very narrow. I reckon the fairways are pretty much around 20 yards wide most of them, maybe a little more, but most of them are on an angle. So that's why it makes it hard to hit the fairway because most of them are either a little left to right or right to left, and you really have to shape the ball perfectly in order to make the ball run through the fairway.

Q. Which bunkers do you find especially difficult, the fairways ones of the greenside ones?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Every bunker, fairway bunkers and green bunkers. Some of them are I think you're going to see some players not getting the ball out of the bunker.

Q. How would the American players fare with this course?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I really don't know how to answer that question. I mean, tough, tough when you play the U.S. Open, that is, you know, it doesn't get any tougher than that. They are used to tough conditions. But it would be different to what they see over there, that's for sure. You don't see these type of bunkers over there, links type bunkers, so deep.

Q. Monty said yesterday that the course was his answer to technology advances?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, length wise, the golf course is all right. It's quite longish, but as you said, with the technology, unless the blows really into your face, you can reach the par 4s, even though some of them are long. I think it's the narrower or the golf course itself on how severe if you just make a mistake, the golf course is.

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: No, everybody. Not just the long hitters, everybody. You see bunkers from 230, 240 yards up to 300, 320. But it's the severity of the bunkers themselves. You know that once you hit the ball in the bunker, most of the time you're going to just have to hit a sand wedge out of it.

Q. How would you rate this on a scale of one to ten?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I think we'll have to play more, yes. When you play a golf course just once, I don't think you have yeah, the knowledge or at least the experience of how the golf course can play different weather, different pin positions and things like that. I think we need to play the whole event and maybe a couple more just to really judge the golf course. But it's not going to be easy, that's for sure.

Q. Are you complaining about the bunkers

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I'm not complaining about the bunkers I'm just giving my opinion. They are severe. It is the same for everybody.

Q. But for pros the bunkers don't really pose any great problems--

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I would not say that. I think you might be a very good bunker player then. (Laughter). The thing is that, you know, the bunkers are severe, but sometimes I understand that if you really miss hit a shot bad enough and you end up in a bad place, you seem to get penalized straightaway, but you might end up in these bunkers without hitting such a bad shot. That's my point. You know, I mean, when you have fairways that are 25 yards wide or 50 yards wide at an angle, and you either have to shape the ball perfectly, or you have to really try to cut that edge or that line of bunkers; and you hit a solid shot, you don't carry the bunkers by a yard or you just miss the fairway by two yards and you end up in one of those bunkers, that's my point. I mean, you know, that should deserve to hit a sand wedge sideways.

Q. When you were struggling with your form, were you worried you would ever get it back?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, I never lost hope you know. Obviously I knew that if I didn't improve my driving or my game, I would not be able to compete. I've always said that to you whenever I had a decent round, you ask, well if I don't increase the quality or the level of my game, I know well, I can make cuts and things like that, but I will never be able to compete against the best. I knew that.

Q. How long were you prepared to do that?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: I love the game of golf but time is not a question. I would keep on trying.

Q. What's been the difference? Have you changed anything?

JOSE MARIA OLAZABAL: Well, this year, I've hit the ball better, simple as that. You hit more fairways you hit more greens, it's easier to score when you do things properly.

What have I changed? Nothing, seriously. I've worked on my rhythm a little bit. I've worked on the path of the swing a little bit but not drastic changes at all.

GORDON SIMPSON: Jose Maria, have a good week

End of FastScripts.

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