Q.  As you see on the TV there, you’ve played in all sorts of weather conditions, but nothing like the smoke.

PAUL CASEY:  As I said, Angie just said, was it tough?  Honestly, I don’t care about me, as I said, you’ve got to feel for the people who are right next to the fires.  We’re hundreds of kilometres away.  So, you’re not going to hear me complain about it because I’m not in a position to complain.  Apart from stinging eyes, it has no effect on our golf out there.  It was just a difficult golf course though.  The first time I’ve had to play it with a scorecard in my hand.  It wasn’t even blowing very hard today, but I found it really tricky.

Q.  No bogeys though?

PAUL CASEY:  That was good, a lot of par saves though, John you saw that.  I know, I ballsed up 17.  The thing I found tricky and surprising was probably the slowest greens I’ve ever, ever putted on down here.  Normally we come down here and they’re lightening fast, but they don’t need to be that quick around here because of the amount of pitch on them.  But all of us struggled with pace, everybody in the group.  Scotty left a lot short in the jaws.  In a weird way, it made the par saves easier, but making the birdies tougher, in a weird kind of way.

Q.  What did please you about your round?  What was the strong point of your game?

PAUL CASEY:  As John said, no bogeys.  I don’t know the course that well, I’m still learning it.  You’ve got to be a good ball striker around here, not only for tee shots but with the slopes on the greens and the contours, you’ve got to put the ball in the right spots and I did a pretty good job of that.  But I only had three birdie chances really in the first 12 holes, which is – I don’t want to say that’s not very good, but also it’s very difficult.  The highlight, the shot on – I don’t even know what hole it is, what’s the par 5, 14?  Tidy wasn’t it?

Q.  Dinner will be nice tonight?

PAUL CASEY:  Yeah, but short turn around for tomorrow, 7.05.  Did Kevin just shoot 6-under?

KATHIE SHEARER:  6-under, yes.

PAUL CASEY:  He’s not even a pro.

Q.   You can build on that anyway, can’t you, a good solid start?

PAUL CASEY:  Yeah, it’s a good solid start.  I didn’t play my way out of it or anything like that, so a good solid start.  I don’t know, I’ve not looked at the forecast or anything tomorrow, hopefully we’ve got favourable wind, receptive greens and I put it in the right places and I make some birdies.  Because I’m going to need to make more birdies than three per round I want to challenge, because it’s tough to keep clean scorecards around here.  I need more, for lack of a better term, offence.

Q.  How are you going to get more?  What would you do differently if you could have your time out there again today?

PAUL CASEY:  It’s already gone, I don’t know.  We’ll worry about tomorrow now because the pin positions will be different.  That’s the thing, they were tricky today and some days it looks like exactly the same golf course to the outsider, but to the guy standing in the middle of the fairway, just simple pin positions being in different locations can suddenly make the world of difference and make it easier, or more difficult.  Today was actually a lot of half shots.  I got a lot of distances slightly out.  I’m still learning how far the golf ball goes down here.  So, it’s all a learning process.

I’m not going to change anything, it’s just a case of – look, I mean, it’s a little bit of madness, isn’t it – don’t change anything, expect different results. It’s the sign of madness.

Q.  You’ve done pretty well, haven’t you?  You’ve done pretty well, you didn’t know the course that well, you’re finding your way around a bit.

PAUL CASEY:  Exactly.  I drove the ball well.  So, drive the ball well again tomorrow and I actually expect, doing the same thing, but I expect a different result based on if I do the same things tomorrow.

KATHIE SHEARER:  We welcome you, number 1 amateur in the world.  Great round today – 6-under.  You must be very pleased.

TAKUMI KANAYA:  Yeah, I enjoy today, so I shot a 65 today and I play with Jason and Jamie, so I enjoy it so much.

KATHIE SHEARER:  The golf course is very difficult.  Have you played here before?

TAKUMI KANAYA:  I play Australian Golf Club third time this year.  So I was 17 years old, I played 2015, so I shot 85 second round, so I learned (the) Australian golf style.  I just (knew) Japanese golf style before 17 years old.  I little bit confidence, I have confidence, but I have three more days, so I will do my best tomorrow.

KATHIE SHEARER:  A very good start today.

Q.  Just two weeks ago you won a big event in Japan.  What is the key to your game at the moment?  You seem to be playing extremely well in the big leagues?

TAKUMI KANAYA:  Yes, I have confidence a few weeks ago because I was JGTO  to events, because he (coach Gareth Jones) helps us a lot, supported a lot every time … Gareth Jones.

Q.  On the course today, the difference between your first nine holes, the back nine and the front nine – the scoring obviously very different and then maybe talk about your two birdies to finish and two very difficult holes for you.

TAKUMI KANAYA:  I had a good start, the front nine but back nine is difficult – second nine.  I know here is very difficult golf course, to find the ball.  I have lucky, should be 30 feet to make par, I make putt.  I’m happy.

Q.  Your English is very good, how long have you been practising English now?

TAKUMI KANAYA:  Supported by EF Training, supported national team in Japan and I watch YouTube.  You know Kei Nishikori and Keisuke Honda, they speak English very well, I study.

Q.  Can I ask you one more quick question, the Olympics next year, it’s in Japan in Tokyo, is it a goal to be on the team?

TAKUMI KANAYA:  Yeah, I want to join Tokyo Olympics in Japan, Japan team but I have little chance.  My world ranking is about 300, but if I won this championship so make more chance, so I’m hoping I will do my best.

Q.  I just wanted to know your age, I think 21 age?

TAKUMI KANAYA:  Yes.

Q.  What is your home city?

TAKUMI KANAYA:  I live in Hiroshima but I study in Sendai now, so I stay in centre from north of Tokyo.

Q.  Sendai?

TAKUMI KANAYA:  Sendai, same for all the boys in Hideki Matsuyama.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Thank you, we want to thank you, your English is from YouTube, maybe I learn Japanese from YouTube.

TAKUMI KANAYA:  Thank you.

KATHIE SHEARER:  It’s been quite a while since we’ve sat beside one another being interviewed, but this is your club.  You’ve been a member here since you were 14, 15?

MATT JONES:  Correct, since ’95, since I was 15.

KATHIE SHEARER: And your game is in good shape, you know all the nuances around the course?

MATT JONES:  I would have known the old course better than I do this one, but I know this one pretty well.

KATHIE SHEARER:  What was the strength of your game today?

MATT JONES:  Probably putting.  I made a few putts for par to keep a round going.  If you miss those, then my whole round is a total different ending.  Sometimes those par putts, 6, 8-foot putts to make par are more important than a 6-foot birdie putt.  To not lose a stroke I find is far more important than making a stroke.

KATHIE SHEARER:  I was speaking to Cam Smith and he was saying he’s 3-under but he really felt that that will be well in the mix by tomorrow, the wind is picking up, it’s very hot out there, do you feel the same?

MATT JONES:  Yeah, I have no idea how I stand, I don’t know where 4-under is coming, because I saw a couple of guys were off to a hot start early and it didn’t seem to get that tough out there with the wind.  It’s still difficult out there to read the greens and the wind was picking up a little bit, so yeah, at 4-under I’m sure we’ve got a lot of good players out there this afternoon, they could definitely shoot a 5 or a 6.

KATHIE SHEARER:  But you’re satisfied with the start?

MATT JONES:  I am, yeah.  I definitely didn’t hit it as good as I know I can, but I saved my round with a lot of good putts.

Q.  Can you talk us through the eagle on 18?

MATT JONES:  Yes.  I hit a good drive, I think I had 230 to the pin and I cut 2-iron to about 25 feet, but if it didn’t go in, it could have gone in the water, the putt was going that firm.  I didn’t hit a good putt.

Q.  Did you leave the flag in?

MATT JONES:  No, I didn’t.  It hit the back of the hole, popped up and went straight down.  Geoff and I both laughed because it was definitely going off the green.

Q.  You’ve got great memories here, having won in 2015, of course, you must feel great just coming back here?

MATT JONES:  Yeah, I do.  My record in the Australian Open is pretty good, so in enjoy coming back and playing in the Australian Open every year.  It’s something I look forward to.  It’s something that, when I haven’t been able to as last year, I just needed a break. I was worn out.  Not to be able to come back last year was disappointing, but every time I get to come back to play in Australia it’s always something I look forward to and something I have on the calendar every year.

Q.  The last thing from me, we all do talk about the fact that you’re a long time Australian member and stuff, but it’s not just about that, is it?  You’ve obviously got to bring your best stuff, other than being familiar?

MATT JONES:  It might add a little bit more pressure, because you’ve got to be able to perform and you’re expected to perform because it’s your own golf course.  So, it’s never seemed to bother me, because you’ve still got to hit the good shots. It’s still a difficult golf course.  The winds can be swirling.  But I probably have somewhat of a better idea understanding where I can miss the golf course.  I learnt that when I played Augusta with a couple of the old guys, they missed it in the right spots and they made easy pars, where I’d miss it in the wrong spot and I made an easy bogey.

Q.  You kind of just answered the question for me, but what is it in particular about this course?  Is it lines off tees that you just like or is it the overall comfort factor or is it a specific thing?

MATT JONES:  Just overall comfort factor, when you’ve been at a place for 15 years.  I haven’t really been here since I was 18, I’ve been in America since ’99.  I’ve played here six times a year for the last 15 years.  It’s not like I come back here and play and know the golf course, but it’s probably more comfortable off the tees and the lines to take and where to miss shots.  I don’t know it as well on these greens and these new green complexes after Jack came in and did it.  The old ones would have been much more comfortable to me, but I’m getting used to them.

Q.  Are there any courses you play on Tour that you have that same level of comfort with, where you just show up and you feel like you’re right at home?

MATT JONES:  I do, Pebble, I love playing Pebble.  For some reason I’m very comfortable out there.  That’s one that comes to mind straight off the top of my head.  Other than that, I’m sure there are, but that’s the one that sticks out.

Q.  I assume you’re talking about the conditions when you say it was awful out there, with the smog and the smoke?

KATHIE SHEARER:  Yes, we were just speaking before I spoke to you Matt and it’s getting quite swirly this afternoon, it’s a bit smoky, everybody’s eyes are getting a bit itchy.  So, to get out this morning and put a score on the board is what they were saying, that they don’t feel that this afternoon someone is going to come and shoot 8 or 9-under.  It’s gradually getting a little bit worse out there.

MATT JONES:  Yeah, I’m not sure what the forecast is, but the smoke’s not good at all.  It’s tough to see your golf ball when you’re out there playing, where it finishes.  Your eyes do burn.  I’ve got that cough like you’ve got something in your lungs, phlegm in your lungs or whatever, but it’s not fun.  I hope my kids are inside in the hotel room.

Q.  Have you experienced that elsewhere in the world?

MATT JONES:  Never.  Even when I played in China I didn’t think it was like this at all.  Definitely not in Malaysia, it’s just unbelievably humid, but no, I’ve never experienced anything like this.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Thank you Matt, thank you very much for coming in.

KATHIE SHEARER:  A bit tricky out there today?

CAMERON SMITH:  Yes and no.  The course always presents a challenge here, but we had pretty good conditions early this morning.  The greens were quite soft and the greens aren’t overly speedy as they normally are here, so it was pretty gettable.  We just kind of played solid and went about our business; it was good.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Marc said you won’t be too far away, 3-under, even this afternoon, the wind will pick up a bit, it’s dry out there and warm and dusty.

CAMERON SMITH:  Basically any round in the 60s around here, given the conditions, is a really good round.  I can’t imagine anyone’s going to go too crazy today.

Q.  How are you finding it, balancing this week and watching the beginning of next week?

CAMERON SMITH:  I haven’t really tried to even think about next week.   I know we’ve done a bunch of team stuff throughout the year, so we’re all prepared and ready to go, it’s just kind of trying to take this week before we get over there next week.

Q.  Marc said there’s a bit of chatter between shots?

CAMERON SMITH:  What was that, sorry?

Q.  Marc said there was a bit of chatter between shots about what’s happening next week.

CAMERON SMITH:  Yeah, the last probably couple of months have been pretty vocal within the team, after we knew who was going to be in there.  Yeah, it’s been pretty good, everyone’s excited.  We all want to do the same thing, which is nice and hopefully we come away with the trophy.

Q.  How did you find the haze, you’ve been here a few days now, how are you finding the conditions, air quality and stuff like that?

CAMERON SMITH:  It’s a bit odd, isn’t it, but what can you do?  I haven’t really felt any different, it’s just kind of the look.  But we’ll see after the four days, it might take a bit out of everyone, I’m sure.

MARK HAYES:  Ladies and gentlemen, this is really special for us.  It’s the second edition of the Australian All Abilities Championship, presented by ISPS Handa.  Just to introduce the people on the panel here and also the chief organiser, Christian Hamilton in a second, but first on the left, Geoff Nicholas, you’re a regular around Australian golf circles, but a professional golfer for probably a little bit over 25-ish–

GEOFF NICHOLAS:  25 years.

MARK HAYES:  Geoff’s playing in his second Australian All Abilities Championship.  Daphne van Houten from the Netherlands, welcome along.  An historic player for us, not only the first woman in the Australian All Abilities Championship, but the first female to play in 104 editions of the Australian Open, among the field.  So, a really important player to us. Thank you. Welcome from the Netherlands and closest to me here, Chad Pfeifer from Boise Idaho.  He’s got an amazing story, an ex-war veteran.  They’re all happy to talk about the golf and I think about their experiences as well.  If you have specific questions to the Tournament, I point you in Christian Hamilton’s direction.  Christian’s the national inclusion manager for Golf Australia and also the chief organiser at this Tournament, as I say. 

I’ll start off Geoff, if you don’t mind.  Geoff Nicholas, you have had an amazing year.  It’s taken you, since we last spoke at the Australian All Abilities Championship last year, golf has taken you in some crazy directions, hasn’t it?

GEOFF NICHOLAS:  Firstly, we played the Etka Scottish Open, which was part of the All Abilities Championship and the following week I qualified for the Senior Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes.  I became the first amputee to qualify for a major event.  It was a bit daunting playing with all the old legends of golf, but it was such a great experience to be playing beside Tom Watson and Freddy Couples, those types of guys.

Q.  Geoff, I’ve got one for you as well.  As Hayesy said, you’ve been around the game for a long time.  Did you ever envisage a day you’d be joined by people from all over the world playing in an event like this.  I can’t imagine you would have ever seen that as a possibility?

GEOFF NICHOLAS:  No.  Actually, I played here in 1996 in the Australian Open and I’m back here in 2019 playing in this event, so it’s quite amazing.  I played a lot of amputee golf in the late eighties and nineties in the US and it’s come so far.  I think Christian Hamilton has done a great job to make it all inclusive for everyone.  I think it’s bigger and better.  It’s going to be bigger and better and I think it’s great because I think it’s going to help other athletes with a disability.  They see us out there and it inspires them to do better, to try and compete on this circuit too.

Q.  Daphne a question for you.  As Mark said, obviously an historic thing.  Are you feeling the pressure?  It’s a big golf course.  Adam Scott’s here, Sergio’s here, there are an awful lot of things going on.  How are you feeling about the week coming up?

DAPHNE VAN HOUTEN:  The pressure is getting more and more now, yeah.  It’s starting on Friday and a bit of training now and if you see the big guys next to you, yeah, you can feel the pressure, yeah.

Q.  I have the same question for you, I guess, Chad.  It’s one thing to play a bit of golf, it’s another thing to play a bit of golf on the range on the golf course with Adam, Sergio and Ernie and run through the names.  It’s amazing.

CHAD PFEIFER:  Yeah, just being on property, walking, getting something to eat or going down to the range and then you see all these guys, the players you mentioned and just to be rubbing shoulders with them is amazing.  But this week is huge, not only for disabled golf, but for golf in general because I know all over the world people are trying to grow the sport and for us to be able to show off our talents, it’s an amazing opportunity for us as disabled players to show off our talents to the world.  It’s so great, like they mentioned, for others to be able to see us on TV competing at an event such as the Australian Open is huge for disabled golf, and it’s great for golf in general.  For everyone to be able to see us, it’s an amazing opportunity for PGA players and European players to see us as well.  Hopefully they can see us have success on the course.  There’s going to be a champion at the end of the week, but the entire week is going to be a lot bigger than crowing a champion for disabled golf and golf in general.  It’s a huge week for us.

Q.  I think like anybody who was at The Lakes last year for the inaugural event, I came away so impressed but also thinking what took the game so long to get us to this point where golfers with disabilities had a championship to play for.  Is that a similar sentiment for you guys actually playing as well, why did we take so long to get to this point – to any of the three?

CHAD PFEIFER:  I agree.  There are certain pockets around the world that have big disabled golf tournaments, but there’s only been a few – this one last year and then again this year, that have kind of combined everybody in the world.  The Scottish Open that Geoff competed in and other guys competed it, to put it on a national level or a world level is great for the game of golf.  Mine, I guess, it wasn’t a matter of when, it was just who was going to organise it.  So, for Christian and his team, Emirates Australian Open, to be open to events like this is huge and hopefully more tournaments catch on and you see the likes of us at more tournaments around the world.

DAPHNE VAN HOUTEN:  think the same, of course.  I’m only playing disabled for two years now, but there is a lot of improvement for the last two years and I hope there will be more.  The first thing is do a good job, so well done.

GEOFF NICHOLAS:  I think when I started playing in ’89, when I played in my first US Amputee, there was quite a lot of players and from there we just played an amputee tournament every year and from there it’s really grown.  I think the last two or three years where it’s kicked the sport with Golf Australia, what they’ve done and made it all inclusive, it’s shown that a couple of tournaments to start with and then it’s going to keep growing and growing.  I think that’s where I can see it going, which is great.  It’s certainly come a long way since I was playing, that’s for sure, at the start of it.

Q.  Daphne, can I ask you three questions in one.  What inspired you to get into golf, first question?

DAPHNE VAN HOUTEN:  I started playing when I was six, just because my parents did, that’s the main reason I started.

Q.  The other question I have, have you played with or met Joost Luiten.

DAPHNE VAN HOUTEN:  I never played with him, no.  I’ve seen him play at the KLM Open and in other countries, but never played with him, no.

Q.  Did your parents take you along to the KLM Open?

DAPHNE VAN HOUTEN:  Yeah.

Q.  Or any of the ladies tournaments?

DAPHNE VAN HOUTEN:  Have they took me there?

Q.  My last question, how inspiring was it to see Europe in the Solheim Cup this year?  Is that something that inspires you?

DAPHNE VAN HOUTEN:  It really is, yeah.  I saw Anne van Dam play and it was really amazing to see.  I’d like to stand there the same as Anne, but I don’t think I will get there, but it’s a big dream to get there, yeah.

Q.  This one probably is more towards Daphne and Chad, because Geoff, you’ve experienced this kind of thing a lot, but have you had any cool experiences this week already of hitting on the range or practising with able bodied athletes and what’s that like?

CHAD PFEIFER:  Yeah, like last night was an amazing opportunity for me at the welcome dinner at the bar last night.  So, I was up on stage with Paul Casey and Sergio Garcia.  They were just normal guys, excited that I was a part of it.  It was pretty surreal for me, just to be up on the stage with them and then have a little closest to the pin contest with them.  That was a really cool experience.

Now I’ve had the chance to talk with a couple of guys, Mike Weir just earlier today, talking with them.  So yes, being able to talk with guys and just kind of hang out with people here is pretty special.

Q.  Have you had similar experiences on the range or at practice?

DAPHNE VAN HOUTEN:  I was quite impressed on the range because I was a bit outnumbered, the only lady on the range and there were quite a lot of big guys there and I went on a picture with Ernie Els and that was a big dream for me to get on a picture with him.  So, I’ve had a lot of good experiences and I hope a lot more this week.

Q.  Just to that, do you find that the able bodied professionals are interested in what you do, are they watching you and talking to you, asking you about the issues that you have playing golf with the issues that you have?

CHAD PFEIFER:  I’ve had a few guys, actually a couple today because I wore shorts.  They just come up to me, one congratulating me for being here and wishing me success throughout the week, but then the other kind of asked me, so how does it work with the prosthetic and golf swing.  So, I’ve been able to kind of show him how I swing and how I built my swing around the prosthetic.  For them, the players of this calibre to come up to me, I guess they’re not really asking for advice, but they’re trying to figure out how we do it.  It’s pretty cool.  Like I said, players of this calibre, they’re asking how we golf.  I’m sure they get it a thousand times over and over how they golf and they’re tips and secrets.  It’s been a really cool experience for players like this to come up and ask us how we do it.

Q.  My question is for all of you. It’s a pretty impressive field this year for us.  Is there anyone in particular that you’re starstruck by, you really want to meet, kind of I’m in the same field as these guys?  Is there anyone in particular?

CHAD PFEIFER:  For me there’s quite a few of them.  I got to see Adam Scott and Sergio just in here before us and then we see Ernie Els.  When I started to play competitively, I read Nick O’Hern’s Tour Mentality.  I’m sponsored by Diamond Resorts and Nick lives down in Florida next to the CEO of Diamond Resorts, so Nick O’Hern actually came up to me and he’s like, hey tell Mike Flaskey hi, and I was like, okay.  I read your book.  I was a little starstruck because he came up, so it was a little kind of awkward, but it was a lot of fun to meet him and talk with him.

DAPHNE VAN HOUTEN:  For me, like I said, Ernie Els is a big one and I think the other one, Paul Casey.  I think he’s a really good player and I’d like to see him play.  I think the All Abilities players, of course.  I’m playing with you tomorrow, I guess.

GEOFF NICHOLAS:  Friday.

DAPHNE VAN HOUTEN:  Friday, sorry, and I’d like to see him play too.

GEOFF NICHOLAS:  Probably my heroes were Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus going back, and I experienced that at the Senior Open this year with Tom Watson and all those guys there.  It was quite amazing.  He’d planned his last Major to play in the same field, that was something special.  It’s just great.  I think because I’ve played professionally and in the disabled side of it, I think a lot of the pros really admire is, because they know how tough the game is and I see it both ways.  It’s one of the hardest games to do, but it’s probably one of the only games in the world where we can compete on the same playing field as a professional.  There’s no other sport you can do that, which that’s a great plus for the game of golf.

Q.  I think one of the things that struck me last year, Geoff, if you don’t mind – you guys can talk to it too – is that it’s not just the championship, it’s legitimately world class golf and we saw Johan in the final round last year.  She was 73 and better than half the filed in the able bodied competition.  Do you like blowing people’s minds with how good the golf is, actual golf and unhanding us?

GEOFF NICHOLAS:  This year at the Scottish Open, Brendan Lawlor from Ireland shot 71 and that was a pretty brutal course; that was long.  He beat probably 20 or 30 players.  He can play the game and last year Johan.  I shot a par in the qualifying for the Senior Open.  On our day, we can all shoot good scores.  It’s probably not about good scores, it’s just getting the game out there, showing what we can do.  I think that’s the big thing, someone out there sitting down that’s had an accident, they can see us, what we do and I think that might inspire them a little bit.

Q.  I’m going to ask you one bias question – are you really proud that Australia is leading the way here?

GEOFF NICHOLAS:  Yeah, I really am yeah. Christian Hamilton has done a great job with Australia.  The last two years has been terrific.  With the World Cup last year plus this year the President’s Cup, I think it’s great to see Australia at the forefront of all this activity.

Q.  I’ve got one last one for you Chad if you don’t mind.  Last year we had had Etka rankings, this year we’ve got World Disability rankings, that’s a massively important step towards the Paralympics.  Is that something that’s on your mind?

CHAD PFEIFER:  Yeah, I think so.  I think any disabled player wants to see golf in the Paralympics.  That was obviously a huge step, getting on the same level as far as the ranking and the classification levels for disabled golf.  Honestly, me just being here, since the US has kind of just been introduced to the ranking system in the last – it was a year ago this week and it kind of was announced.  So yeah, in less than a year, for me to see Americans and Canadians, people from all over the world climb the ranking system, it’s been huge in that effort, in particular for the Paralympics is again just something that’s great for the game of golf.

Hopefully we can get golf in the Paralympics and it’ll be another platform that we can use golf to reach out to players across the world and show them that no matter what you go through in life, you can always go out and enjoy golf.  The world ranking gives you something to work for if you want to play competitively.

MARK HAYES:  Thank you to all our athletes.  We really wish you the best of luck and have a great experience this week.  The Tournament starts on Friday and goes Saturday and Sunday, 54 holes – it’s awesome.  Get out there and watch it.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Sergio, just absolutely terrific to have you back.

SERGIO GARCIA:  Thank you.

KATHIE SHEARER:  I believe that you’ve been here for a little while now.  You were here last week or last weekend.

SERGIO GARCIA:  We got here on Wednesday morning, yeah.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Have you looked around Sydney?

SERGIO GARCIA:  A little bit.  We’ve done a little bit of sightseeing.  Obviously, staying downtown, so we walked to the harbour, seen the bridge, the Opera House and a little bit of Sydney.  We’ve gone to a couple of the beaches, Bondi and Manly.  It’s been good fun.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Today you’ve seen the course, do you like the look of it?

SERGIO GARCIA:  Yeah, I do.   I played last Friday and obviously today.  Yeah, it looks really good.  I love the type of golf course that it is.  I’ve always liked golf courses with small greens, that’s why Valderrama is my favourite golf course in the world.  So, I think it’s a really solid golf course, the kind of golf course that if the conditions are benign you can score, because it’s not terribly long, but if you get a little bit of wind, which usually you do here, those small greens then become very small targets and you have to be extremely precise to be able to hit them and have birdie chances and then if you start missing greens, then you can have some tricky chips.  So, I think it’s a very good golf course.

Q.  I’m intrigued obviously with what you do for a living.  You go all over the world but you guys rarely get to see anything, but you’ve come here early to Sydney.  I’m just wondering what your thinking was for that?  Did you always want to see Sydney?

SERGIO GARCIA:  No, it was much simpler than that.  I played two weeks ago in Dubai and I had a week off in between, so I was kind of halfway here.  I wasn’t going to go back to Spain, because that would add me an extra seven hours of flight and going to the States, it was also going to be a lot of flying.  So, I thought I might as well go early to Australia.  I remembered that I enjoyed Sydney when I was here in the early 2000s and why not?  I’ve always said that I’ve always enjoyed Australia, I’ve always liked Australia, so why not come and spend a little bit of time here.

Q.  Just one thing, you said you got to play the course last Friday, which is also unusual.  Is that likely to help you this week, having had some extra time out here to see the course before the Tournament?

SERGIO GARCIA:  No, because I only played it twice.  It’s like if I would have played it Tuesday and Wednesday, but it was nice to play last Friday.  It was a bit more relaxed and less players out there and you were able to take a couple of looks here and there.

Q.  No shorts today?

SERGIO GARCIA:  No.

Q.  I just wanted to ask you, based on obviously what happened last week in Europe, with shorts being allowed all four rounds, whether that’s something you think should be universal, because I believe you have a general conversation with one of our officials yesterday on the range?

SERGIO GARCIA:  Actually, because I’m used to, even in the US we practice in shorts, so I didn’t think of it.  I thought obviously the same thing, so I came with shorts but it was a good thing that I wasn’t out playing or anything, I was just practising a little bit, so it just reminded me that I had to come with pants today.

But yeah, I would love to see that.  I’ve said it many times – I think at the end of the day, having the possibility of playing with shorts, it only kind of brings us together to the amateurs, because when you go to a course, unless it’s winter and it’s really cold, if it’s spring or summer and the temperatures are nice, when you go to a normal course, 90 per cent of the people are wearing shorts, so I think the connection would feel even closer to the amateurs.  But I want to say, it probably will happen but we don’t know exactly when.

Q.  I believe you had a game at NSW Golf Club earlier in the week, is that right? 

SERGIO GARCIA:  I didn’t, no.  It was a corporate day for Credit Suisse, one of my sponsors, so I played six holes 15 times.  On probably 40 kph wind and that was fun, but it was a wonderful golf course.  It looked stunning.

Q.  You’ve mentioned Dubai was only two weeks ago and you’re back here playing again.  I’m just wondering when your off season is.  Do you have an off season?

SERGIO GARCIA:  Sunday, Sunday night it starts.

Q.  Obviously, the US Tour has already started, the European Tour has started for next year so when are you able to switch off?

SERGIO GARCIA:  Usually, like I said, Sunday night and I would love to have a little bit more time, but I have five or six weeks off during Christmas and then get ready for Abu Dubai, that’s where I’ll start my year.  So, it’s what it is.  I think it’s tough to find a lot of moments of down golf, like maybe in the early days for my career, in the early 2000s or something like that where the year kind of finished at the end of October/very beginning of November and then you had until second week of January or something like that, there was nothing to play, PGA Tour or European Tour.  You could come to Australia or Japan and play maybe one or two tournaments, but you could have a little bit of a longer gap.  But playing both tours is a little bit tougher to do that.

Q.  You talk about ending your season on Sunday, but Sunday also would mark the end of 20 years as a pro.  When you look back on those 20 years, how do you look back on it?  I was there when you won the Irish Open in ’99, you won the German Masters that year, you won a Major.  Now going into the next decade of your career, how do you look back on those two earlier decades?

SERGIO GARCIA:  It’s fun.  I think what tells me, it’s quite simple.  It shows me how lucky, how fortunate I’ve been to be able to do what I love for this long and do it at a fairly good level I would say.  So, I’m just thankful for that.  I’m very proud of some of the things that I’ve been able to achieve, not only professionally but personally and hopefully keep working hard on my game and see if I can have another good amount of years going forward.

Q.  Just a quick follow up European Tour theme question.  What’s your thoughts on Jon Rahm being named overnight and being honoured overnight with the European Golfer of the Year award?

SERGIO GARCIA:  He’s had an amazing year.  It’s great for me as a Spaniard, it’s great to see that.  It was great to see him win the Race to Dubai because since Seve, unfortunately I was close a couple of times, two or three times, and unfortunately I didn’t manage to do it, but as a Spaniard to see another Spanish player on top of the European Tour, it’s great.  It makes us all very proud of him.  Obviously, he deserves that award because he played amazing all year.

Q.  As a European, can you offer any advice to an International Team trying to avoid an eight straight loss to the US in the President’s Cup?

SERGIO GARCIA:  It’s a lot tougher than you may think.  Me, I don’t have the magic wand and they’re going to play amazing and win.  Obviously, I’ve had some experiences as a Ryder Cup player but until you’re in that team room with those team mates and everything and you see how everything feels, it’s difficult to say.

The only thing I can do is wish them luck.  Obviously, hopefully they play really, really well.  Scotty and I were talking this morning at breakfast, if they can at least make it a tight match and see how the Americans respond, then they’re already achieving something and if they can make it a tight match, then obviously they will have their chances of winning.

So, I think that’s the most important thing for them at the moment, make sure that they’re all enjoying what they’re doing, they relax, they can play to the best of their abilities, rookies and veterans and hopefully have a chance at winning it. It’s as simple as that.

Q.  How would you describe life after winning The Masters on and off the course, do you feel more satisfied than you thought you would or did it leave you wanting more out of your career?

SERGIO GARCIA:  You feel both.  You feel satisfied because it’s something that you wanted to do for so many years and probably Scotty can tell you the same thing.  It was similar to him, it happened to him a little bit earlier than me.  But at the same time, it doesn’t finish there.   It’s not like after winning The Masters we stop practising and we’re like, let’s see what happens.  We stay, we still practice hard.

Like I was saying, we’re still working hard, we’re still trying to improve. Obviously, we’re not 25 anymore but we know that there are some other things that we can get better at that can get us to a higher level and that’s what we try to do.  So, we’re not “satisfied” with what we’ve done.  Obviously, we are satisfied, but we want to keep achieving things.  Just like what Scotty said earlier about winning the Australian Open, the Australian Masters and the PGA, it’s great, but he still wants to keep winning it more, the same way that I’ve been fortunate to win so many tournaments in Spain, every time I play in Spain I want to keep winning, even though I’ve done well there.

Q.  Have you had an opportunity to look at the names on the trophy this week and is winning national Opens an important thing to you?  I’m not sure which ones you’ve won.  I think Bernie mentioned the Irish Open.

SERGIO GARCIA:  Yeah, I’ve been fortunate to win, I don’t know exactly how many, but obviously I won the Spanish Open, I won in Holland this year, the Dutch Open.  I won several, fortunately for me. The names, I haven’t looked at all of them, but the names are very, very impressive.  I know most of them.  It just shows you the quality of this Tournament.  Yes, it would be nice.  It’s a shame that I haven’t played this Open before.  It’s my debut as almost a 40 year old.  It kind of sounds a little bit funny, but I’m excited to play well and give it a good run.

Q.  Which beach did you enjoy more, Bondi or Manly?

SERGIO GARCIA:  Different.  I think Bondi was a little bit looser, a little bit more fun you may say.  Manly was a little bit more relaxed, so it just depends on what you want to do. They were both fun.  The water was quite cold I must say, but I love the sand, it’s very thin. It’s nice to walk in that sand.  It feels good on your feet and stuff like that.  But, they were both good fun.

KATHIE SHEARER:  It’s terrific to have you back at the Australian Open again.  Is this one of your favourite courses?

ADAM SCOTT:  It is, absolutely.  I’ve really enjoyed the Australian Golf Club, certainly since they did those major renovations six years ago or so.  I think it’s been brilliant and it’s obviously been a very strong venue to host this tournament. There’s been some great events here.  It’s always in as good a condition as any course in the country, I believe and it is again this week.  So, it’s all sitting right there for good golf to be played.

KATHIE SHEARER: I believe after you leave here, you’re going up to the clubhouse and they’re going to make you an honorary member.

ADAM SCOTT:  That’s right; very nice of them to do that.  I’d like to be able to use that membership a little bit more than I will, but maybe in the future I’ll get back and manage to get in a Saturday comp or something here.

KATHIE SHEARER:  How’s your golf game looking at the moment?

ADAM SCOTT:  Generally it’s been very good this year.  I haven’t played for a few weeks, since the HSBC in China, where I played quite well, except for the third round.  We’re always looking for that little something and I feel very comfortable that my game’s in good shape.  I really hope to get out there tomorrow and kind of find my rhythm early.  It’s very helpful here if you’re striking it nicely.  It takes a little pressure off because scrambling can get tough around here.  You’re going to have to do a little bit of it, but I don’t want to do too much.

Q.  A double barrel one from me, Adam, one you won’t mind, one you probably won’t be too keen to talk about.  What would it mean to win a second Australian Open?  You feel like the sort of player who should have more than one Stonehaven Cup on their resume, and the second one, have you been following anything with the Saudi Arabia issue, the players going there?  Do you have any thoughts about that?  Have you ever been asked to play there and do you have any stance on that?

ADAM SCOTT:  Yeah, I wish I had more than one Australian Open and I was speaking to somebody the other day, and although I’ve played very well generally in the 10 years’ since winning the Australian Open – it was a pivotal point in my career.  I think it was really a huge moment.  I was 10 years into my career and I’d really struggled in ’09 with me game and I came back and won the Australian Open at the end of the year.  It just turned everything around and from there I played very well and obviously went on to become number 1 a few years after.  So, it’s a big moment for me that, and I’ve been close a couple of times in the last 10 years and obviously I bogeyed the last and Rory birdied the last, and that hurt a lot.  A few years ago here I lost by a shot to Matt Jones, I believe.  I can’t think of any other close calls.  But I’m a little surprised that I haven’t won another Australian Open in this 10 year stretch.  I managed to get a couple of Masters in that period and a PGA, but it would be nice to get my name on that cup again.  It’s a great trophy and any time you see your name kind of racking up on a trophy is something quite special.  So, this week would be the week to do it.

As far as the Saudi thing, I don’t think what’s going on.  Obviously, there was talk of it last year, but I don’t know what’s happened now.

Q.  You’re a proud Aussie and big ambassador for Australian golf.  How difficult was it for you to miss the last couple of Australian Opens?

ADAM SCOTT:  It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, however at certain points there’s a time where, I think last year I just had to take a break.  I’d pushed myself pretty hard to get my game back in shape and it had been a grind.  I saw no other way to take a break and get ready for the big stuff and try and put myself back in.  I have certainly felt like I’ve prioritised playing as much as I can back in Australia, certainly through the period where I was a Major Champion or number 1 in the world and I just had to take a break last year.  It was important for me and it’s disappointing to miss, of course, because I’m not going to win it not playing it, but I knew I’d come back and play in an Australian Open, it was just the timing.  When you have a long career, priorities change at different points.  I try and juggle and balance so many more things today than I did even five years ago, so a lot’s changed for me.  I feel like I give a lot of my energies away and my family misses out a lot on that, so sometimes I have to do that.

But hopefully, the better I play, the easier it is for me to prioritise playing in Australia.  So, that’s my goal moving forward – stay on top of my game and not have the battles of trying to get your world ranking in the right place and playing extra events and all that kind of stuff that I had to deal with in ’17 and ’18 really.

Q.  President’s Cup, there’s a great quote you saying you’d love to stick it to Tiger.  What do you make of him as a competitor and what kind of challenge would that be?

ADAM SCOTT:  He’s the ultimate competitor.  There’s no way he’s not doing everything possible coming down here as a captain and a player to win this event.  There’s no way he wants to be the captain to a losing US team.  So, it’s going to be very, very difficult but we have to believe we can beat him, because I believe we can win next week.  So, it would be great to stick it to Tiger and the entire American team.  I’m expecting it to be an incredible week next week.  Part of this week is kind of preparing myself mentally and physically for what’s coming next week.  It’s a tall ask to beat any American team, they’re very strong.

Q.  How would you rate your domestic career and how fulfilled or unfulfilled is it and how much more do you want to achieve in Australia?

ADAM SCOTT:  It’s an interesting question.  I’ve won all the events that are here, so in a sense I’m happy with that.  The greedy side of me wants to win them all every time, which doesn’t just happen, but to have won the Australian Masters and the PGA and the Open is fulfilling, I guess, seeing there’s only really two major events that have always been part of Australian golf left.  It’s not easy to just rack up wins when there are two.

KATHIE SHEARER:  We were just saying, it’s a year ago, it’s flown, and it all just started here.  Tell us about the year since you won The Australian Open this time last year?  Tell us about your golf and where it’s sitting now?

ABRAHAM ANCER:  It did, it went by very quickly, but it was a really good year.  It all kick started this week.  Australia became very special for me.  It taught me a lot of things that week.  It really just made me feel really comfortable out there; some situations of maybe before I would be a bit nervous and I felt great. Played some solid golf all year and really happy with the results.

KATHIE SHEARER:  You played in the Pro-Am today, you like The Australian, did you like the course?

ABRAHAM ANCER:  I did, I love it.  I played actually nine on Monday and nine yesterday and played 18 today.  It was not windy today.  Monday was really windy, so I got to see that, which I wanted to do.  I know it can get really windy out here from last year.  Last year there was at least a couple of days that it was blowing pretty good, so I wanted to see the golf course both ways – with and without wind.  I love the course.  You have to hit it really well.  It’s fast on the fairways.  You’ve got to be creative around the greens, which I really love.

Q.  Everyone else here will be bored, I’m asking this question of everybody, but it’s two big weeks for everybody who’s playing this week and next.  Added pressure for you as the defending champion.  How do you manage your time and your energy for what’s going to be a pretty intense 10 days?

ABRAHAM ANCER:  Yeah, it’s going to be mostly probably mentally, but I think I’m going to be just really excited that I might not feel even tired at all.  So, I’m looking forward to that; treating it as every week, nothing different physically – going to the gym and doing my routine as I normally do.

Q.  The importance of winning for confidence for a player.  We know that the Australian Open is not the PGA Tour, but the importance of that as you climb the steps of golf to that top tier, knowing that you’ve won at this level.

ABRAHAM ANCER:  100 per cent.  I think just winning at any level gives you a lot of confidence.  Like I was telling in the past question, I really got a lot out of my win here and just took it to the PGA Tour.  I didn’t get a W there, but I was very close multiple times and I’m really happy the way my game has been progressing after my win.

Q.  With all of the President’s Cup players in the field this year, how much more difficult do you think it will be to win the title this year and does it change your mindset going into it as the defending champion against a world class field?

ABRAHAM ANCER:  Well, my mindset never changes, it doesn’t matter where I go or what kind of tournament I’m playing.  I go out there and just play the practice rounds, get a game plan of how I think I can play my best golf out there and if I do that, I feel like I can win really anywhere.  I don’t want to be thinking I have to change something just because somebody else is playing in the event.  So I just go about doing my work and try to stick to my game plan and see where I end up.

Q.  I just want to ask you quickly about the conditions out there, there’s a bit of pollution in the air.  Does it feel any different to you?

ABRAHAM ANCER:  Not really.  Obviously, visually it’s a little hazy but I feel good out there.  It’s a shame, I’ve been reading a little bit about it and it’s pretty sad seeing what’s going on in all of Australia with the bushfires, but I don’t think it will affect the golf at all, just maybe the look of it.  It may be a little hazy, like I said, but it should be fine.

Q.  Just a bit about the importance of the President’s Cup as a competition for countries that have not a particularly not strong golf culture perhaps.  To be able to look and see that it’s not the Ryder Cup but there’s a place that you can get to and be inspired by that by people like yourself and C.T. 

ABRAHAM ANCER:  For sure.  I was growing up watching those matches when I was little, it was insane just how exciting it was to watch them and now being able to be a part of it; it’s pretty incredible.  So, I’m really happy about that and just hopefully showcase a little bit of where you can get from Mexican golf.  The game is growing a little bit more now, which is nice to see, but we want to get that a little bit better and faster.  So, this will hopefully help a little bit.

Q.  There’s an extra level of credibility about winning an national Open.  Apart from what happened here and the awards and everything, when you went back to the PGA, when you went back to Mexico, what was the best thing that came out of winning the Australian Open?

ABRAHAM ANCER:  Like I said, I felt really comfortable out there and maybe some events before my win, I was maybe a little bit, not nervous but I wasn’t in that situation before.  So, being able to have a four or five-shot lead on the last day and playing good, in tough conditions, that that Sunday just got be prepared for being in other situations that I felt really calm, that I was like, you know what, I feel good about being on the hunt or being on the lead. I wasn’t nervous or if I was nervous, I was able to control it, which I think that was the biggest part that I got from this win.

Q.  What about from other players, did anyone say anything to you?  Were the Aussies more friendly to you after you’d won it when you went back to the PGA?

ABRAHAM ANCER:  Well, obviously I got a lot of people congratulating me, which was really nice.  Just the history of this event is huge, the names that have won it.  To have my name engraved into that and the trophy and just looking at all the names was really, really special.  Just a lot of people just congratulating me because it’s a big win.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Thank you Abraham, maybe we’ll see you here Sunday.

ABRAHAM ANCER:  That would be nice.  Thank you.

KATHIE SHEARER:  I’d like to welcome C.T. Pan here this week.  It’s marvellous to have you in the field.  You’re here this week and then playing next week.

C.T. PAN:  Yes.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Tell us, you’ve played today, what’s your thought on the course, on The Australian?

C.T. PAN:  So I played this course in 2015, that was my first year as a professional and I played great.  I love the course, I love the design and I think the only difference this year is I feel like the condition is more like Royal Melbourne. It’s much firmer greens and fairways.  Obviously, greens are still a little bit slow, but I’m sure on the weekend they will get it fast.  I think this is perfect preparation for Team International, especially for me.

Q.  We first saw you at Royal Melbourne 2014 for the Asian Pacific Amateur Championship, you were a pretty impressive player there.  What do you remember from that that you can take to next week, and more importantly, you’ve got to get through this week first.  It’s 10 days of high intensity golf.  How do you deal with that – lots of concentration, lots of pressure?

C.T. PAN:  First of all, Royal Melbourne, you have to keep the ball in play.  It’s not a long course but the weather, it’s going to be a big factor, because the wind can change.  As you know Melbourne, you can see four seasons in one day or even in five hours, so you have to be well prepared.  You just need to adapt very quickly and very well and keep your ball in play.  Obviously the approach shot around the green will be very crucial as well.  I think that’s our biggest strengths compared to the American players and I think that’s also my strength as well.

For this week, I’m just trying to get my game ready.  I took the last two weeks off just to have a nice relaxing time back in the States; so that was good.  I feel my game is good.  I just need to drain more putts on the greens.  That’s something I’ve been always working on and I think hopefully the next two weeks it will pay off.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Will you be having dinner with Ernie sometime this week?  Have you planned to get together?

C.T. PAN:  No, not really, I’m still too shy to ask.  He’s like a legendary, a leader to me.  I was honoured to get to play with him on Tuesday, nine holes with Abraham Ancer and K.J. Choi and it was really cool for me, just watching him chipping around the green.  It just gave me goose bumps because he’s won so many Majors and when I was little I watch him playing, growing up, so that was a really cool experience for me.

Q.  Just on the President’s Cup, of course we know it’s not yet as big as the Ryder Cup, most of us would hope that it might one day get there but it’s a difficult thing to do with an International team.  For somebody like yourself who’s from a country where the golf culture isn’t particularly strong, how important is that to be able to look to an event like the President’s Cup as a goal to get to?  Is it something that helps to inspire players from countries where golf isn’t particularly strong?

C.T. PAN:  What was the last part of it?

Q.  For someone like yourself who’s from a country where the golf culture is not particularly strong.  Here in Australia we have a lot of golfers and a lot of golf courses, golf is very much part of the fabric, but for yourself that’s not the case in Taiwan.  Is that something that is important for players to be able to see, that one day they could play the President’s Cup?

C.T. PAN:  Yes, absolutely and that’s why, actually, I had a press conference in Taiwan in September, just focusing on the President’s Cup and also we had junior players make it to the Junior President’s Cup, which is also a big thing back in my country.  I think Team International, obviously we have a lot of countries are still developing, so golf is not very big in their countries  To me that’s a great opportunity and that’s what PGA Tour is trying to do, we want to explore to many other countries and that’s why we have President’s Cup, to hopefully help grow the game.  For me, I know a lot of fans in Taiwan, in Chinese Taipei, they are coming down to Melbourne to cheer for me and I think that’s a good sign for it.

Q.  Next week you’ve got an international team that’s got a lot of players that are either on for the first time or young or both.

C.T. PAN:  Including me.

Q.  Yes, that’s right.  Is there a sense among you guys who are either young or there for the first time, that this can almost be like a clean slate and you can almost ignore the fact that there’s 20 years of bad record for the International side in this event?

C.T. PAN:  You are right in what you say, but I think obviously we are young.  But I want to say we are fearless as well, because nowadays on the PGA Tour is no piece of cake.  You see these young guys, they are all on the PGA Tour, so they have proved themselves that they can beat anyone on the PGA Tour and they’ve seen those American players every day.  So, we are fearless, we have a great opportunity and plus we have a home advantage.  Obviously, history tells a lot, but what we are looking at is our future.  Today or right now, we are looking at next week especially.

KATHIE SHEARER:  That’s wonderful.  Thank you and we’d like to thank you for coming in.

C.T. PAN:  Thank you guys, appreciate it.

KATHIE SHEARER:  We’d like to thank you for being here.  Is it really about 15 years since you’ve been in Sydney?

ERNIE ELS:  Yes.  I came here, I just played a casual round of golf with a friend of mine, Mr Tiaan Strauss, he was a rugby player in Australia, he captained the rugby union side and for some reason I found myself in Sydney, me and the family, Liezl and the kids, had nothing to do on one day and came to play here, at this very golf course, but it wasn’t the same golf course. 

But yeah, I haven’t been back since, so it’s really nice to be back in Sydney.  It’s a shame we can’t really see a lot because of the smoke, but it’s a wonderful city, iconic city of the world.  So, it’s good to be here.

KATHIE SHEARER:  You’ve played today in the Pro-Am, how’s your game looking?

ERNIE ELS:  I’m good, I’m okay.  I haven’t played too much since the summer.  I’ve played in South Africa, not very well, but I had a lot of rust on my game, so it’s been nice to shake some of it off and do a bit of practice, down in Leopard Creek.  But my focus is really on the team, not really on myself.  Getting the guys going for next week, that’s really on my mind, but obviously I’ve only played one other Australian Open in my whole career and this is the second one.  But unfortunately for the event, my mind’s on other things, but I’d love to play well this week.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Do you like the golf course and the changes that you’ve seen?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, it’s very good.  Brought in a lot of hazards.  Obviously, Jack Nicklaus came in I hear and changed his own golf course.  The greens are a little bit more undulating than I remember back in the day and as I say, there are quite a few more hazards that’s in play.  It all depends on what the wind does.  If the wind comes, the golf course will play really tough.  It’s playing really fast.  But it’s quite scoreable in conditions like we had this morning.

Q.  You mentioned Tiaan Strauss, so I might ask you a rugby question if you don’t mind.  As a South African, what did it mean to you to see someone like Siya captain the team to win the World Cup and a follow up from that, is there anything that you can take from what the Springboks did that you can transfer into the President’s Cup team where you’re bringing together a bunch of players from around the world?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, what Siya has done is quite incredible.  I heard that he, the previous time that the Springboks won the World Cup in 2007, he was living in not a very nice comfortable house and it just shows you with hard work and to pick himself up from where he was and the way South Africa has changed, it’s just been incredible to see Siya’s rise through the ranks in rugby and in life in general.  Today he’s the hero of South Africa.  He’s in the same echelon or even higher than these previous two captains that won in John Smit and Francois Pienaar, so he’s an absolute icon back home in South Africa and somebody that we can really look up to and try and emulate.  For young kids it’s just an incredible story.

Then obviously what the Springboks have done was another great story.  They were the absolute underdogs going into the World Cup, they didn’t have a lot of form and somehow stood on the podium with the cup.  They had a good draw, they didn’t have to play New Zealand or Australia in the semis or quarters, but still they prevailed and then beat England in the final.  So, it was quite a comeback story.

Q.  When did you find out about Jason Day?

ERNIE ELS: On Friday morning my time in South Africa.  My phone was buzzing quite a bit and I eventually looked at it and saw there were three missed calls and two text messages from Jason, so he was quite frantic to get me and I called him back.  It was about three in the morning my time in South Africa.  He was in California and he gave me the news.

Q.  What did he say?  Can you tell us how that conversation went?

ERNIE ELS: He said he was prepping to come down here and he was in Palms Springs, California and just felt a huge tweak in his back and he said it was something that he’s felt before and it wasn’t going to be a short term solution to it, it was going to be a long term injury.  So, that was that.  He wanted to be here, badly, I know that.  We’ve had a lot of correspondence through the year.  We’ve had four or five team meetings, he was at each one, so he was totally invested to play and it’s unfortunate what happened.

Q.  How big a challenge is it to overcome what he would have brought to this team?

ERNIE ELS: Well, we’ve had some challenges in the past and this is one.  But, as I said before, we’ve got such an array of players that we can pick from, guys that are really on form, long term form and it’s unfortunate for Jason obviously, not to be able to play at home, but I’ve got a really great replacement in Ben An.  I’ve got a lot of confidence in him.  He played great at end of the season last year in Korea, Japan, at the Sanderson event he finished second or third.  So, he was really, really close.  It was a really nice call, for once, that I made to him, because the previous call was a very disappointing call.

Q.  You’ve been very strategic with the way you’ve tried to formulate your President’s Cup plan of attack.  Have you thought about who you want to face Tiger on Sunday, is it already on your mind?

ERNIE ELS: Not really, I’m really focused on the first couple of sessions.  We’ve got four sessions before we get to the singles.  There’s a lot of golf to be played.  I’ll analyse how the guys are playing and see who’s really got the look in the eye and then see accordingly how the guys are playing through the week.  There are a lot of guys who have put their hands up to want to play Tiger, but there’s going to be a lot of discussion before we get to the singles, so, not really.

Q.  Are there any partnerships that stand out in your mind like Cameron and Leish or any of the other guys?

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, there are a couple of pairings that are kind of natural pairings, if you can call it that, but I’m looking at it in a different way, not just a personality way.  I’m looking at how the guys can really perform together.  So, stay tuned.

Q.  You said you’ve had a lot of guys put their hand up to play Tiger.  What does that tell you about your team and the players in the team?

ERNIE ELS:  It’s a very young team.  We’ve got a lot of young guys and then obviously we’ve got some experience in Adam and Louis and Leish and some of the guys – Hideki now, he’s played quite a few and then you’ve got some youngsters, really youngsters.  I mean 20 year olds and 21 year olds.  So, that’s refreshing.  These guys, they never competed against Tiger like some of the other guys have, like Scotty.  Scotty ran into Tiger quite a few times, so there are different ways you can look at how guys have played in the era of Tiger.  The youngsters look up at him, but they definitely want to have a piece of him.  So, we’ll see.  We’ll see who plays the best – maybe not the best, but who I think can really play against Tiger the best and get the best result.

Q.  Do you think that match up is as intimidating for guys now as it was 10 years ago?  Is it less intimidating now for them?

ERNIE ELS: Well, when you play in the singles, it depends on where the event is, where the standing is, the two teams are.  The pressure could be really high, depending on where that match up will be.  If it’s going to be a crucial time it will be a different player that’s going to play Tiger.  We’re going to really look at where that certain player is going to play Tiger.  I don’t want to have a guy feel overwhelmed.  I will not put a guy in there that’s going to feel overwhelmed.  So, I will go accordingly.  I’ll see who’s going to feel like he’s really got the best chance against him and I don’t think it’s the same kind of order like in the past, I think it’s a different kind of order.  It’s more of a, like he’s a celebrity kind of order and obviously, he’s very competitive, he’s won The Masters and won in Japan.  When he’s healthy, he can play at a very high level, but consistently, he’s not what he used to be and that’s just what age does.  But we’ll see when we get there.

Q.  Please ignore this if you’ve answered it.  Given your role next week, how does that change things this week in terms of will you be going home and being on the computer and checking out all of the scores from the Internationals and also the Americans?

ERNIE ELS:  I’ll be watching the Americans a little bit.  There could be something there, the way that the pairings were done for the first round.  It was interesting to see Tiger playing with Justin Thomas again.  It seems like he likes to play with Justin Thomas a lot, so there could be something there.  Then I’ll look at some of the other pairings.  There could be something there, more than with us.

My pairings is on my phone here and we’ve looked at quite a few different scenarios.  I’ve spoken to the players, some of the players already.  So, my thing is kind of set already, my plan is kind of set in motion already. So, it really doesn’t matter how the guys play this week, they’ve done their work, they’ve done the hard work of getting on the team.  They don’t really have to prove much to me anymore.  It will be nice if they play well, but we’ve done the long term form guide on all the players and I’m happy where they are.

Q.  Just a quick one.  I know you talked about focusing on the teams this week, but in the bigger picture, you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t think you could win and you’ve won The Open, you’ve won the US Open, you’ve won a Scottish Open, you won a Singapore Open.  What would it be like if you did get yourself in contention to win an Australian Open?

ERNIE ELS:  It will be just unreal, it will be a great feeling.  It will be wonderful to be in contention.   I really like the course.  As I say, I’ve played in Australia a lot, since the nineties, early nineties I played at The Vines in Western Australia, I’ve played in Melbourne, I’ve played up in Queensland, and I’ve won quite a few in Australia.  I’ve won, I think, four or five times in Australia but I’ve never been able to play a lot of Australian Opens like my countrymen have.  Bobby Locke has played a lot here and obviously Gary Player won seven Australian Opens, so they’ve had a lot of success. 

Australia has been such an unbelievable force in golf, with your tournaments you’ve had and how you’ve attracted great players to come and play on your great golf courses.  I’ve been fortunate enough to play down here, so it would be great to be able to be in contention.

KATHIE SHEARER:  Thank you ladies and gentlemen, thank you Ernie.  We’d like to see you in the week.