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.