Media Center : Player Interviews

Champion Ernie Els

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

DOUG MILNE: We'd like to welcome the 2008 Honda Classic Champion, Ernie Els, to the media center. Thanks for joining us, great rounds today, 3-under par 67 with the wind. You picked up 4500 FedExCup points and I know it's been a long time coming, four years, just a couple general opening comments on how you're feeling.

ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I know, thank you. It's still really settling in. I'm sure I'll really feel it tomorrow, you know, probably I'll be able to answer your questions better tomorrow.

But anyway, I really feel very grateful and happy. Obviously it's been quite a ride, you know, especially over here. I've won tournaments around the world, scarce tournaments around the world here and there, but obviously to win over here, it's been really my goal.

So, it's a great feeling. I was really trying not to mess up out there. You know, if my confidence was maybe a little high, maybe I could have really separated myself a little bit, because my game, I really felt good with my game from tee-to-green.

But I took a bit of pace off my putts on the back nine. I felt the wind was really drying up the greens. The greens were getting really quick. So I missed probably four very makeable putts. But you know, I don't want to look at the negative. You know, this has been a really wonderful week, never shooting over par on a very, very difficult golf course. So very pleased.

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Matt Jones

Q. How do you feel?

MATT JONES: Good and bad. It was disappointing the way I finished on 17, but overall it's a good start to the year. Got off to a good start, did pretty much what I wanted to.

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Mark Calcavecchia

Q. Just talk about the last few holes; you had a lot of bad breaks.

MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Yeah, didn't go my way. Wasn't my time. I hit it in the water three times. I said yesterday I needed to keep my ball dry, and if I would have done that, it would have been a different story.

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Luke Donald

STEWART MOORE: Luke Donald, thanks for joining us after a great final round out there. It was a great battle, lot of conditions, really jumbled leaderboard and really on the back nine you were kind of hanging around and all of a sudden the 35-footer at 16 drops and you're right back in the mix. Take us through the Bear Trap, the back nine and everything that went on out there.

LUKE DONALD: Yeah, it was one of those days where you knew you just kind of had to hang around, and it was never going to be an easy day. The wind was whipping harder today than any of the other days. So, it was a tough day.

You know, I played reasonably solidly on the front nine. I had a couple chances, a lipout on 10 and a chance on 11, looked like it had a good chance to go in. 12 and 13 were disappointing to me, to hit good drives and be in the middle of the fairway and walk off with two bogeys was where I felt I lost a lot of my momentum. And from there it was always going to be a struggle with Ernie playing so well up ahead.

You keep plugging along, because you know those last few holes are pretty tough and anything can happen. You know, I played the Bear Trap holes reasonably well, and thought if I could squeeze a couple birdies, might have a chance. Just came up a little short.

STEWART MOORE: 2700 FedExCup Points, your second top three finish in three starts; good start for 2008.

LUKE DONALD: A lot to build on, very encouraging results. I feel like I'm learning every week and getting better for it. You know, that's the goal this year, to keep getting better.

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