Champagne Louis

2013, of course, is a Presidents Cup year. Coming here to Korea – is that a good chance for you to catch up with a few potential teammates?

Yeah. KT Kim [Kim Kyung-tae] played beautifully today. I don’t want to count the number of putts he had because I had so many! So he stands a chance. I hope guys like KJ Choi and YE Yang can get on the team. They’re both great putters and you need to putt well at Muirfield Village. But yeah, I’m really looking forward to the week, especially after missing out two years ago in Melbourne. I think this year we’re going to have a lot of South Africans on the team, so it’s going to be a special week.

How do you explain the rise in recent times of South African players? Yourself aside, Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace, Richard Strerne, George Coetzee, Tim Clarke and Ernie Els all look like making the International side ...

All of us have to give Ernie and Retief [Goosen] the credit for winning their majors, as we all wanted to follow in their footsteps. Trevor [Immelman] came along and won at Augusta, and although he’s struggled with injuries he’s playing better now. Timmy has also come back from injuries. Me and Charl grew up together, we played junior golf together, and we’re probably going to play all the better ball matches together because we’re so comfortable in each other’s company. South Africa is a sporting nation and whenever we get in a situation to win we want to show the rest of the world that South Africa is on the map.

Speaking of Charl, and as ridiculous as it sounds, he seemed more disappointed than you were last year after you narrowly missed out at Augusta ...

[Laughs]. Well, yeah, I know he really wanted to be handing the Green Jacket over to me – that would have been something else; for two guys who grew up playing golf in South Africa to almost be involved in something like that. It was sad; it would have been a dream come true. We've talked about it a lot ... he's a great friend and you never know, maybe it will happen in the future.

I know the International Team has lobbied to try and have the format for the Presidents Cup changed so that it's the same as the Ryder Cup – ie playing for a total of 28 points instead of 34 and a reduction in the number of foursome matches – but that's not going to be the case this time around. How important do you think that decision will prove to be?

Yeah, it would be nice to have the same system as the Ryder Cup, which allows you to have your strongest team out there every time. But I think we have a great chance anyway. All of us who look like making the team know each other and we’re going to try and play a few more practice rounds together. The team spirit is definitely there, so it’s just a matter of how much we want it.

How well do you know Nick Price, the captain of the International side?

I’ve gotten to know him really well in the last year. Me and Charl often go up and see him – he lives quite close to us in Florida – and have a barbeque and we like to shoot clays together. He’s a great guy. Coming from Zimbabwe, he’s one of the guys we looked up to growing up. I remember watching him win all those Million Dollar events in South Africa on TV when I was little. It’s going to be great fun with him and Tony Johnstone and Mark McNulty as his assistants.

Your swing is one of the most admired in the game, with everyone from Nick Faldo to Johnny Miller raving about your rhythm. But has it always been like that?

I think my rhythm is pretty close to how it’s always been but the swing itself has changed quite a bit. I’m always working on it, sometimes with my coach Pete Cowen, trying to get rid of that wayward shot that can cost a double bogey. At the end of the day, when you’re not swinging well you go back to your old natural swing. Sometimes that’s a good thing; sometimes it’s not. But my play at The Masters [where he missed the cut] was more down to my putting than anything else.

If you're back at home and not got an event on, how would you spend your perfect weekend?

Watching the Miami Heat play on the Friday night and then watching my team – the Stormers – play rugby on TV on the Saturday morning. Then we’ll put something on the grill, usually some steaks, and chill out in the pool on Sunday with the kids. That’s pretty much my perfect weekend.