Are there any Aussies coming through, at that age? There just seems to be a surge of brilliant young players globally – do you see any brilliant young Australians coming through?
Oh yeah. I think Jason Day has probably got the most amount of talent of all our young players right now. There’s a guy called Marc Leishman that I like to watch – big, strong guy. You know it’s just amazing how these guys all of a sudden appear. You don’t really see them. And I’m at that generation difference with them too, I’m not out there and I don’t see them growing up. But when I was out there playing on a regular basis, you would always get this new wave of a young kid coming through, like an Adam Scott coming knocking, biting on your heels, you know. So it never ends. I’m just so impressed with the depth of European golf right now … unbelievable. It’s the best thing that’s happened to the game of golf in decades and decades.
Yet now it seems the number one-ranked player in the world is changing every second week, and there are a lot of Europeans in there. What are your thoughts on that? You were world number one for 331 weeks.
[Laughs]. Right. I think it was always there. Probably the best thing, like I said to you, that’s happened to the game of golf is the fact that it’s gotten off that number one banner. I mean Tiger Woods carried it for a long period of time, because he was very good. But the game of golf is such a global game, that it’s got to be shared around. To see the quality of these guys, whether it’s a Luke Donald, whether it’s a Lee Westwood, whether it’s Manny from Italy or the Molinari brothers, it’s just … I love to see it because the game of golf really has always been that way, but the focus of attention was grabbed by the US PGA Tour, who put it on Tiger Woods and nothing else existed. And yet, all these other guys were still there, they were all winning on a regular basis, they’re all there. But now the dynasty of American domination of the game of golf is just about over. And these guys, young kids now, like the McIlroys and the Ishikawas of the world, they aren’t intimidated by that any more. So, you know, they step up to the first tee of any golf tournament, I don’t care whether it’s a major or just a regular golf event, these guys know they can beat ‘em on any day. Obviously Tiger’s demise - whether it’s his private side or whether it’s his golf or whether it’s injuries - opened the door for these guys in quite a lot of ways. I kept on saying, you know like the Ernie Els of the world, they were playing their best golf against a guy they just couldn’t beat, so their confidence level was shattered. One day Tiger started to back off a little bit, the confidence level picked up and look what happened, [Ernie] won two tournaments last year. So it was a psychological barrier they had to burst their way through, but it was more the media and the exposure and what the US PGA Tour had created in one guy, and now [forcefully] they are paying the price for that.
Do you think Tiger can come back from this?
I personally do not think so. I mean, I think he will come back and win, no question. Will he come back and dominate the game of golf? No. I think his day is done, I think he has too many distractions. You know, I think he … quite honestly, I would just love to see Tiger be a person. Just let go of whatever he’s trying to cocoon up. I don’t know him that well, so it’s only my observation, but from what I see I think it would do him the world of good. He still has the talent to do it, but I think he’s going about it the wrong way. I don’t like his golf swing now at all. I think that’s going to be detrimental to his physical health too, just as much as to his mental health.
