THE MODERATOR: Ernie, welcome to the 2025 Senior PGA Championship. What's it like being back here at Congressional?
ERNIE ELS: It's wonderful, really. Nice morning this morning, nice and cool. Nice to walk in the clubhouse and see what we did back in '97. There's quite a few pictures around the clubhouse. That's not been changed at all, it doesn't seem like. The locker room, the same thing.
They've played quite a few events after the '97 U.S. Open, but the '97 memories are right where I'm at. When I'm walking around the fairways I keep remembering shots that I played. My parents were here. I played with a kid this morning who's 27, and I was 27 back in '97, and my dad was my age that I am today. I'm 55. It's like a full reversal.
It's almost emotional when you think about it. Time has gone so fast. My dad, and my mom is 82 it years of age now, and 27 years ago, we were having so much fun here. That's special.
Q. Can you talk about how different this golf course is than the one you won on?
ERNIE ELS: Very different. The holes go the same direction except for the 10th from '97. But this 10th hole is so much better than the other ones they tried with the greens across the lake with those bunkers. I don't think the players liked it too much.
This one is a little friendlier. The green has got a lot more contour. But then you go up 10, 10 is the same kind of fairway -- I'm sorry, No. 11. The old 10th. 11 goes up, but they've put the green on the other side and lengthened it, so it's a par-5. 11 comes back. All the corridors are there the same, but very, very different design. Bunkers are totally different, green complexes are very different, trees have vanished.
But I feel it's a wonderful design. It really is. You walk off most of the tees -- the greens right on to the tee, which is nice, and a lot of the tee boxes are exactly the same place as they were back in the day. Very good design.
Q. You talk about being 27, now 55. Could you ever have imagined at 27 that you'd still be playing golf at a high level and still enjoying it as much?
ERNIE ELS: Yeah, it's interesting because I think the U.S. Senior was here in -- was it '94? I remember watching that, and one of my heroes was Tom Weiskopf, and Tom won that week. I remember watching that event and got a good feel of the course just from watching on television, and obviously he won.
But to come back to your question, you know, no. You used to watch senior golf, but in your 20s you're not thinking I'm going to be playing at 50, and a lot of us thought we wouldn't play past 40. But then you keep going, and it's kind of a process that you stay in. All these years, we're still in the process trying to get better at something.
To be honest with you, it's a hard question to answer, but I don't think I thought that I would be this competitive at this age, no.
Q. Would you like to see that 49 year old guy from up the street from you in Florida, would you like to see him out here?
ERNIE ELS: Yeah, I think he should be. I think it would be good for everybody, for him included, obviously.
I think he doesn't have to be shy not to be able to walk properly. We can use carts on our tour for most of the events. He can really get himself back in golf shape. Instead of playing two rounds here and a couple of rounds there, maybe get on a schedule again. It's nice to have a schedule. It's nice to know that you're looking forward to practicing for a purpose, and obviously he'll get his competitive fire back. With that kind of talent, you can probably have a chance here and there until he's 60 to maybe even have a contention to maybe win a major.
If Tom Watson could almost do it at, what was he, 59 -- but it's kind of dreaming. But just to get him back into competitive form, it would be great to see him on the Champions Tour.
Q. Sometimes we don't pay attention, but I think there were seven South African players last week at the PGA Championship, and I wanted you to comment a bit about that new generation of South African players that are doing well?
ERNIE ELS: They can do better. They can do better. I mean, any generation, to be in the top 10, you've got to be a special player and you've got to do special things. Whatever generation you talk about, you talk about the Palmer era, the Nicklaus era, whatever era, you've got to have talent, and you have to dedicate yourself.
I don't think any era changes that much. The golf changes, the way we play it, but behind the scenes and the way you prepare yourself really doesn't change that much.
I think the competitiveness is there on the Tour, but it's not as strong as maybe some eras at the moment I don't think, so there's a lot of leeway for players to really distinguish themselves as really top players now. There's a really good opportunity for a lot of players.
I think our South Africans should take advantage of that. I think there's a gap in the market. They should take an opportunity now and really go for it.
Q. So talking about South Africa, I understand you have other things going on this week besides the golf. There's something tomorrow. Can you talk about that?
ERNIE ELS: Yeah, we're excited. Everybody is excited to go down to the White House and have a great discussion and talk about things. It's been a long time coming. I think South African delegation is very excited. Us sportsmen are excited to join. We've known the President a long, long time. Everybody has arrived. Everybody is in town.
Yeah, it'll be a great day tomorrow hopefully.
Q. If this is an era of some type, it's obviously the Scottie Scheffler era right now, and it's continuing to grow. When you were in the, what I'm going to say, is the Tiger Woods era, how did you prepare, understanding that you had one big nemesis?
ERNIE ELS: No, it was a tough one, and I see the similarities now with Scheffler. Seems like he plays his best golf under the most extreme pressure, and that's a hallmark of a champion. There's more confidence that he's getting by winning these tournaments. It's only going to get tougher for the group following to try and get into that kind of mindset that he's in.
I think Tiger brought that intensity. You guys were around in those days. You know, it was -- you had your work cut out for you. I won four majors in his era, and there was a lot of other guys that won majors in that era, but we never got to the six, seven, eight. Mickelson did eventually; he got to six majors. But he had a hold on us.
You knew you were in for a tough tournament when he was around, and I think that's happening now with Scheffler.
Q. Did you always have to look over your shoulder?
ERNIE ELS: You kind of did. I was always a scoreboard watcher, especially after '94. So I kind of -- if I saw his name on the leaderboard, obviously he's playing well, and he's not going to go away. So you knew you were in for a long haul.
But you know, what did he win, 15 majors? And the rest of us kind of were there for the scraps kind of a thing. I won four, Mickelson six, Vijay three, Padraig won three, Retief won two. So there was a good supporting cast, very talented players, won our fair share. But with him around, I think it could have cost each of us at least two or three kind of a thing. Almost like a Nicklaus thing, I guess.
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