Retief Goosen Playing Quotations

Obviously there's a long way to go still but I'm very happy to start off like this. You can't win the tournament in the first round so I'm just going to keep playing well and see what happens.

I enjoy playing with Tiger. I've come close to beating him at the (World Golf) Match Play, but I don't think too many players have a great record against Tiger.

Some of the holes are actually playing shorter than they did last year.

I think the course is in as good of shape as I've seen it in the last five years. You know the fairways are running a little bit and some holes are actually playing shorter than it's played in the last five years, purely because you get some run in the fairways.

I think the course is playing the best I've seen it for a while for everybody: shorter hitters, longer hitters, the fairways are running out of places a little bit, so even the shorter hitters are getting some distance out on the fairways.

I've been putting very well all week, seeing the greens very well. I started playing better in the last few events. It was nice to have a good week.

The wind has been blowing differently and the par fives played easy as it was blowing downwind today. You can't win a tournament in the first round so I'll just hope to keep playing well,

There are a few mixed feelings out there. But at the end of the day everybody is playing the same course.

We all know why they are playing in Dubai this week, ... The top guys can't play every week, although they are playing this week somewhere else.

I knew he was playing well, ... But on 17 when he made double bogey, it went my way.

Any tournament we enter, we're playing to win. You would never look past this week. This is a big tournament for all of us, and one we all would like to win. The things I'm working on, I'm trying to get better to play well here.

It was playing tough out there, the wind was maybe even a bit stronger and certainly colder.

These guys can all play, so it's just a question of getting on a roll early and playing well.

It's surprising he hasn't won more. Maybe it's a self-confidence thing or a putting problem or something else, but he's playing very solid this week.

It's going to be nice. It's what the sponsors want and the spectators want. I always enjoy playing with Ernie and playing with him just makes you concentrate that little bit more.