Do you think Tiger Woods would still be world number one if he was primarily based on the European Tour?

He would because he would have gone to America! You see three of the four majors are in America. There have been four of the World Golf Championships in America, and only three count for individual, the world cup is obviously a team event. But the NEC has been at Firestone, the American Express has mainly been in America, and the Accenture has been in America from the word go apart from one which was in Australia. So, Tiger would have played in them. He would have played in the four majors. It is possible to be number one in the world playing in America, it’s not possible to be solely playing in Europe.

Well they play in different conditions. People like Els, Goosen, Norman before him, they were great golfers because they played everywhere. Woods is a great golfer because he plays everywhere, and would be a great golfer anyway. Mickelson doesn’t travel. So out of his 23 wins or whatever it is now, he’s had one win outside America, and that was an 8 man invitational in France 12 years ago. I think he plays well in America because that’s all he knows. He came over here one week before the Open, thinking that a week’s practice would make him into a great Link’s player. It doesn’t work that way, and if Mickelson did travel I think he’d be a far greater player than he is now. He’s one of the most gifted players
I’ve ever seen.

Especially his short game?

Yeah, he’s certainly got great variation and he’s got wonderful hand/eye coordination. He’s a natural sportsman. He was good at baseball, strangely enough right handed and everything. He really is a massive talent and he’ll never achieve what he should achieve simply because he plays in America all the time and the examination paper is exactly the same every week. Woods realised that he could have stayed in America and played more tournaments and made more money, but he realised he needed to get out and move around and he’s won everything.

I think they have to. America is a very big part of professional golf. It’s a major percentage. They have to play in 11 events in Europe to qualify to play in the Ryder Cup. But if you take in the four majors, and the three individual world championships, that leaves them four to make up their 11. So the tour is being sympathetic to the players to allow them to do that. Some of them play more than 11. I think the qualifying system is fine the way it is, but if you don’t play in 11 here you don’t qualify, so they do know they have to come back. And they do know it’s their home tour. Els supports his home tour in South Africa. Even though he’s played 27 events, he’ll still go and play two events in South Africa to support his own tour. If you look at the Ryder Cup selection,
you don’t really want to change it, because we are doing OK in it!

Do you still play a lot of golf yourself?

I have done when I’m home. I’m not at home very often. I’m president of the golf club at home and I go there and play with a few friends, but at certain times of the year I don’t have time to do it. I just came off a nine week run and I’ve got a seven week run coming up, so I won’t be playing for a while.

Have you played much golf on the Costa del Sol?

Yeah I used to have a house in Estepona 20 years ago, and I used to play at Valderrama every afternoon with the club pro. We would take his two Dobermans out and have a game. Hardly anyone played there at that time. It was still fairly exclusive then. I’ve played a lot of the old courses such as Las Brisas and El Paraiso - all the holiday ones of the 80’s and early 90’s, but not many of the newer ones. There’s the new La Reserva designed by Cabell B. Robinson, he is a brilliant designer. In my opinion he’s one of the top three designers in the game. I think he is a fantastic technician, and without question head and shoulders above a lot of other designers.