Retief Goosen

And how was your experience of The Presidents Cup last year?

It was great, but it was disappointing. I really thought that this time around we had a pretty good chance, with a lot of Aussies, a lot of home support and a lot of our guys had played that course so many times. But it shows you that in this game it doesn’t matter how many times you’ve played the course or how big the support is, you’ve still got to hit the shots.

Are the teams quite evenly matched or do the Americans have an advantage in that they play a similar format every year, alternating The Presidents Cup with the Ryder Cup?

Well it seems like they do, especially in the foursomes. We lose 80 per cent of our matches in the foursomes so we start the day four points down, then we claw it back in the betterball and play foursomes in the afternoon and we give five points back. And if you go into the final day five points back, it’s not easy.

Do you have any ambitions to become a Presidents Cup captain in the future?

One day yes, when I’m old! A long time from now...

Do you ever sit back and take stock of your career and set yourself new goals?

I’m at a point in my career when I need to concentrate on winning more tournaments. I’m 43 now and I think I still have a good three years ahead of me. So I’m trying to get my game back into shape and win a few more events. But who knows in this game? I mean, my best days could still be coming, you never know. I could be a great senior player.

So is the senior tour on your mind at all?

I think every player who gets to this age thinks about it, thinks about scaling back, playing only in the events they want to play and spending more time with the family instead of being on the road all the time.

Do your business interests come into your thinking as well?

Well yes, there’s the wine [check out thegoosewines.com, although it is not yet available in Hong Kong]. And I used my time off last year to concentrate on that. It’s not an easy product to set up and it takes a lot of effort to build your market and get your name out there. But the wine is doing very well, we’ve had some very good ratings and it’s exciting times because the wine is on its way up.

At the end of last year, you slipped out of the top 50 of the World Ranking.

That was disappointing and it all came about when I took time off to recover from my injury and I dropped about 25 spots. But it’s made me more determined to get back into it and play well.

You’ve had an incredible career, but what would you need to achieve over the next few years to be able to look back and say you’ve achieved all you wanted to?

I still think I have the ability to win another major. I still hit the ball long enough – although I’m 20 to 30 yards behind the long hitters – but I think this year is going to be a good one for me. My body is feeling a lot better so I’m looking forward to some good events this year.

As a professional golfer, how much looking back do you do – at tournaments where you could have done better?

Everybody does that every week! There’s only one guy who is happy – the other 155 guys are upset and thinking I wish I could have done that. Unfortunately golf is the way it is and there’s only one winner every week and even the best players in the world only win a few times a year.

Are there any memories that haunt you – such as Pinehurst in 2005?

Well yes, that one was very disappointing. That final round [of 80, when Retief started the day with a three-shot lead] was a bit of a shock to the system, no doubt about it. I went in thinking I could win and shot a big number, so it was really disappointing. That round is one that I’d like to have over.

You see all the up-and-coming youngsters in South Africa. Who is the next big star?

Well they are all youngsters now, aren’t they? Branden Grace won last week, Charl [Schwartzel] and Louis [Oosthuizen] are playing great and I think there must be about 20 South Africans playing on the European Tour and I’m sure one of them will break through like Charl and Louis did. We’ve also got lots of good amateur prospects.

What is the biggest change that you’ve seen in your 20 years on tour?

Twenty years, has it been that long? Yes, it was the end of 1990 that I started – so 21 years ago. Probably the biggest change is that I’m 40 yards shorter than I was when I started. Even with the older technology I was longer than I am now – when I first joined the European Tour, I was the longest hitter on tour and now I average about 290 yards and I’m only 80th! Modern technology has brought the short hitter in line with the long hitters. The long guys are still long, but instead of being 50 yards ahead, they are only 30 yards ahead now. It means more players can win.