Second Play at the Mercedes

Ernie Els -145 over Adam Scott

Q. Can you give us an official update on the knee. Which one was it? How exactly did it happen? How bad did it hurt? How does it feels now, basically?
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, the knee, it's probably about 90%, it's pretty good. It's not bad. Obviously good enough to be here.
It's not quite a hundred percent. Unfortunately, this course is quite a tough walk, so that's going to be the test for me here this week.

Q. How has it been different, just in terms of not being able to hit as many balls?
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, the last month has been intense rehab on my knee just to be able to get here. You know, even a couple of days before I was coming, it wasn't looking great. I had some pretty bad stuff going on in my calf, and it was making it tough to walk still.
You know, balancing, doing exercises, and getting it right, and hitting a few balls, and getting the swing right, and then recovering from all that, has been quite tough, because the leg has been through a pretty traumatic month, I would say.

Q. So were you in doubt to the last minute to even come here?
ADAM SCOTT: No, I thought I could get here. But a few problems popped up in the last week, which we weren't expecting, yeah.

Q. What's the rehab involved?
ADAM SCOTT: Just strengthening the leg. My leg wasted away to nothing pretty much in the two weeks that I couldn't be on it.
So I've been slowing picking up the workload on it and trying to build up my quad muscles again. I would say they are at 90% of where they were, which is pretty good. But to go with that, my calf took a fair beating, as well, because it was doing a lot of extra work, and I got a bit of a calf strain that's lingering but it's fine.
Q. Do you see issues with your swing because of the fact that your leg is not where it needs to be yet for your game?
ADAM SCOTT: Yeah, when it gets tired, at the end of the day, it can possibly affect my swing. But I'm trying to not let it affect my swing, but it's possible

I think Ernie wants to start the year off strong. He plays well here, and is strong wind player. Good luck