|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARD MEDIA DAYFebruary 28, 2012Martin LairdMARK STEVENS: Let's have Martin start out with some general comments on coming back to depend at Bay Hill, hard to believe it's been a year. Do you want to just talk about your thoughts coming back into this year on what had to be a pretty special win with Mr.Palmer's name on the award trophy, and we'll take some questions. MARTIN LAIRD: Thanks. Yeah, obviously I can't wait to get back down there. There's probably only one thing that's‑‑ you know, if winning is the best thing, the next best thing is coming back to the tournament the year after you win. And especially to a place like Bay Hill with winning such prestigious events with, as you say, Mr.Palmer there at the end and everything that goes on at the tournament surrounding him, it's obviously such a special tournament. And as I said, I can't wait to get back down there. It's definitely been kind of the one tournament of the year that I'm excited to get to. MARK STEVENS: Also you're off to a pretty good start this year. You had a good run at the Accenture Match Play last week. Do you want to talk about where your game is heading into the Florida Swing? MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah, I'm really excited heading into the Florida Swing. I had a good week last week. A little disappointed with how I played against Lee Westwood, but the three games prior to that, I played probably as good of golf as I've played in a while. So, you know, that took me in good standing for coming into Florida. Got off to a great start of the year at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions. Any time you get off to a hot start like, that it really helps your year and gives you a lot of confidence. I seem to struggle on the West Coast a little bit. I'm not best player on poa annua greens and that kind of hurt me. But last week was a good week and as I said, I'm excited to get to Florida. Last year I had three Top 10s in the Florida events; obviously capped off with the win at Bay Hill that made it such a special trip down there, and I'm excited to get back. Q. Have you had a chance to sneak into Augusta yet? MARTIN LAIRD: Do you mean, have I been there to see it this year? Q. Yeah, have you played it this year so far? MARTIN LAIRD: No, I have not. I am not going to go out this year before the tournament. I did it last year because I had never played the course before. I'm just going to head out there tournament week this year and get ready that way. Q. What events are you playing in Florida? What does your schedule look like for the next month? MARTIN LAIRD: I play Doral and then Transitions and then obviously up to Bay Hill. I'm going to play three in a row. It's probably maybe my favorite run of the year, three great golf courses, and three big events. Then a week off before the Masters. So the same schedule as last year. It worked well for me last year, so hopefully it does the same again this year. Q. Can you talk about your fourth round at Bay Hill last year, because I know it was really up and down, and must have been pretty intense, and Steve Marino was right there. Can you talk about that final round? MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah, you know, as you said, it was pretty intense. I always knew‑‑ I think I said at the time, I knew it was going to be hard but I had no idea just how hard it was going to be. You know, you can see this year's been kind of the telltale of how hard it is to win on the PGA TOUR. It seems like every week this year, someone has a big lead and doesn't get the job done on Sunday and it just shows how hard it is. I definitely found that out last year at Bay Hill. You know, I just kind of started struggling my last few holes on Saturday and that kind of carried over into Sunday. And then you know, it is was‑‑ my putter saved me, really. I holed a lot of good putts on Sunday. The thing that looking back that I take the most out of, I was playing bad; I was 4‑ or 5‑over par, and then I birdied two of my last four holes. I played the last four holes at Bay Hill, which are some of the hardest four‑‑ maybe the hardest four‑hole finish we play all year; to cover those four holes in 2‑under par, end up winning by one, I obviously took a lot out of that, knowing that I can do that under the pressure when my game really left me for most of the day. Q. It really got you going because you ended up with six Top 10s last year. MARTIN LAIRD: I obviously played well last year, and you know, I was playing great coming into Bay Hill. I finished 10th at Doral and fifth at Transitions and came in there with a lot of confidence. Yeah, you know, it was a career year last year for me for sure and definitely was highlighted by the win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Q. Everybody talks about going back to where you played well; is there something to that? When you walk into the place this year, you're going to go, yeah, I've already won here, I know this place. MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah, it's a nice feeling going back. Everyone's congratulating and saying that you're defending champion and people still say congrats on last year and things like that. It's definitely special going back. You know, you obviously have fond memories and I remember pretty much everything from last year at Bay Hill. You know, I've only had it once before, the feeling of going back after I've won. But it's definitely a nice feeling to go back there and kind of remember the previous year, remember some of the shots you pulled off and some of the putts you made and the whole‑‑ trying to get back that feeling. Q. Some good things have happened to you since you've been here last year in your personal life. MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah, definitely. My win there at Bay Hill was the highlight of the golf year, but you know, definitely the highlight of the year was getting married last year in July. That was obviously a very special day, and it turned out to be pretty much a perfect year last year with the combination of playing well and then obviously off the course was extremely special. Q. What tournaments are you going to be playing? MARTIN LAIRD: Cadillac Championship and Transitions and Arnold Palmer Invitational and then a week off before the Masters. Q. You've gotten a big win, at one of those good tournaments to win. Is it a logical progression now? Are you now thinking majors? Are you now thinking World Golf Championships? Is it a step‑at‑a‑time thing in your mind? MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah, definitely, winning a tournament like Bay Hill, for me it's the top of all of the tournaments outside the majors. I would put it up there with winning a World Golf Championships event. It's just got so much history, and it's such a big event and such a strong field. You know, it's definitely one of the two or three that I would put up there: I would put Bay Hill up there with Memorial and Colonial as probably the best to win on TOUR outside the majors. It's definitely a steppingstone. It's definitely proven to me that I can win at that level when I feel that strong. As you said, my next goal is to win a major, and be in contention in majors. That's probably the one thing that's missing on my resumé so to speak so far. As you know, playing well in majors, I think last year the Masters was the only major I've been kind of up there. So that's something that's one of my major goals this year is to get my name in the mix for a major or two this year and see what happens. As you said, it's kind of the natural progression from winning such a big event like the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Q. What do you think about match play and even adding more of them to the TOUR? We had some calls on the show the other night and some fans seem to like it and others don't seem to like it quite as much. As a player, how do you feel about that? MARTIN LAIRD: You know, I love it. Growing up, that's really all I played in Scotland. Nearly all our big amateur events were match play. Things like the British Amateur, the Scottish Amateur, and we played a lot of match play and a lot of international matches between ‑‑ Scotland, we would travel, and play lots of matches and they would all be play match play. Growing up, that's what I knew more than stroke play, and I love it. I know I wouldn't want it too many times in the year, because it's kind of hard sometimes if you play well and you get someone that's really hot that day and he beats you; and you're sitting eating lunch later, and you see a guy that's 2‑over par wins his match. So in that sense, you wouldn't want it every week. But I think it's great. It's great for golf and it definitely adds excitement. Perfect example, last week I was on the putting green at one point and there was three or four of us on the putting green practicing, and there were a couple matches coming up 18. And all of us stopped and watch the matches finish out on 18. Whereas a regular tournament, there's no way we would stop and watch the groups coming in. You don't really mind. Whereas when every match counts so much, it just shows even the players like watching it and get into it that much. I think it's great. Q. Speaking of match play, there's a little event coming up outside of Chicago a little later this year; have you spoken to José Maria, or has he spoken to you or has there been any conversation yet? MARTIN LAIRD: I spoke to him last year a couple of times when he was over. I spoke to him at the PGA Championship and at the Masters last year. You know, I think he knows how much I want to be on that team. I made it clear, interviews and things that I've done both over here and back in Europe; that's one of my major goals this year is to make that team and my play last week in Tucson can only help me. Yeah, that's definitely something that's up there on the list this year. And growing up, that was kind of the dream was always to play in The Ryder Cup, and I definitely feel like I'm good enough to get on that team now. I know I have to play well; The European Team is so strong, I've said it before, I could have a really good year this year and still not make the team. That just shows how good The European Team is looking. There's probably 20 guys that can put up a good argument to be on the team right now, and you know, obviously there's a bunch of guys going to being disappointed, but hopefully I'm not one of them. Q. Coming into the Arnold Palmer Invitational as the defending champion, does that give you a lot of confidence to play well here? MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah, it definitely does. Probably adds a little bit of pressure to myself. You know, you never want to come back and not play well. But it's obviously a golf course I love and it sets up well for me. Drove the ball great last year and that's really, for me, that's the important thing around that golf course because it's so hard. Hopefully I can do that again when I come back. As I said, good feeling, good memories when you come back, and hopefully I can be back there and be in contention again on Sunday. Q. Can I take you back to Augusta last year on Sunday? You were paired with Tiger Woods, it was obviously an exciting day and a great atmosphere. Do you have one memory from that day that just kind of sums up the excitement of that final round? MARTIN LAIRD: Yeah, you know, as you said, it was a pretty special day playing with Tiger. Augusta is going to be good any time, but playing in the final round on Sunday when he's making that charge up the leaderboard, it was definitely the most electric crowd I've ever seen. I mean, the atmosphere, probably the one thing for me was when he holed the eagle putt on 8, it's probably the loudest I've ever heard a crowd. I stood on the back of the green waiting for him to hole out, and he had a three‑ or four‑footer for par. Just the explosion of noise when he made that putt was unbelievable. And after that, walking from 9 green to 10 tee, walking through 30, 40 yards of kind of a little narrow corridor of the crowd, I've never seen people go so mad at a golf tournament. It was insane. You know, looking back, that was kind of probably the memory I have was that putt on 8, and then walking over to 10 tee. It was just insane. Q. Given how perfect golf Tiger played the first 11 holes, how surprised are you that he missed those putts on 12 and 15 when he was right in the middle of it? MARTIN LAIRD: As you said, he played‑‑ the front nine, he played unbelievable. First 11 holes, pretty much played perfect. You know, it was obviously a surprise to see him miss the one on 12. But that hole was on a funky position on Sunday. I missed a short one there and Tiger missed a short one and I think Rory 4‑putted that green. Looking back, there was guys missing 3‑ or 4‑footers on that green all day. For some reason the hole was just sitting on a little‑‑ I don't know what it was, on kind of a funny slope, and guys, we just couldn't get in the hole for some reason on that hole hard. The one I was probably more surprised about was on 15. I remember I hit a pretty good shot in there, 15, 20 feet and obviously Tiger stuffed in there four or five feet. You know, I was on the side of the green just preparing myself for the noise when he made it, and I will admit, I was extremely surprised that he missed it. But again, those greens at Augusta are so tricky that it is really‑‑ it's not that hard to miss a 4‑ or 5‑footer. You know, we all got so accustomed to making every single one of them I think. MARK STEVENS: Thank you for your time, Martin, and good luck this year. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|