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ISPS HANDA PERTH INTERNATIONALOctober 22, 2014Brett RumfordPERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA OLIVIA MCMILLAN: Brett, welcome back to Perth. Fantastic to have you here. BRETT RUMFORD: Thank you. OLIVIA MCMILLAN: Nice to be home? BRETT RUMFORD: Yeah, it's great to be home. Been back now for a couple of weeks. Went up to Hong Kong last week just for a few days; came back early, unfortunately. Yes, lovely to be home. Been away since May, 9th of May, so looking forward to the week. Obviously, yeah, looking forward to play in front of family and friends, and hopefully turn this form around. Been a fairly average six months. Hopefully this week I can start with some good form. OLIVIA MCMILLAN: Questions. Q. You know this course very well. How is it playing? BRETT RUMFORD:  It's playing great. I checked the long‑range forecast, and the wind seems to be‑‑ it's usually a fairly steady sou'wester this time of year, but there just seems to be ‑‑ the forecast, wind's all over the place. Never played this golf course with a nor'east wind I believe it was this morning. So complete 180 direction. Makes the golf course play a little bit easier, I think. So it was nice to have actually played in that wind. I think there are future forecasts over the next few days for that wind to blow, so... But the golf course is absolutely perfect. Probably the best I've seen in the last couple of years. Greens are fantastic. A little bit soft, I would have to say, only because of ‑‑ I guess they're just banking on the golf course running firm, playing firm, fast, having some good weather. So obviously with the rain over the weekend softened up the greens. Obviously nothing to do with (indiscernible). Probably, if anything, it's probably hindered his preparations for how he wanted to see the golf course play. If there is no more rain and the wind is continuing such as this, it will start to firm up. I love the presentation, how they've minimized rough. There is no real rough out there. They've cut it nice and wide for the fairways, so obviously the premium is on getting the greens firm and obviously being a bit more precise and pinpoint with where you're actually landing the golf ball on the greens. At the moment being a little bit softer I think the scoring will be a little bit better. Then again, if the wind picks up it will be a difficult. But the golf course is absolutely perfect. Q. You played well here last year. What will it take this year? BRETT RUMFORD: Just consistency, really. My good is good. Played great last year; played fairly consistent all last year. Obviously winning twice early was a huge confidence boost. Yeah, I think it's just really consistency around this place and obviously having control of your wedge game. A lot of wedges out here and par‑5s you can reach. There are some short par‑4s as well. Even the longer par‑4s with the being up over the crown of hills and stuff, the ball runs down to sort of a very scorable club that you hit into the green. So if you're it driving well‑‑ obviously there is a premium to wedge it well, and that's what I've been working on. The greens can be tricky. They've been re‑laid and redesigned with Mark Clayton. He's put in a lot of rolling slopes. You got to be on the right side ‑‑ obviously underneath the hole being the right side, otherwise you start leaving the ball above the hole around here. It's very, very tricky. Yeah, I think it's a really fair golf course. I think if you play well, you'll get rewarded. On the flip side of that, if you're not quite on it's going to be hard to back up each day being able to get away with just getting it up‑and‑down and relying on your short game. I think the win is obviously going to come from a very solid ball striking week and obviously putting well. Q. You talked about your form. Is there anything you can put your finger on as to why... BRETT RUMFORD: No. Q. Just keep working hard and it will return. BRETT RUMFORD: Just the world's hardest game to play, no doubt about it. It's exhausting. When you're on the wrong side of momentum, this game is all about momentum. Within a round, I think within a week, within a month, within six, half a year, within a year, there is momentum that feeds right the way through it. I've just really struggled with each round. I really haven't been able to minimize in a round of finding that momentum, let alone to get into a week, to get into a month, to get into the year. So I've just found from the beginning of this year I was on the back foot. I didn't really finish off that well last year. I just thought maybe it was over‑golfed. I thins it was perhaps more technique than what it is over‑golfed. So I took a bit of time off over Christmas and New Year's thinking, Well, I'll just try and freshen up and come out strong and continue the feeling from the beginning of last year and throughout the year. It just didn't happen. Technically it was just really, really inconsistent. My good was still there, but I was just hitting golf shots that were just too bad and far too inconsistent. I was able to two‑way miss, left and right, so any time that happens you just can't keep relying on your short game. Just got exhausting. I wasn't finding any consistency in my long game, which was just feeding through. Too much pressure I was putting on my short game week in, week out. Yeah, just not to say that I wasn't trying any less. I was still working on my game very hard. Yeah, just worked out from one week to the next I was just missing cuts by one, two, three. Yeah, just on the wrong side of the momentum seemingly. But I've worked on a few things this week with my brother and gone back to my old coach, Matt, from three years ago. Last couple weeks I've been seeing some good signs, a little more consistency. Although my scoring hasn't really reflected the changes that I'm making, but starting to feel a bit more room in my golf swing and a bit more freer. I'm hoping that can translate this week into just making a cut. Just one step at a time. Just trying to get a weekend under my belt, a full, competitive round, or tournament should I say, and just continue from there. (Indiscernible) playoff series in Europe obviously. I probably need to win this week. I'm that far behind. If I don't, I'll just continue to work hard over the summer and just focus on the Australian tournaments, which I haven't played. I didn't play any last year, so I'm really excited. Either way it's a win‑win scenario for me. Play the events in the Australian summer, or continue on the European side. Q. (No microphone.) BRETT RUMFORD: Look, it's impossible. I'm only human. We're all only human. You keep getting kicked like that, which the game does, it's really hard to maintain that optimism. And, you know, after you miss a cut you get a little bit down, but after a day I bounce back well. My optimism is there for the next week. You just brush off bad weeks. You just got to have them. I think that takes time and a lot of experience in order to have a bad week. Doesn't mean your game is crumbling and falling apart. And even the six months, you know, seemingly it is falling apart, but I'm still very optimistic this week as well. You just have to be. So it's really, really tough. I've remained ‑‑ I've tried on every shot. The positive I can take from this year is I've got the most out of it, you could say. Hasn't been good, the results haven't been good, but... I haven't been able to shot not one shot better. I haven't hit a shot in anger or played a shot where I didn't have clarity over it. But it's just the way it is, the way it's going. But it's really, really tough, no doubt about it. But it's just like anything else really. When things are going well, life is great. I've got great support as well. I've got a great wife. We we're in Europe we don't have any family, we've got some friends over there which are really supportive as well. So, yeah, we just always try to remain positive and optimistic. Last couple of tournaments have been pretty tough. Just obviously the pressure of just trying to close out of year as well and make something happen, yeah, sort of made it a little bit disappointing. Outside of that, yeah, just working away. Just waiting for it to turn and be as patient as I can. Q. Knowing this course and the conditions like you do, how much confidence do you take compared to someone Victor or someone that might not be too familiar with the course conditions? BRETT RUMFORD: Look, these guys are professional golfers and they do this for a living. We golf for a living. I mean, that's just experience. I mean, I'm sure Victor will tee it up this week and I'm sure this is liking‑‑ this golf course ‑‑ there is nobody going to be playing in this field that doesn't enjoy this golf course and enjoy the fact that they can shoot number around it or have a possibility of winning if the putter gets going. Once you find a game plan, this golf course, every hole and tee shot short of speaks for itself. Tells you what shot shape is required of you. It's really just for him it's probably more the jet lag. He's played a lot of golf; had a big year. I've been back for a couple weeks now so I've got a little bit of freshness on him. That's about it. Apart from that, so far as knowing the golf course, you know, I've played here a few times in the years previous, but there are plenty of guys are in my same situation. So there is a lot great players in the field, and technology is ‑‑ just bridging that gap is making it so much tighter between the winner and 20th, 30th place. There will be plenty of guys in it this week I think that will have a chance. Last year I think it was ‑‑ could have been 10 guys over the last 9 holes that would've had an opportunity? I think maybe Lee ‑‑ sorry, Retief Goosen was the last one to sort of run away with the golf tournament, I guess, around here. But those are really, really firm, fast conditions. With it playing a little bit softer, I think the scoring is going to be deep and fairly well bunched. Q. Did it ever cross your mind, to take a break like Geoff did? BRETT RUMFORD: No, no. I don't think I've really found a burnout or being over‑golfed or anything like that. Haven't felt it anyway. Perhaps wouldn't have done that halfway through a season. Toward the later part, yeah, maybe. I guess Geoff was just in a different situation and I guess that's just what he felt as though he had to do. I just didn't feel I had that calling in me to say, Hey, let's just put the clubs away. Yeah. Q. Did you say your brother is caddying for you? BRETT RUMFORD: Yeah, just this week. He's a handy golfer himself. He caddied for us the first two years when I turned pro. Pretty much an unwritten agreement that I have with all my caddies that whenever we play in Perth brother gets back on the bag just for the week. The only tournament of the year he caddies, and we just go out and have fun and keep it as relaxed as possible. Yeah, just go out and play. Q. You guys get up to a bit of banter? BRETT RUMFORD: Yeah, just the normal stuff brothers talk about. Not that I can... It's all just good fun. Just great to have him there. Plus, he's good for the technical side as well. He's got some good insights technically for me. He's got a really keen eye for that. He's helped me in that department as well. Just relaxing and just take the week as it comes. Q. Going back to your old coach, was that something that was in the making for a while? BRETT RUMFORD: Yeah, I've thought about it for a while. A saw Alan McCloskey for about four months who looks after ‑‑ who has he got? Scott Jamieson, Marc Warren, Stephen Gallacher. He's up in Glasgow. Wit the logics, I was flying up there on most weekends there for a while, which was just getting a bit too hard. Where my old coach, he's only about an hour up the road. He's just outside of London, which was an attraction as well as he just knows my golf swing so well. Hadn't seen him for about three years. Just been playing on my mind for about 12 months that I would like to see him. Yeah, glad that I did. Q. Did he notice any deterioration in your technique? BRETT RUMFORD: Yeah, look, it's just these things that happen, like with every player. There is always only two or three things really bad happens that people will fall back into. For myself, I sort of the just had fallen back into some of my old traits. Yeah, working on those and trying rectify those and make it a bit more consistent again. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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