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OMEGA DUBAI LADIES MASTERSDecember 8, 2014Sally WatsonDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the OMEGA Dubai Ladies Masters. This is your first time in the tournament. Is it your first time in Dubai? SALLY WATSON: No, I came to Dubai when I was about 14 or 15 years old. The Daily Telegraph in the U.K. have a tournament they run and the final was played over at Dubai Creek, so I was here then. I haven't been here since. It's obviously changed in the last several years. THE MODERATOR:  What are your impressions this time? What have you been up to since arriving here? SALLY WATSON: Mainly the golf course. This is my first time here so trying to get to know the golf course and get my game in shape for one of the biggest events of our calendar. Just everything is incredible here. It's such a big scale. You don't play many golf courses in the world where you're surrounded by sky rises. So yeah, it's just a pretty incredible place, fun to be here and the weather is obviously nice and enjoying it so far. THE MODERATOR:  How are you approaching the tournament, given it's a big one for you and everything that's at stake. SALLY WATSON: To be honest just trying to do what I always do and that's, first of all, get to know the golf course. Especially since I haven't seen it. Get comfortable around the greens, and then just trying to get my game in good shape. At the end of the day, once I know the golf course, it's just a matter of executing the shots when the tournament starts. Q. How difficult is it to block all that out, the skyscrapers and stuff, around the course, when you are not familiar with it? SALLY WATSON: It's not too bad. I think, one, it can be helpful because there are quite good targets off some of the tees. Also I think it's just in between shots, it's quite nice to have a little bit of a distraction. So it does obviously give you something to look at. Me and my dad have already spent the last two days just sort of talking about them. It's just the scale of it is pretty unbelievable. I think Dubai has kept the steel industry going for the past 20 years by the looks of it. It's good talking point, good distraction between shots, just helped me relax. Q. What about your chances for Rookie of the Year? SALLY WATSON: I mean, the end of the day, if she were to win the tournament, there's nothing I could do. I'm feeling good. Really just focused on finishing as strong as I can and see what happens. It would be great to win. It's one of my goals starting out the season, so it's nice to at least have a chance at it come the last event of the year, and obviously a lot could change with it being such a big prize fund, so I'm hoping for a good finish. Q. Do you know what the permutations would be, what you have to do? SALLY WATSON: It's obviously just because there's‑‑ depends what she does, if that makes sense. If she was to come top three, I have would come top‑‑ higher than here in that sense. But yeah, it's just so much could change. Like any other event, it's so top‑heavy in terms of the prize fund. You know, the difference between coming Top‑10 and 20th is huge. So it really just depends on how she plays and I hope she plays great, but obviously hope I play a little bit better. Q. When you head into an event like that, are you fixated by the goal or are you just looking at what you need to do on a day‑to‑day? SALLY WATSON: No, I try to focus on just a day‑to‑day basis. It can obviously be a challenge sometimes to block out these little distractions. I definitely have a pretty active mind, so it's always looking for something to try and distract me. But no, I mean, I try to not look at the score boards as much as possible. Just focus on me and do the best that I can, and then hopefully the last round, see where that puts me. Q. There's not much in‑‑ I think it's only a couple thousand Euro between the two of you, so it could be quite a nip and tuck affair. SALLY WATSON: For sure. I mean, it's going to be exciting to see what happens. It would be a great confidence boost for me to win it. I definitely think it's been a strong rookie class, and Amy has had a fantastic sort of second half of the season. I would say my season's been a little more just characterises by relative consistency. So no, I've definitely been happy with how my season's been going. And I think it was hard for me‑‑ in some sense it can be a little challenging sometimes when someone else starts playing well because you can start thinking that you're not playing well anymore, when it's just golf. It comes and goes. Sometimes you feel like you play well and the scores just don't add up. It was nice to have a stronger finish last week in India, especially since to be honest going into that event, I didn't feel like my game was quite where it needed to be considering how tight that golf course was but I managed to get it around pretty well. But I'm excited for this week. The course looks like it's open for lots of birdies. Definitely going to be trying to attack the pins and see if I can get the putts to drop. Q. Is it a distraction to have the Rookie of the Year going on; is that a distraction? SALLY WATSON: I think it was more of a distraction when Amy first started playing well. She had a really strong finish. Well, she had a streak of really strong finishes, and I think I got a little sort of caught up in it then and just lost that focus on myself, and like I said it, was easy for me to start feeling like I wasn't playing as well just because she was playing really well. And again, like you said, people are always talking about it. It's hard to like‑‑ even if you don't look at score boards, you're still going to always roughly know where you are, if that makes sense, because people are going to tell you. But I think it was a good thing that I had that distraction maybe a couple‑‑ three or four events ago, and I feel like now maybe I sort of learned from that and I'm a lot better able to focus on myself. At the end of the day, whatever happens, this is still an event I would love to try and win; first and foremost, that is sort of the goal. I feel like if I can put myself in contention come Sunday, the Rookie of the Year will take care of itself. It's had a lot of great winners in the past and a great field, and it's definitely going to be a challenge. It would be nice to give myself a chance in the last event of the year. Q. When you look at how well Charley and Holly have done, they are role models for you going forward to next year. SALLY WATSON: For sure. They both had great seasons last year. And I think they both managed to kind of carry that momentum forward. You know, obviously as someone new on the Tour, Solheim Cup is going to be a stretch but it is a Solheim Cup year next year so it would be nice to put myself in a position where I could at least start putting my name close to in the hat. I think you have to have a really lofty goals, and then it gives you something to push for. Coming from a country like Scotland, that's the only thing that's going to motivate you in the wintertime. You have obviously a lot of process, goals, but I was joking with my coach last year, having a goal to hit 70 percent of the fairways does not get you to go stand in the cold for a few hours and hit putts. You have to have a goal more concrete to inspire you when the weather is miserable. It's been pretty amazing watching Charley, the way she's handled turning professional, and I definitely think I can learn a lot from her. I've tried to kind of watch her and see how she goes about things, as well as the other top players on Tour. I'm excited this year to have a proper off‑season. I don't think I got home until December 20 last year. I headed out to Australia for a sort of warm‑up event January 15 or 16, and I took obviously a week or so off before Christmas. So I had hardly any time to prepare for this season that I could work on my game, but I am really excited. I feel like I have a much better plan for this off‑season and hopefully I'll be a lot better prepared going into next year. Q. Where would you say your game is at at the moment? What are your strengths and weaknesses? SALLY WATSON: I don't know if I am ever happy where I am to be honest. I'm probably one of those people that's probably a little too self‑critical sometimes. Everyone used to say I'm a perfectionist, so I don't know if that's a good thing. I try to get away from that terminology now. It's a lot easier to tell you what needs improvement. Than what's a strength. Everything has become a lot tighter this year. My confidence has grown a lot. Unfortunately I didn't have a great finish to my college career and I sort of turned professional lacking a fair amount of confidence, but it was something that I had always wanted to do. Worked really hard on my game last year to get my Tour card and I think that helped me prepare me well for this year. Yeah, everything's getting better, so hopefully can just kind of continue that way. In general throughout my career as an amateur and professional, my mental game tends to be one of my strengths. Course management, not necessarily that it plays out on this course, but if you look at my results this year, I tend to play better on the tougher courses compared to the field. So when I was leading going into the last round and finished third, I think like after two rounds, I was 8‑under and I think the cut was like 8‑over or something, and you had to plot your way around that course. The Scottish this year, which was obviously tough weather conditions the first couple of rounds, I fared well. Again, last week was a tougher golf course. So I tend to play better compared to the field on the tougher golf courses. I would say this is one of those, so it's in a sense going to be a little bit more of a challenge for me. But hopefully everything will get a little bit better for next year where I feel like it needs to be. But I think one of the things I'm trying to learn this year is that your game doesn't need to be perfect for you to win. For a long time I think I had this false perception that if something was a little off, I wasn't going to be able to win. But it's just not the case. I mean, you just need everything to be good enough and at the end of the day, you need a little luck here or there to get it done. Q. How difficult is it going from amateur to professional? SALLY WATSON: It's definitely a learning experience, I'll say that. And I think it depends how you approach it. One of the reasons I set relatively lofty goals for myself this year, I think a lot of people when they turn professional, they become very focused on making the cut, because that's something we don't really have in amateur golf. But I feel like if you're just focused on making the cut, you're always going to be around the cut, if that makes sense. Whereas, you can try and set your goals higher, even if you fall a little short, you'll probably be safe as far as getting through to the weekend. Once you're through to the weekend, it's like a whole new ballgame. Q. What advice would you give to someone? SALLY WATSON: Like Justin Rose, when he first turned professional‑‑ I think the guy's game to be honest, there's a bit more of a step up than the women's game. In the women's game, if you're top amateur or you've had a solid amateur career, your game is good enough to compete in the professional ranks. I think it is more just getting comfortable with the lifestyle. We don't travel, or you never travelled nearly as much as an amateur. I certainly didn't travel consecutive weeks nearly as much as an amateur. I was counting up with my dad last night, and if you add in all the tournaments I've played this year in the LET, I played a couple access events just to warm myself up for our LET events and training weeks; I've been on the road for over half a year. That's something I've never experienced before, living out of a suitcase, living in hotel rooms, eating out in restaurants all the time. When you're home, it's nice to eat out, but when you do it all the time, all you want is a home‑cooked meal. I think it's more the lifestyle changes that can take a while to get used to. The Pro‑Ams, again, that's something completely new as a professional. And I have really been very fortunate, I've had great Pro‑Am teams this year, I really enjoyed them. I think it's a fun way to kind of get into a slightly more competitive mind‑set right before the tournament starts, once your preparation is done. But I think it all depends how you approach your first year on Tour. My biggest advice to anyone would always be, first of all, just take notes all the time so you're always learning. Again, that's one of the things I'm looking forward to next year, if I have notes on all the courses, the hotels, different things, like if I liked a restaurant, venue or not, just when you go back somewhere, again you have the advantages that you can prepare better for the golf course and you know what shots you're going to need for that week. This year, you can try and look online and see what the course looks like. Sometimes that's helpful. Sometimes it's not but you really have no idea until you get there. So I think that gives returning players a huge advantage over rookies, and then again like if you've stayed in a hotel room that was great, you can go back there. If you but stay in a hotel where the bed was like a rock, maybe try and find somewhere else, or at least you can take something to try and alleviate that. Yeah, it's been a huge learning experience. I'm already looking forward to next year, although obviously trying to focus on this week first. Q. What was your relationship like with Amy? Sometimes when two people are going at something together, there's this rivalry and competition and sort of fuel each other by having an aggressive camaraderie. Is there anything like that? What are you like off the field? SALLY WATSON: I would say I know Amy a huge amount personally. She always seems like a really nice person. I've only actually played with her once this year in Amsterdam, and she was really good to play with. In general, for me, I wouldn't say I'm really aggressive competitor. I'm more inwardly focused in a sense. At the end of the day, it's been good having her play well, because it's really pushed me to not become complacent and not just thinking, I can sort of make cuts, but continue to try and push myself and get better. Because I think otherwise towards the end of the season, I could have potentially got a little tired and a little like, I'm just ready for it to be over. But obviously the motivation was still high to get out there and practice and work hard at my game. So yeah, I think I'm more‑‑ I enjoy the competition. Whenever I see her, I try and wish her well and hope she plays well, because the better she plays, the better I have to play, which is ultimately good for me. Q. What do you think are her strengths? What do you think about her game? SALLY WATSON: From when I played with her, she seems like a solid ball‑striker. She didn't seem to spray the ball too far from the fairway or miss too many greens. And I don't know if I know her game well enough to say what her weaknesses might be. But yeah, she always seems like she's going to be a steady player. I think it probably just took her a little longer to adjust to the professional game, but you can definitely see when she got her confidence and settled down, she really started to play how she was capable of. She's a great player. She had a great amateur record. She's showing that she can perform under pressure. So hopefully she plays well this week. Like I said, hopefully I just play that little bit better. Q. What would you say about ‑‑ SALLY WATSON: Lot more of a challenge than people think. Definitely not as glamorous as people think, either. It's my fourth week on the road in five weeks, nice to get a proper wash going and things you don't hear about what you're just looking at the glamorous side of the game. Q. What is your advice to the girls that turn pro? SALLY WATSON: As far as once they have actually got their TOUR card. I think the biggest thing is just try and learn as much as possible, whether it's a good‑‑ whether you play well or not. If you learn as much as possible, you're going to be as best prepared as possible for the next year. And secondly, set yourself high goals. I don't think bad things come from setting yourself too high goals. You might not achieve them, but it's only going to push you to consistently get better. It's only going to help motivate you when the times are tough. But you know, if you're too focused on just making cuts or just keeping your card, I think that's probably where you'll find yourself at the end of the year. I think those are my two main pieces of advice. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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