|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
SALTIRE ENERGY PAUL LAWRIE MATCH PLAYJuly 29, 2015Richie RamsayAberdeen, Scotland MICHAEL GIBBONS: Your thoughts on the week ahead. Course record-holder at Murcar, 62? RICHIE RAMSAY: Well, first of all, it's good to have another tournament in Scotland. I think me moving down from Aberdeen to Edinburgh, you lose a little bit of touch with what goes on in Aberdeen. You know, the fact that Paul has continued to support the area, and then the tournament, it's a huge, huge thing to get involved in. I think Mike Loggie deserves a huge honour for coming in and stepping in as the title sponsor. It's not an easy thing to find, especially in these times. Match play, exciting format. This is a course that lends itself well for match play, because obviously you can see the wind out there and the type of golf course it is. It's very much risk and reward. Has a great history of golf. You add all those things in, put John Daly in the mix there, as well, adds a little spice to it. Yeah, I think they have done a really good job putting everything together and Paul should be proud that he's basically produced a tournament for nothing; and the fact that businesses in Aberdeen have got behind him is a testament that we probably need more of these events, not even golf, but sporting events which could lend itself to diversifying into sport. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Talk a wee bit about your course record here, nine years ago, fresh-faced U.S. Amateur champion? RICHIE RAMSAY: Yeah, I saw a picture -- (laughter). But yeah, 62, I just remember over the course of the week, sort of like a Phil Mickelson week, where I was 78, 63, 74, 62; I just remember there was a couple key points that I remember from the 62 that I want to employ this week with the way the greens -- reading the greens and things like that. I just remember free-flowing it. I have my old Scotty Cameron putter that I won the U.S. Amateur with and just came back out with and just got hot. I'm the kind of person that I play well most of the time, and when I get my short game going, then I'm capable of shooting a low number, especially on a golf course like this, which you've got to stay out of the rough. I like the golf course. It's one of those golf courses which is really fair. If you stand up and hit the fairway. If there's an advantage and stand up and wing it into the jungle, you're in trouble. I think that's the way golf should be; it should be fair. Of course in a match-play situation, it has an added element of pressure, if you can hit those fairways, it adds pressure to your playing partner and that's the way I'm going to look at it this week, and the sort of one-on-one situation. Q. You've beaten Shiv Kapur in a match-play situation in the past. Tell us about that. RICHIE RAMSAY: Yeah, I remember that one funnily. I had to play Shiv in a playoff and obviously coming, birdie 18 in regulation and I birdied 18 in the first playoff hole and just, yeah, just very clear in what I could do that time. And I've got to take that attitude this week with a few people and especially the attitude that I had in the playoff in the stretch on the back nine on Sunday, I was very clear on what I need to do. I need to have that from the first hole on Thursday. It's funny, I talked to Ian, my coach, a little bit about it, and when you're in contention coming down the stretch on Sunday, it's quite easy what you need to do. You need to win. Everybody wants to win. I need that for me to be -- quite clearly what you need to do. On that Thursday morning, it's quite difficult. Do I play aggressive; do I play conservative; what do I do; how do I map it out. You have all these different routes and you don't really know which route to choose. I need to be a little bit more clear about what I need to do, as in my course management, my strategy and most important, my attitude. My attitude dictates everything, not just on the golf course, but in life. I think if I have a good attitude, then it's a ticked box for me. If I lose and I come off and say, well, I had a really good attitude, I won't mind the loss. But if I lose due to the fact that I have a bad attitude, that's on me. There are times when I kind of get a bit harsh on myself. I need to look at what I'm doing in preparation. Q. You have a good match-play record as an amateur golfer. What was it about match play itself that kind of seems to suit your game so well? RICHIE RAMSAY: Probably what I mentioned before. I'm very good tee-to-green. I've got spells where I have definitely improved significantly from 2006 when I played here with regards to my short game and attitude and putting, especially my putting. It's a lot more consistent. But the fact that I have a good, all-around game and I'm quite consistent off the tee, it's a pressure thing. I remember playing John Kelly in the final, I had the attitude that I was going to pressure him on every single shot. I know my swing doesn't break down because I've worked on it with Ian for 15 years and my attitude is good. So if I can hit it on the fairway, hit it on the green, then you're constantly under pressure and your opponent's mind-set is that this guy is not going to give up. That's the way I was brought up. I don't give up on anything. Try to go 100 per cent into it. If the person knows that you're going to do that, they know you're in for a game and they know that you are not going to give away anything. So, yeah, take the game I have, sort of the consistency, it lends itself to match play quite well. Q. How confident are you that you can make home advantage count here? RICHIE RAMSAY: Yeah, I think all the guys are really good players. Probably that's the one thing straightaway to mention. I don't know how many titles between the 64 guys, but there's a huge amount of winners in there. Home advantage is important but I don't think it's the decisive thing. I think, again, I'll come back to the sort of attitude; that's going to be attitude and short game are going to be the two key characteristics and those are the things I'm going to focus on and concentrate. It does help, like days like today when it's windy, I know exactly how far the ball flies in these distances. Whereas guys who play in warmer climates won't understand how short it goes. It's very hard to get your head around when an 8-iron in a warmer climate can go 170 and yet an 8-iron that goes 120, that's difficult to comprehend. So those little things do help me. But like I say, the attitude and the short game are going to be the two things that I will focus on. Q. It would be great, as well, to see the golf fans really embrace this event and come out in force, wouldn't it? RICHIE RAMSAY: Yeah, like I said before, the ingredients for the tournament are really, really good. The fact that you have a final here on a Sunday afternoon, hopefully weather gets quite good; if you can get a really good crowd out there, it would be an incredible atmosphere. I remember playing the U.S. Amateur and we had, I think it was, 5,000, 6,000 people and it was like two deep on every hole. And when you have that, it's very much like a sort of football atmosphere. It's a great thing to play in and a unique experience that we don't get every week, only in certain tournaments when you are playing the BMW or the Scottish or you get a TV group. And that's something that look great or TV and sound great on TV when putts go in, and it will add something different to the event; something that maybe the Tour are looking at with regards to new formats and adding -- being a little bit more proactive in looking at new formats and trying to produce a product that people want to see and they want to watch on TV. Q. Winning earlier in your European Tour career; how important was that? RICHIE RAMSAY: It came, it was funny, it came at a time when it wasn't long after I sort of secured my card, and that was the main goal. I remember the Dunhill I played well and I remember it was maybe only three or four months after that. But at the end of the day, like someone said to me, at the end of the day, what defines you, what defines -- like when you sit down and say you're 50 and someone says to me, oh, what did you do. Well, probably the two things that I will say is that I did everything I could to be the best I could be, and probably the titles. We all know that participation is really important. There's no doubt about that. Getting kids involved in sport is really, really important. But elite level sport, the only thing that matters pretty much is winning, and titles matter. You can see it when you look back at -- you look back at Paul's career. I know he played Ryder Cups and that's a pivotal thing in his career, but the one thing that stands out is The Open. Titles are important, but Open titles or major titles are worth way more than anything else because guys don't have much pressure coming down the stretch, and at the end of the day you're beating the best guys out there. So, yeah, being the best I can be and adding to those titles are the two things that I want to have when I finish. People talk about, oh, yeah, career money and stuff. Don't really care about career money. It's about winning. Q. You mentioned the possibility of the Tour looking into must formats such as the Match Play. Would you be along with the idea of more match play and other possible tournaments than the 72-hole stroke-play? RICHIE RAMSAY: 72-hole tournaments are still going to be your bread and butter. But if you look around the world and you look at places who are a little bit more forward thinking with regards to, I'm just thinking of sports off the top of my head. I'm thinking of F1. Putting a night race, suddenly people want to watch that. And then you've got a day/night race. We've got courses now in Turkey which are floodlit that you can play at night. We played a course at China this year that was floodlit at night so you're looking at it from your balcony and you can go out there and play golf. Match play events, whether it be -- I'm just thinking off the top of my head, whether it be like a PGA Tour, European Tour, ladies tour, putting them all together, having a team, I don't know, something like that. But I think the people we have coming in will be very open to that, and I think they have a distinct record of being successful in the business that they have been in and they will look to develop those opportunities. We've got a lot to sell in Europe. I think you saw last week, you watched Crans-sur-Sierre, it looked an unbelievable tournament. And especially people in America love to want that because it's different, it's character, it's something they can sell. It's something that is unique. We have a lot of fantastic tournaments on The European Tour and if we can add to that and develop maybe different formats and still have that Race to Dubai, which is sort of a pivotal thing with the Final Series, all those things mixing together, we will have I think a stronger, more diversified tour and something that people will buy into more because at the end of the day, you're competing against other tours. You've got to be proactive and you've got to set out your stall and say, this is what we're going to do. A little bit like I am; we are going to try to be the best we can be. And there's different ways to being the best and you've got to look at them. Q. You mentioned the new people coming in, obviously Keith Pelley, new chief exec. Those new ideas, is that something you'd be comfortable approaching him to talk about or do you go through the tournament players' committee? Is that something the players would want to put forward? RICHIE RAMSAY: I think the players' meeting, guys pull up a lot of different ideas and all the ideas are pulled together and it's discussed. I think that it needs to have weight behind it. It needs to come from particular players it needs to be sold. So it needs to be, not just myself -- it needs to come from a pool of players. But there's two ways you can look at that. You can sit there and go, well, what we have is really good: Do we just stick by it and go with it. And if the numbers are, the responses are they are declining, at the end of the day, I'm in a job here to go out and play golf. But if I don't have any tournaments to play in, I'm not going to have a job. So if they are saying to us that we feel this is the way forward and this is going to help the Tour and make it stronger; at the same time, you're going to have tournaments to play in -- yeah, the odd tournament. I'm not talking about having a 40-week season where you're playing in flood lights and playing match play and playing Pro-Ams and stuff like that. I'm just saying, potential to throw something in there, or add a nine-hole Pro-Am on a Tuesday evening. So for guys who are off work in the evening can come along and play, something that's a little bit different. I don't think it's a bad thing to always try to improve yourself. I think there's a lot of people out there who are happy with average. I always like to look at myself or what I do on the golf course and what I do off the golf course and think, could I have done that a little bit better. Yeah, I could have, and I'm sure the Tour will do that, and I think they have got the right people now on the boards to push it forward. MICHAEL GIBBONS: I think we're all done. Richie, thank you very much. Good luck this week. 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
|