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BRITISH MASTERS SUPPORTED BY SKY SPORTS

October 7, 2015

Graeme McDowell

Woburn, England

Q. What does it mean to you to have the British Masters back on the schedule.
GRAEME McDOWELL: Very important. A tournament I grew up with, certainly when I turned pro, the British Masters was a real staple as part of The European Tour, and so many of the great British and probably specifically English golf courses that we have an opportunity to play, it's important.

It's important for The European Tour and having events like The European Open and the British Masters back on and having the backing of guys like Lee and Justin and Ian and Luke obviously back inning this one, it really gives the tournament a lot of credit build.

Q. You have a big following here this week, lots of U.K. fans supporting you. What will it feel like for you playing in front of those U.K. fans, how special?
GRAEME McDOWELL: Yeah, I think we miss coming back and playing in front of the U.K. fans. We obviously have the British Open and Wentworth and The Scottish Open, but apart from that, we really don't play enough golf back here.

I think back in the days of Faldo and Seve and Langer and stuff, I feel like the guys got to play back in this part of the world so much more often and I think the fans are so educated and they get it. They respect a great shot. We certainly love coming back, and especially the game of golf being so global. It's great to come back and play in front of the home fans. Like I say, there's always that appreciation level.

Q. What sort of venue is Woburn and what sort of challenge does it represent?
GRAEME McDOWELL: Woburn to me, big, mature golf course. Wentworth-esque I guess in many ways. I love the aesthetics of the tree-lined nature of this golf course. The greens are quite small and quite undulating. They have very distinct sectors on the greens, and it's the kind of course to me that it looks like if you're on, you can get it going. But if you're slightly off, the golf course is going to be very tricky.

Obviously it's had a decent amount of rain. Hoping it's going to dry out a little bit. Forecast looks set good for the weekend and I think it's going to be a real fun golf course to play.

Q. Your game is coming into some form. How important are the next few weeks in your schedule?
GRAEME McDOWELL: Very important. I certainly haven't had the type of year that I wanted but you know, you take the rough and smooth in this game and you learn and you move on. I feel like since about sort of end of July, start of August, I've started to play better.

Now it's just a case of being patient and not getting frustrated with finishes like my finish at the Dunhill at the weekend where I felt like I was there and kind of threw it away at the end. You have to mess a few of those up to get the confidence back to do it.

I'm enjoying the process of being back. It's fun to start hitting shots again and get the old juices flowing again. This would be a great week for me to compete and get a strong end of the season and bounce into 2016 ready to go.

Q. What would it mean to win here at Woburn?
GRAEME McDOWELL: I think to win a British Masters would be very, very special. Outside of my Scottish Open win, I haven't really won back here in the United Kingdom. There is a special element of winning in front of the home fans, and I'd dearly love a Claret Jug of course. But an event like the British Masters will come a close second. Winning something back in this part of the world.

Q. Part of what we are doing this week, the SKY Sports Association, trying to encourage kids to play. One of those things we are trying to suggest to them is that golf is fun. If you had a Crazy Golf World Champion, who would be the top man?
GRAEME McDOWELL: You know, the game of golf is so creative. I grew up on a nine-hole par 3 course. I used to play there seven, it's round a day when I was a kid. I loved the creativity of hitting wedges and stuff and obviously crazy golf and mini golf, you've got to look at the more creative players.

I think Seve would have been a pretty good crazy golf player back in his day. You look at the slightly more creative guys, guys that are good with the wedges and putter; I guess Luke Donald and Ian Poulter, those are two guys that jump off the page at me. They are pretty good at getting the ball in the hole, getting it up-and-down from everywhere.

So I think having fun with the game of golf, that's usually important. We were all kids once and I certainly love promoting the game of golf to young people and getting them out there, having some fun, having a laugh and enjoying the sport.

Q. If you could go back and meet yourself as a kid when you first started playing and knowing what you know now, what advice would you give yourself?
GRAEME McDOWELL: Meeting myself -- what are you trying to say?

Q. You go back to when you first started playing golf, you could meet yourself at that point, and say, well, I know what I know now about how I've developed over the years. What would you say?
GRAEME McDOWELL: I've certainly learned a lot of things through the years, and I think practise does pay off. I think sometimes you're out there putting the hours in and you're never really sure kind of where those hours are going to take you. So I think knowing that practise really does pay off in the long run.

My dad used to always say to me in my heart moments when bad things happened to me and I lost maybe an important match, I would be upset and disappointed and my dad would say, "It's all experience, Son. This experience will stand you in good stead in the future," and I never really believed him.

So I think maybe I would say to myself that, you know, you learn more from the tough times than you do from the good times. Not so much embrace the tough times but use those as learning experiences and pull them into your practise and pull them into your future.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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