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OMEGA DUBAI LADIES MASTERSDecember 8, 2015Laura DaviesDubai, United Arab Emirates BETHAN CUTLER: Ladies and gentlemen, delighted to welcome back Dame Laura Davies to the interview room. Making your ninth appearance here at the OMEGA Dubai Ladies Masters this week, you had a really good game the weekend in Japan where you won your singles match. How confident are you feeling about your game coming into this week? LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, it's been a strange year, really, because I've hit the ball well tee to green and I've not really scored particularly well. I've been confident every week but not had the results to back it up. Hopefully this week will be different. I've got the confidence with the long game and I'll make some putts and I'll be a contender because that's all you want to be. You want to have a chance Saturday morning to win this tournament. It's one that obviously for lots of reasons I'd love to win. Strong field, wouldn't be easy, but I'm here to try. BETHAN CUTLER: Can you just expand and tell us those reasons, why you'd love to win? LAURA DAVIES: Well, obviously I represent golf in DUBAi and I have done for a number of years now, and they are so nice to me and they one run of the best tournaments on the European ladies tour. It's something that I'd love to do personally. But having said, that it's one of our most prestigious events, as well, and always attracts a strong field. We always get a few LPGA starts, obviously Shanshan has won it a couple of times. It's just a fun event to try to win. I just dream about hitting a nice wedge onto the 18th and holing an eagle putt to take the trophy. That would be nice. Q. Last year, as well, you thought that your game was really in a good shape but the putting was still bothering you last year. Have you had a handle on what's happening, if that is something that's holding you back, have you figured out what is going wrong and what have you tried to do in these last few months? LAURA DAVIES: Well, it's been a year since it's been probably two years since I've holed putts on a regular basis. I've changed completely to the left hand low. That was something my caddie, Tanya, she was a really good player herself when she was on Tour. Short game was her speciality. Two months ago she said: Don't mess with it, go with left land low and stick to it. Because normally I do it for a couple of weeks, miss a couple of putts and say that's it. But I'm sticking to it and I just feel like the results are starting to get better. I didn't hole many putts last week but I hit a lot of good putts. I didn't hit any pulls, which is my tendency. I'm just trying so hard to hole them, I tend to pull them a little bit but that's going away now. We're working at it. We're practising more than I've ever done before. So it's not like I'm not trying to get better but as you get older, the short game goes. I think you can hit the ball well into your 70s, 80s, you still see people hitting it well but for whatever reason the short game seems to be the thing that goes as you get older. Q. Just with the Money List, Shanshan has already wrapped it up. Is there a way we can make the season go longer, like in the men's version, they introduced The Final Series. Obviously it depends on the money. LAURA DAVIES: The trouble is with the LET, the money is pretty much if someone wins the Evian Masters, they win the Money List. I haven't spoken to any officials, I hope I'm not upsetting any officials but it needs to be a points system rather than a money system because we have such disparity with our prize funds that it doesn't work. And it means someone can win a Money List with one or two good events. I know you have to play a certain amount but that's not difficult to do, we have so many good tournaments on this tour now. So yeah, you don't want the Evian and the British, someone has two good weeks there, they win the Money List there and it's a shame. My only way would be, I don't think you need a TOUR Championship, bringing everyone back to level points, because I don't know, just doesn't seem like it would work on this tour. Certainly an old fashioned we used to have a points system years and years ago, and I don't think that's a bad thing. That's just personal. That's what I think. Q. Can I ask your thoughts about somebody like Paige who has been given an invite into this tournament? She's not on the Tour and she's not a tour member of LET, as well, and she's been given an invite because of certain skills that she has? LAURA DAVIES: What are they? (Laughter) I don't know her from a bar of soap, I really don't. I've obviously heard what some of the players have said I've not met her. I saw her last night at the party, didn't speak to her. So I shouldn't really I mean, good luck to her. Everyone needs a chance and if she's a good player, then I think it's great she's here. If she's here for any other reason than she's a great golfer, then it's a little bit pointless. But we have to give her a chance. She might go and win the tournament and then it's the best decision ever made. Yeah, I think everyone deserves that chance and I wish her all the best this week. Q. But what I wanted to ask you is the social medias aspect of it, and she's very good at that, it's something that is being pushed, you're a part of the LPGA Tour, and from what I've read and heard, is that all the girls on the Tour are really encouraged to be more socially active on the social media platforms and things like that. So what do you think of that aspect of golf at the moment? It's not just about skills on the golf course but also interpersonal skills, your interaction with the fans. What do you think about that part of it? LAURA DAVIES: Well, I'm old fashioned. I don't like Tweeting. I don't like Facebook. I've got none of that. I have a I guess I have a Facebook account but I've never touched it. Someone set that up for me and thought that would be funny, so that's that. The Twitter one, maybe one or two Tweets a year or whatever you call it. But that thing has passed me by. I don't really enjoy that side of it but I know a lot of people get so much pleasure out of it, and if it's helping the women's tour, then I'm all for it. I know I've been told by Bethan and a few other people I should do it more, but that ship's sailed. I can't get into it at all. Obviously it's a very important part of modern day life and obviously sport, so, yeah, if they want to do it, let them do it, but I won't be doing it. Q. Can you just give us an insight into your own mind, as such, if I can put it that way. You said that putting is something that is holding you back over the last couple of years, and the short game is something that age progresses, deserts you. Can you tell us how you're still motivated? Are you to win a tournament and if the age has in any way impacted your practise schedules or things like that. Are you still as motivated? LAURA DAVIES: If anything, I'm more now because I would trade every win I've ever had for one more win. I still think I can win and I still want to win and that's why I'm here. It's really as simple as that. If anyone watches me play and sees my ball striking, they would have no hesitation to think that I could still win a tournament but equally, if you're averaging 32, 33 putts a round, you can't win a tournament because everyone is too good now. But the motivation to win is still 100 per cent there. That's all I can think about is winning again. It's been the end of 2011 and it was a Senior Tour event over in America the last time I won. And I can't understand why I'm not winning but obviously short game is the primary reason and sometimes when I have been in contention, a little bit of pressure gets in there so it's almost like I'm starting again. I'm just trying to get that breakthrough win. Q. With obviously the Solheim Cup and the drama that happened there, after the dust has settled, can you look back at positives? Because women's golf really went through the roof and everyone was talking about it, although it was a negative situation, do you think some positive, some good has come out of it? LAURA DAVIES: The good, I was lucky enough to be commentating with SKY and we absolutely dominated the American Team for two days, and it was such a shame that one incident like that should turn the tide in the golf stakes. But I think someone told me there was 1.5 billion Tweets or something or social media I don't know how they judge it and how they gauge it but that sounded like a lot. So I think women's golf did well out of the Solheim Cup. Obviously the European Team, all the girls were very disappointed not to win but the Americans came back strong. They were motivated probably by something the European did or a European player did but it was still great golf. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it in the commentary booth, I really did. Q. Do you think everything is past now, because obviously you made some comments. LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, I stand by what I said. I genuinely, if I would have been in the team, I would have gone up to Suzann if I had been in a position where I could have got to that 18th tee and just said please, please concede the hole, get a halve, let's move on, she's made a mistake Suzann did something wrong. I've said that so many times since it happened. But just in the spirit of the game, don't win a hole because someone picks up an 18 inch putt or 16 inch putt, whatever it was, I'm sure someone knows the exact distance, and that would have been nice if she had done it. I've not seen Suzann. I heard from a few players that she didn't understand why I was so forceful in what I said; that I was disgusted with what she did; and I was and I still am, but you move on. I think the Americans have kind of moved on from it. I know Juli was shocked at the time, but she's got I don't think anyone's got any bad feeling. It might have been different if Europe had won. I think you might still be hearing about it now and probably still be hearing about it in 18, 19 months' time whenever the next Solheim Cup is, because in many ways, for Suzann, us losing was a better result for her personally moving on. But the whole thing was unfortunate but probably women's game did Piers Morgan was talking about it, so that's pretty good. Q. Just wanted to ask you about how you assess the health of women's golf at present. LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, I think it's great. There's so many good, young players. We've got Lydia and obviously the No. 1 player in the world. Inbee is not quite as young, but you've got such a good young and the Americans, some great young Spaniard players, obviously lots of Koreans, good Japanese. It's a very healthy combination and the scoring is great. The golf's great and I think it's very healthy. I would imagine all of the commissioners of all the tours are pretty pleased at the moment that they have things going in the right direction. Q. It's an increasingly younger women's sport, as well. Do you find women approach you for advice? LAURA DAVIES: No, they don't tend to. Because they come out on Tour, even someone like Lydia, who was so young when she won when she was an amateur, won that LPGA event; they have got their managers and their coaches and their parents. They don't seek advice. It's not like the old days. It's moved on now. It's more than just a player turning up. It's a team turning up. Q. I have to get your thoughts about the Olympics in 2016. Exciting? Do you think it's a good thing for golf to be I guess endoctored into the Olympic movement? LAURA DAVIES: I've always said, if tennis is in it, golf should be in it. Whether they both should be in it, I'm not sure. I've always said if the best thing you can win is not an Olympic medal for your sport, I reckon you can poll every golfer in the world, if they were men, they would want the Masters or the before I tissue. I don't think the Olympics would be their No. 1 goal, probably the same with the girls. Having said that, I think it's great we're in there. I would love to be playing. I'm not going to be playing. I'm too far down the World Rankings. I'd have to win three, four, five tournaments between now and then to get in. I'm not saying I'm not trying, because obviously years and years ago, I'd be a shoe in for the team. Didn't happen in my day but good luck to all that are going because imagine they are going to have the time of their lives. Q. In time, do you think Olympic Gold and golf will become the top thing to win? LAURA DAVIES: For me personally, no. It would always be the British Open followed by the U.S. Open, followed by Nabisco and then the Olympics would come but that's just me. You might ask 50 other golfers, and I would be surprised if they would rather have an Olympic Gold than a major, but you never know. Q. Can I ask your views on golf in Dubai? We found out a couple weeks ago that golf is the highest sport for economic revenue over here in the UAE. For you, how does it compare to other regions that you've visited? LAURA DAVIES: I love it. I think the golf courses, obviously they set the courses up beautifully. They are so well manicured, never a blade of grass out of place. There's usually a lot of water in play that makes the courses exciting to play. Yeah, course wise having said that, I've only ever played this one but I love this golf course so I suppose I'm a bit biased. But when you watch the men playing in Abu Dhabi and some of the other places. The courses all look the same: They all look beautiful, fun to play. Not big galleries yet but I think that will come over the years. The men's tournament seemed like they had a few more when Rory just won everything. But yeah, if the galleries got a bit bigger, it's a top place to come and play tournament golf, there's no question. Q. There has been a suggestion in the past it would be a great destination for The Ryder Cup. Do you think that would also be the case for the Solheim Cup? LAURA DAVIES: I don't think it would be a bad thing at all. I think, yeah, because they are slightly different tournaments because people travel to Ryder Cups and Solheim Cups whereas galleries tend to be from local you get your normal galleries at normal tournaments from the locals but those two events, people will travel in to watch. I think the galleries would be huge over here because, No. 1, what a great place to come and watch a golf tournament of that magnitude. I think either would be the only trouble is, no one could play on either team, so they wouldn't have a home player. Whether it would work from that side but it would be a great place to come and play it. BETHAN CUTLER: Thank you very much, Laura. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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