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OMEGA DUBAI LADIES MASTERSDecember 7, 2015Olivia CowanGeorgia HallCsilla Lajtai-RozsaDubai, United Arab Emirates BETHAN CUTLER: Like to introduce three young professionals from Europe who represent the future of the women's game. To my right, Csilla Lajtai Rozsa from Hungary, Olivia Cowan from Germany and Georgia Hall from England, who you may pancreas cancer, as she was here last year and won a car for a hole in one. Just like to start with you, Csilla. How do you feel to be playing here in Dubai for the first time? CSILLA LAJTAI ROZSA: When I got my Tour card for this year, that was December last year, my best friends first told me about how my year is going to be, your last tournament is going to be awesome. So since last December, I'm waiting for this one. BETHAN CUTLER: What did they say about Dubai? CSILLA LAJTAI ROZSA: Just an amazing course. I mean, Dubai is just an amazing place. It's my first time here. I've spent half a day so far, and it's pretty impressive. BETHAN CUTLER: Olivia, you've had a fantastic year, won the LETAS Order of Merit, the feeder tour for the LET, with three tournament victories and now you've qualified to play as a rookie on the LET next year. How excited are you to get going in this, your second tournament on the LET? OLIVIA COWAN: I'm really excited. Dubai is a great tournament. I came here last year to watch. When I got told that I was going to play in this tournament, I was just buzzing. I was really happy. So I hope it's going to be a great week. BETHAN CUTLER: Do you have any expectations for yourself, or are you just going to enjoy and see where it gets you? OLIVIA COWAN: I'm definitely going to enjoy the week but I do have some expectations. My game is pretty good at the moment, so I hope I'm going to be somewhere at the top of the leaderboard, but we'll see. BETHAN CUTLER: Georgia, how is your year going, and are you excited to play again here at the Emirates Golf Club? GEORGIA HALL: Yeah, of course. This course is in great condition and the atmosphere is always great here. My year has not been too bad. It's got a lot better throughout the year and I always love coming back to Dubai. Q. Welcome to Dubai, ladies. We've already been talking today about the new generation of ladies golfers, very young, and all very well talented. Just wonder how you feel about that; that you're the pioneers for the next generation of golf. It's happening in the men's game and really the ladies game at the same time. GEORGIA HALL: I think it's great that young girls are getting into golf, as well, and hopefully we can inspire like toddlers and younger girls to take up the game and hopefully in years to come, the women's game will grow on TV and worldwide. OLIVIA COWAN: Yeah, I agree with Georgia. I think it's good that we have some younger players coming in and getting their TOUR card, because it inspires younger players, as well, so that's good. Hopefully get some more. BETHAN CUTLER: Csilla, being from Hungary, you're quite a role model for the girls in hungry. Do you have a lot of time with them? CSILLA LAJTAI ROZSA: Yeah, I'm the first professional from Hungary. It's not an easy way to start alone for the first, but I've got a couple girls on the national team who is always writing me, how I'm doing during the tournament. It's new for me and it's new for them but it's really good to learn together. Q. I wondered, who are your role models in golf and are any of them here this week? OLIVIA COWAN: I have two probably. Charley Hull is one of my role models, and like because Amy Boulden, as well, Rookie of the Year, they have both done that, so that's going to be my goal, as well next year. GEORGIA HALL: I watch the men's game quite a lot and Rory McIlroy always stood out to me, the way he presented himself on the golf course and the way he plays is so like natural and the skill he's got is absolutely great. So he's my role model. CSILLA LAJTAI ROZSA: Well, I've got Laura Davies. When I was 12 years old, she was the first professional I watched in Austria. Just being so cool on the course just got me. She's mine. Q. Do you know her? Have you met her? CSILLA LAJTAI ROZSA: I've watched her but I haven't played with her. Q. Of all the ladies here, your part must have been the hardest, because given that you really didn't have anybody from your own country to follow up and they all this their share of legends from their countries. How has been the journey for you in a place where I believe there are five or six golf courses in the whole country, no professional male golfer, as well. It must have been really tough on you. CSILLA LAJTAI ROZSA: Right now, we have two really good golf courses. I have to tell that. It's really great to practise on those courses. I was 12 or 13 years old when I decided that I wanted to be a professional one day, so five years later, here I am, and that was my goal. Yeah, I'm learning this on my own. It's not easy. I didn't have the greatest year I know. But I'm young and I've got a couple years ahead and I can't wait to keep going. Q. What about the facilities apart from the two golf courses that you mentioned, what about your coaching and are they good coaches in Hungary, or are you working with somebody else outside Hungary or do you go outside Hungary and play and practise somewhere else? CSILLA LAJTAI ROZSA: My coach is from the States, the United States. Every winter I spend two or three months because it's cold in Hungary anyway. Sometimes he visits me for one or two weeks. We just talk and he sends me videos and I send him back. I train by myself and train on my own. Q. What's his name? CSILLA LAJTAI ROZSA: Tom Burnett. Q. You played here last year and obviously very good memories from that. Can you tell us what you learned from that experience, and would you have any advice you could pass on to the girls, as well? GEORGIA HALL: Try not to feel any pressure really. Just go out and enjoy yourself, and it's a great opportunity, because I got an invite last year, as well. Just go out there, and you've been practising all your life, so just do what you do, really. That's what I did. I ended up with not a bad result. I think I came in somewhere in the 30s. Obviously the hole in one was like the main event of the whole thing. I mean, I doubt I'll get it this time but if someone does, then it's obviously a big bonus for them. Q. How did that set you up going forward? GEORGIA HALL: It helped a lot, definitely, financially, as well. This year it's helped me go to tournaments. Obviously it wasn't great, the early two, losing some this year. It wasn't a great year for rookies anyway. But next year is looking a lot brighter for the schedule. Next year I think will be I think a big year for me. BETHAN CUTLER: With next year with the Olympics taking place in Rio, I know that's a big goal for you, olive I can't. Can you expand on that, and representing Germany at the Youth Olympics? OLIVIA COWAN: I played the youth Olympics last year in China, and I came fourth in the individual tournament as the best European and came fifth as the team event with my male partner. It was a really good experience. I had so much fun, and I've definitely realised that the Olympics will definitely be my goal in 2016, but it's kind of hard because I'm only a rookie next year. But maybe in Japan. BETHAN CUTLER: So how much is playing on the LET Access Series helped your game and helped you improve? OLIVIA COWAN: It's helped me a lot because it's made me build up confidence and everything for the LET. So I'm not that nervous anymore, that's good. I was under pressure a bit, as well, so that's helped me for The European Tour. I would say it's helped me grow in my game, as well. Q. Wanted to ask, you said at the beginning when you saw the schedule for the year, Dubai was the one that kind of stood out. Wonder if you can expand more on that and what this event means in the calendar and the reputation that it has within ladies golf? CSILLA LAJTAI ROZSA: Well, I was excited about the tournament from what I heard about my friend, from her experience; that there were just cool kind of people and they had great opportunities to go out to the city and to practise with others they couldn't usually in Europe. Q. When you played here last year, did you feel this was GEORGIA HALL: Yeah, this is definitely one of the biggest tournaments of the year for me, I think for everyone. The atmosphere and the weather and the golf course itself, it's just incredible. It's a good test for us, as well. So to end the year on this tournament, well, in my opinion, it needs to be the last tournament of the year every year, because it is the best in my opinion on the Ladies European Tour. Q. Can I ask you about the German players that we know so much about, Martin Kaymer and Bernhard Langer. Have they been some kind of a role model for you and have you had interaction with somebody like Martin who would possibly be your partner in the Olympics if you qualify next year? OLIVIA COWAN: I definitely look up to them because they are one of the biggest in German golf. I've never met them sadly, but I hear they are great people. My male partner at the Youth Olympics, he's at college right now. He's a very good player, as well, but I'm not sure if he's going to turn pro, so maybe in the future, he'll be the next upcoming German, but we'll see. Q. Can you tell us something about your golf? Are you as methodical as Bernhard Langer, or what do you think of a German professional to be? Are you like that, or are you more free spirited and more feel oriented? What kind of golf do you like to play? OLIVIA COWAN: I'm very relaxed on the golf course. I do take a lot of risks, though, when I feel I want to attack the flag or attack a par 4 with water or something like that, so I'm not scared of that. But I would say on the golf course, well, I'm very relaxed on the golf course. I don't put myself under pressure. That's good. Q. Just talking of this week, absolutely really no pressure on you, there's nothing riding obviously if you win the tournament, it means a lot. But what does that do to your psyche when you go to a tournament like that and you know that your card for the next year, you are already there, and this tournament is like a bonus at the end of the year. So what does that do to your psyche when you go out on the golf course? OLIVIA COWAN: It definitely is a bonus that I get to play in this tournament. I was hoping that I would get an invite and I did. So I'm just really happy to be here. I'm just going to enjoy the moment. Q. I believe your nickname is Chi Chi? CSILLA LAJTAI ROZSA: Chi Chi. Q. And that you share with somebody as legendary as Chi Chi RodrÃÂguez. CSILLA LAJTAI ROZSA: It's totally different. Q. But you also seem to smile and laugh and crack jokes as much as Chi Chi does. Do you know much about him? Have you done some kind of research on him or have you tried to meet him? CSILLA LAJTAI ROZSA: When I started playing golf well, Chi Chi is the basic nickname for Csilla in Hungary. But they started calling me Chi Chi on the golf course when I started playing golf, and my first coach told me that he used to, when he made a putt, he just grabbed the putter and then like a sword. He tried to make me do it but it wasn't me (laughter). Yeah, I looked him up and he's a legend, so I'm proud we have something in common. Q. Also, he used to do a lot of practical jokes on other players, like pulling out rubber snakes and throwing it at them on the tee. Do you CSILLA LAJTAI ROZSA: No, I'm nice. I'm nice. Q. We talked about German players and influences, and you said Rory was your influence. Is that just that you like to watch him play or is that kind of your style of play, as well? GEORGIA HALL: Both, really. I like watching him play, and I think he reminds the way he plays is the way I play in my opinion, just like going for it, quite a fast, natural swing. Just like his attitude, as well, on the golf course, similar to mine, just Bobbing along just quite happily. And obviously everything he's won, it's great to watch. So hopefully in years to come, I can do something that he's done in the women's game. Q. So in the way that he plays, he would go for that big shot rather than lay up? GEORGIA HALL: I always do that but that can be my weakness sometimes, as well. Sometimes I should just chip out and not try and curve it around a tree or something. I think that it's better to have the attacking side because at least I can tone that down a bit in years to come. Q. And this is a course that you can do that on? GEORGIA HALL: Yeah, there's quite a lot of dog legs and stuff. So if you can shape the ball, then it will suit you. BETHAN CUTLER: Thank you, ladies. Good luck in the tournament. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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