	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

THE 145TH OPEN

July 15, 2016

Soren Kjeldsen

Troon, South Ayrshire, Scotland

MIKE WOODCOCK: Good afternoon, everyone. We're joined by the clubhouse leader Soren Kjeldsen.

Soren, that was a great round of 68 today. I think that takes you to 7-under par and currently 4 off the lead. You must be very pleased going into the weekend.

SOREN KJELDSEN: Yeah, it was a great day. I played really well yesterday, I thought, and obviously very nice conditions. It was different today. I think what helped us a little bit was that we played the front nine, even though we played it into the wind, we played it in decent conditions. So I got into a nice rhythm and sort of when the bad weather came, I was already in a nice rhythm. From then on I just sort of held on.

Q. Would you describe yourself as a good bad-weather player?
SOREN KJELDSEN: I think my answer is always these conditions is what I grew up in as well. So I'm certainly used to playing in bad weather. You don't stay inside because you would miss too many days.

So I like playing this kind of golf. I like the battling mentality that you need to play. Yeah, I do thrive in this.

Q. Can I read into that then that you wouldn't mind if the weekend remained the same?
SOREN KJELDSEN: I think beginning of the week, I always think about The Open like this: That you want to get all sorts of conditions. You want different wind directions. You want sun, you want rain. We need all four seasons in a good Open, I think. So that's basically what I'm hoping for, a bit of everything.

Q. You must be fairly confident in your 68 isn't going to be beaten today?
SOREN KJELDSEN: No, I think 68 could be beaten. When we're all teeing off the first, conditions could change later on. The forecast I saw was maybe a little bit drier in the afternoon, and I think obviously right now with the wind and the rain it's very difficult. The front nine is going to be extremely tough. But I think if the rain disappears, somebody will shoot better than 68, I reckon.

Q. I read a quote where it wasn't so long ago you were wondering whether you were maybe on the downward spiral, but after the Irish Open and now here. A new lease of life?
SOREN KJELDSEN: Yeah, I was struggling for a couple of years. I found it really, really hard. I had a couple of problems in my game that I struggled to solve and turning 40, you certainly heard that story before when people get to 40 and then it's downhill from there. So I was fighting pretty hard, but determined to get through, and it's nice being in this position now.

Q. I was just going to suggest that your performance at Royal County Downs seemed to spark something. The weather wasn't unlike what you experienced out there today.
SOREN KJELDSEN: That's true, yeah. I have to say two weeks before the Irish Open I teamed up with Alistair on the bag, and Alistair has made a huge impact on everything that I do, really. So I cannot underestimate his importance to what we're doing. He came in with enthusiasm. Sort of a fact mindset, "Let's look at what we need to do better." He's been amazing. It's no coincidence that my form changed from when Alistair got on the bag. So he definitely needs a lot of praise for that.

Q. Could you tell us something about your best and worst days in The Open Championship.
SOREN KJELDSEN: Well, I'll start with the worst: It was at Birkdale. I had a really good tee time, I thought, 6:52 on Thursday morning, and it came down so hard all day and it was so windy. I'll never forget walking off the 18th tee. I went into -- there was one guy from Danish media. You could see that he was all dry. He had just had a nice cup of coffee I could smell on his breath, and I had shot 11-over and thought I didn't do too bad. It was crazy. His first question was like, "What happened out there?" That was probably a low point.

After that I'd say my best memories were probably these two days. So far I haven't done that great at The Open. I've had some good times. I remember sitting in the Old Course Hotel watching Tom Watson play his last hole at St. Andrews a few years ago. That was pretty special. But from a selfish standpoint, these last two days have been really good.

Q. Just finally for me, over the next two days, I know you're already at the halfway stage, but do you believe in yourself that you're good enough to win?
SOREN KJELDSEN: I do, yeah, and I can say that because having those years where I really struggled to get through that, and going from feeling so weak on the course to feeling so strong, winning in Ireland and playing great last year, playing great at The Masters this year, I don't feel intimidated by anybody. I think I won the battle sort of within, and I think that was a tougher battle to win than against any other player.

Q. You see young players winning more and more professional golf lately. Do you think this tournament favours the older players more than the other majors, and if so, why?
SOREN KJELDSEN: I don't know. I think media get -- I don't know the stats about this. I know most stats about most things, but I don't know this one. But media always likes to tell that all the young guys are winning, and you need to hit it 340 through the air to win and all that. I don't get caught up in that. I'm 41, and I hit it 280 and I try to make the most out of it.

Q. What would you say your best quality is on the golf course?
SOREN KJELDSEN: I think generally my short game. I think if you look at these two days as well, I think I was driving it really well yesterday. I drove it pretty good today, not quite as good as I did yesterday. But I think the ability to get up and down when I really need to. I think my wedge game is very strong. I think when my head is in the right place, I make a lot of putts as well. So I'd definitely say the short stuff.

Q. What did you say to the Danish journalist who said, "What happened?" Were you polite?
SOREN KJELDSEN: I think generally I'm quite polite. I think I said, "Maybe you should try and walk outside the tent." (Laughter).

Q. And your performance at The Masters in April, is there anything you learned there that will help you this weekend?
SOREN KJELDSEN: I think I said this yesterday as well, I think the biggest difference now is like when I go into a major like this, I feel normal. I don't make it more important than anything else really. I know the importance of the tournament, but I also know that for me to perform well, I need to get into my little world and get lost in that. And if I control what I can control, then I'm doing okay. And that's what I learned from Augusta.

It's one of those things where I got back to the house every day, I never watched it on TV. We had a great time at the house just with the family and didn't get caught up in it. I think for me that's very important, just to go and play my golf and enjoy that, like I've always enjoyed it.

Q. What did you make of what Phil Mickelson's doing out there at the minute? And is he an inspiration to some of the more experienced guys out there on Tour?
SOREN KJELDSEN: That was a fantastic round yesterday, but I don't think many people were surprised. He's an incredible player. I sometimes catch myself looking at YouTube of incredible shots by Phil Mickelson because it's inspiring. I love his attitude. I love everything, how he plays the game. But having said that, I try to control my own game and not worry about him.

Q. Did you ever feel that sort of taller and more strapping fellows had an advantage over you? And if you did feel like that, when did you get to grips with it?
SOREN KJELDSEN: Not really. I always feel like I've got so much to improve on, and I still feel that. I think probably some people feel that I've overachieved, 5'7". But I'm married to Charlotte; I think I've overachieved there as well (laughter).

I think you can't get caught up in all that. We all have limitations or whatever, but the whole thing is about pushing, trying to see how good you can get and nobody's going to stop me in that. Doesn't matter if I'm playing guys like 6'4" that hit it 350. They're not going to touch my little Srixon ball. And that ball and me, it's between the two of us.

Q. You were talking earlier about your greatest battle being the battle within. Could you talk a little bit about that? What did you have to face up to, how low did you get, and what have you come through to get to this point?
SOREN KJELDSEN: Well, my problem was mainly on the tee shots. I felt very insecure on the tee shots. I just felt really weak. Because I don't hit it a long way, but when I hit it nicely, I get it out there, but I didn't at the time so I was hitting it short and pretty crooked. It was tough. There were certain times like when I was struggling off the tee that you play with guys that they're flying 320 and seem to hit it down the middle every time, and you do sort of wonder.

But I look at most of the top players, and I think one thing that's helped me quite a lot is getting to know the top players, I know what they struggle with. They've all got something. It doesn't matter how good you are, there's always a little "if" in there, some part of the game. So I've accepted that, and I would probably say that it's pretty much totally gone out of my system. I didn't think I'd ever get to that, but it has. Everybody's fighting something.

Q. What years are we talking about here? When did you turn the corner?
SOREN KJELDSEN: I'd say probably low point was beginning of -- well, it was probably '14 and beginning of '15. So it was not that long ago. But a lot of things have happened since.

Q. It probably follows on from that. You mentioned turning 40 and everybody knows what happens. Was there a bit of a mini-midlife crisis? What happened?
SOREN KJELDSEN: No, it was just very hard. I never considered not playing golf, but I certainly considered if I was ever going to be good enough to continue to compete because the graph was going down. I didn't feel like I was going in the right direction at all.

But mid-life crisis? I didn't think so. My life, I've been very blessed sort of outside of golf. I've got a fantastic wife and three great kids and great stability around me in that respect. So you could probably say a golfing mid-life crisis, but apart from that, I was okay.

Q. Before you said to us, "When I have my mind in the right place I can do whatever I want." I want to know what is this right place?
SOREN KJELDSEN: Well, the right place is quite a relaxed state of mind, very focused, but relaxed at the same time. It's a state of mind where you've got enormous acceptance and it's a place, as well, where it's just a game of golf, really. I know the importance and I really want to do well, but at the end of the day I'm going to give it my everything, and then when I pack my bag and go to the next place, I'll be happy with that and I'll learn from it and that's what I'm going to do.

So basically a good state of mind is where everything teaches you something. So every bad shot might be the best thing that ever happened to you because you felt something. You felt, for example, I'll give you an example: When I played Memorial like a month ago, on the second day on the Friday I hit a terrible 9-iron into the ninth green, and it was the best thing that could have happened. Because when I was thinking about that shot at night, I felt exactly what happened through the ball there. So I knew exactly what I needed to go out and change. I came out the next morning and shot 64.

So if you can learn from everything, that's when you're in a good place.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297