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ABERDEEN ASSET MANAGEMENT PAUL LAWRIE MATCH PLAY

August 3, 2016

Chris Wood

East Loathian, Scotland

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Start us off with your thoughts on the week, No. 1 seed.

CHRIS WOOD: Yeah, I don't really see it like that, because I'm straight in tomorrow, got quite a tough game against Rummy, and the golf course, there's quite a lot of run golf on the golf course and the greens. We all know Rummy's got one of the best short games on Tour, so it will feel like he's never out of the hole.

So yeah, it will be a good one to win tomorrow. And then sort of get a little bit of momentum building throughout the week and hopefully go on a good run.

MICHAEL GIBBONS: How is the fitness at the moment?

CHRIS WOOD: Obviously July wasn't a great month for me. Met injury, and withdrawing from The Scottish Open; trying to give it a go at The Open. I was warming up on the Thursday just trying to play and they had a big TrakMan TV on the range, and sort of carrying my driver 190 yards is embarrassing; and then you go and try and play in The Open. So I was making half-back swings there, really.

But then last Wednesday at the PGA, played nine holes and that was the first day I didn't have any pain. So hopefully, I'm over that now.

Q. How much is The Ryder Cup playing on your mind or a factor in your life at the moment?
CHRIS WOOD: It's starting to. I think just because we're coming towards the end of the qualifying process now, and this is my last event that I'm scheduled to play in that process. Getting married in a couple of week, so I have told her, we might have to put it on standby just in case (laughter).

Q. How did that go down?
CHRIS WOOD: Probably asking for a divorce already. (Laughter) but if I have to, I will play Denmark wedding is the Saturday of the Czech Masters, if I have to, I'll play there, but I'd like to tie it all up this week.

Q. What's her name?
CHRIS WOOD: Bethany.

Q. What do you need to do to tie it up this week, in your mind; win?
CHRIS WOOD: Yeah, everybody is saying that I'm there, but for me, until it's set in stone and there's a line under the qualifying, I'm not. Because if I feel like I'm there and I take my -- I'm pushing too hard to try and make the team, I don't want any intensity to drop. So I am really just giving everything, trying to make the team, so I don't want to feel like I let my mind wander; that I'm there.

Q. After the huge win at Wentworth earlier in the year, how would getting in The Ryder Cup compare to that?
CHRIS WOOD: It would be very similar I think. Winning at Wentworth is obviously the biggest win of my career so far. It was a very, very special day. Particularly being able to share it with my friends and family; we're only down the road, so a lot of them came to watch, and that was great.

Obviously making the team, at home, if I am, or you get the call and you know, all that sort of thing. I'm going to my stag do next weekend, so if I can come off of this week with a good week, that will make it even better. Yeah, so again, it might feel quite similar if I can sort of share it with my best friends and my family.

Q. The wedding, was that always the date that was penciled in a year ago or whatever; were you thinking about The Ryder Cup at that point?
CHRIS WOOD: Yeah, it was penciled in. I did tell our parents to perhaps take out wedding insurance just in case (laughter).

But I sort of thought, well, I knew what I was playing in up to that point, and I thought, well, I'll probably take a couple of weeks off because I've played a lot of golf, so I probably won't play the Czech Masters anyway. But I knew it freed up Denmark, if I had to play.

Yeah, I mean, looking at it now, you could think, what was wrong with a couple of weeks later. But hopefully it won't sort of get to that.

Q. Wedding on Saturday of the Czech Masters?
CHRIS WOOD: Yes.

Q. Honeymoon planned at this stage?
CHRIS WOOD: Yeah, we've just got to wait for that. Golf comes first.

Q. And you're not going to cancel the honeymoon?
CHRIS WOOD: No, that will be after -- a couple weeks after Race to Dubai.

Q. The stag do, any of the golfers coming or just your mates from back home?
CHRIS WOOD: Dave Horsey's coming. Joost Luiten was invited but he's playing in the Olympics. And then, we've got ten of us in total, so yeah, it should be a good crowd.

Yeah, my dad is the one I'm most concerned about. He's an unbelievable drinker and he loves a pint of Guinness (laughter). I mean, it will be really good. A lot of the guys that are coming have come to the Masters, The Open. One of my best men came to the U.S. Open, stayed with me.

So, they come away with me, and they stay away, they'll stay in a hotel somewhere. But then they will come around to where we're staying for dinner or something like that, and tell me about their stories from the night before, falling outside out on the drink in Atlanta, for example. You sort of miss out on a lot of that, the fun that you have with your mates. So more than anything, I'm sort of looking forward to a nice weekend really with my friends.

Q. Are any of them sharable, these stories?
CHRIS WOOD: No, they are really good lads. Two of them are very happily married and the other lad is my best man, he's single, so he's the one really that gets the majority of action, shall we say. Yeah, the stories maybe come from him but it's all in good fun.

Q. The fact that this is a match-play format, how much of a preparation is that for Hazeltine?
CHRIS WOOD: Yeah, it's great practise, because we play stroke-play every week. So to switch your mind-set to one-on-one match play, and like I said, playing Rummy tomorrow, tough game, so I'm going to have to really be on my game to beat him tomorrow.

Yeah, it's great practise. I think Paul's really trying to build a really good event here. It's unique and as soon as it was on the schedule, I wanted to come back and play.

Q. Because it's a sort of warm-up for The Ryder Cup, is that the main reason you entered this one?
CHRIS WOOD: Yeah, maybe partly. But I played last year at Murcar and I really enjoyed it. But I also think that if somebody like Paul is willing to put in the effort and time for an event like this, as players, we should support him. Paul's had a great career, Open Champion, Ryder Cup player. He deserves the support from players.

You know, you could easily look at, saying, well, it's the week after the U.S. PGA, why would you want to play the week after. That doesn't matter; I'm here. Obviously with what I've got coming up in the next couple of weeks, I wanted to play. I didn't want to finish at the USGA, have a month off and then play again. It's come at a really good time for me.

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