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BRITISH MASTERS SUPPORTED BY SKY SPORTS

October 12, 2016

Andy Sullivan

Watford, Hertfordshire, England

CLARE BODEL: Andy, you played the British Masters for the first time last year, nope fly that was an enjoyable experience for you. How important is it, do you think, to have this tournament back on The European Tour, and what does it bring, playing in front of a home crowd, etc.?

ANDY SULLIVAN: It's always special when you get to play in front of your home fans. I think it's a fantastic time to have it, as well. I think there's a lot of good, young, British golfers coming through. You see a lot during The Ryder Cup, Tyrrell winning last week, as well and there's other guys trying to push through.

I think it's a very special time to have it, and the one thing you're always guaranteed with the home crowd is it's always going to be very respectful and a very good crowd, and a lot of them, as well. Last night, for instance, when we get 2,500 people around a hole in the dark, it's pretty impressive. I think things like that makes it a lot of if fun and a lot of good things for to push youngsters into the game, as well.

CLARE BODEL: You mentioned it there, the Hero's Challenge last night, was the first time they have done that here on The European Tour. How did you enjoy that and what was that experience like?

ANDY SULLIVAN: It was good fun. It was really, really good fun. Just things like that, I think just trying to promote the game of golf and get youngsters into it.

Like I said, it's a fantastic way to showcase the characters we have on The European Tour and show that golf is not an old man's game, and it is actually fun to play golf. I think things like this make it a lot more fun and you know, as we've seen on telly, got a great response last night and hopefully we can do a lot more of them and get the response we did last night.

Q. Obviously at the moment, 14th in The Race to Dubai, and 50, 51 in the World Rankings. What's the goals for the end of the season? Still a few big tournaments coming up obviously.
ANDY SULLIVAN: Yeah, I feel like it's a lot of weight off my shoulders now with Ryder Cup done, I can try to get back to winning ways. There was a lot of hang up for me especially at the end trying to get into that team and sort of took away from going out there trying to win events, sort of thing.

It's nice to get back and prepare and trying to win tournaments and not thinking about how many Order of Merit points and I'm going to pick up and things likes that. I want to try to as big a finish as possible, and get myself cemented in the Top-50 in the world and make sure I'm ready for all the majors again and stuff next year. If I do that, I'll have picked up some top finishes somewhere along the line.

Q. As you mentioned The Ryder Cup, the inevitable Darren Clarke question: Were you disappointed not to play more than you did before the singles at Hazeltine?
ANDY SULLIVAN: You know, I think it's one of them things that everyone wants to play five games, which is not going to happen. It's not plausible to do that. Obviously different situations come about and unfortunately it's one of them situations where we was behind and Darren had to send the team out there that he thought was going to get us in front.

It's tough being a captain. You've got to make tough decisions and unfortunately, you know, if it had come off, we would all be standing here saying Darren is a genius but he didn't. It's just one of them things. It's tough being a captain and you have to do these things. And we was there as a team, regardless if we play one or two games; we're there as a team to win as a team. Unfortunately we lost as a team, but we stand shoulder-to-shoulder as Darren said, and we stands by his decisions and that's the way it was.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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