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PORTUGAL MASTERS

October 19, 2016

Ricardo Gouveia

Vilamoura, Portugal

Q. How much are you looking forward to playing in the Portuguese Masters this week?
RICARDO GOUVEIA: A lot, yeah, it's a great event for us Portuguese, especially me. I grew up playing junior golf around here. I know the course really well and a lot of family and friends coming along. It's always a great tournament.

Q. What else did it do, not just for you Portuguese golfers but Portugal golf as a whole?
RICARDO GOUVEIA: It's very important especially for kids to come and watch, not only the Portuguese players but the best in Europe play and hopefully motivate them to start playing or to keep going.

Q. You've had a week off. How does the game feel at the moment?
RICARDO GOUVEIA: It's feeling much better. Unfortunately I didn't get in last week but I had a good week of work at home and practice, and hopefully this week, things click and get going for me.

Q. How do you find your first season on The European Tour?
RICARDO GOUVEIA: It wasn't easy at the beginning but now I'm comfortable. My game has not been 100 percent this year but to achieve my main goal, which was to guarantee the card for next year, even though I wasn't playing very well, it's great, and I feel like it's going back to school for me, just learning to play out here and to pretty much score when the game is not on.

Q. You're 95 on the Order of Merit. Is that on your mind?
RICARDO GOUVEIA: Not really. I know I need a good week to get in Turkey and to give me a chance for the other two events, as well. So I'm just going to do my best and see what the end of the week brings me.

Q. This course has always had a low-scoring winner. What is it about this course that makes it so?
RICARDO GOUVEIA: I think the rough not being so high, and there's a bit of room for error with the tee shots, mostly on the front nine. But the greens being soft, normally, yeah, it just makes the scoring very low.

Q. Any particular holes that you can think of?
RICARDO GOUVEIA: Yeah, well obviously No. 2, it's a birdie hole. There's 4, 5, and then a tough stretch, 6, 7; 7 being the most difficult hole or one of the most. But then there's good chances on the back nine if you keep it fairly straight off the tee with the par 5s that you can reach it in two like 17 and 12. That's mainly it.

Q. How special is it to win both the Grand Final and The Road to Oman rankings last year?
RICARDO GOUVEIA: Very special. I knew going into the week that I needed a solid week to finish on top of the rankings. I felt like my game wasn't 100 percent all week and then on the back nine, starting on 12, something clicked and I made like five birdies in a row, and then had a nice up-and-down on the last to win was very special.

Q. What does it mean to win The Challenge Tour?
RICARDO GOUVEIA: Yeah, it's very nice. It's very challenging, very competitive. You need to play well every week to finish first in the rankings, and sometimes to have a chance of getting the Tour card. Yeah, you just need to be consistently playing well. You can't have much weeks off. You need to be on top of your game, and to be able to do that throughout the whole season and to finish first was very satisfying, yeah.

Q. And also, obviously Oman being the biggest tournament and winning it, how much did that help you in your start towards the main tour?
RICARDO GOUVEIA: Yeah, I started pretty much right away in Leopard Creek. I had a Top-20 there, and then I had a bit of a break and came back and had a good week in Qatar, and it was good to have those two good weeks in the beginning of the season. Took a bit of that pressure off from the beginning of the season. But unfortunately I haven't played my best yet this year, but it was still good to have those -- my main goal, which was to guarantee the card for next year, achieved in Denmark.

Q. And what advice would you give to this year's finalists?
RICARDO GOUVEIA: Well, got to keep your foot down on the pedal, don't relax. There's a lot of guys hungry behind the top players. You need to keep going and first is better than second in the rankings. It was very hard this year to get in a few of the events, even for me and the top three, the top three players. So yeah, try and finish at the top of the rankings.

Q. How much are you looking forward to making your debut in the World Cup this year?
RICARDO GOUVEIA: Yeah, it's going to be very nice playing alongside JosÃ©. I haven't played much with him but I know he's playing well this year and I think it's going to be a great partnership. And on a great course in a great country like Australia, yeah, it's going to be fun.

Q. What does it mean to represent your country?
RICARDO GOUVEIA: Yeah, it's great. I've had the experience this year in the Olympics, and it was great. To do that again, because -- well, you play for Portugal but it's more for yourself a little bit on the Tour.

But once you go back to that mind-set of playing for your country, hopefully hearing the anthem in the end after a good result, yeah, that would be very satisfying.

Q. Obviously looking forward to giving the bigger names in golf a run for their money that week.
RICARDO GOUVEIA: Yeah, exactly. I've played a with a few this year. This year I played with Ernie Els in the beginning of the year and Sergio GarcÃa in the Olympics, but that week, there's going to be a few more of those guys, like Jason Day, Adam Scott, guys that you look up to when you grow up playing the game.

Yeah, it's going to be fun to play against them and hopefully beat them in the end.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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