	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

WGC HSBC CHAMPIONS

October 27, 2016

Rikard Karlberg

Shanghai, China

CLARE BODEL: Rikard, welcome to Shanghai. It's your first time here at this tournament, and leading the tournament after the first day. Will you tell us a little bit how it went for you out there.

RIKARD KARLBERG: Thank you very much. It was great. I know the kind of weather this has been, it's going to be wet, and you just need to be aggressive, bomb to the tee and bomb to the pin, and that's what I did today. I had great distance control. I hit great shots all day except the last hole, and it was a great day. It felt amazing on every part of the game.

Q. It sounds like it was a fairly easy day. Was anything difficult about it?
RIKARD KARLBERG: No. I just had a couple of uncommitted shots at the end on 17 and was lucky, got a pretty good lie there, and hit a great chip shot.

Everything was so easy. It was just one of those days; it was a walk in the park. Committed to a lot of shots. Hit them perfect, just as I wanted. It was not a lot of tough things there. And I stayed aggressive on my putting all the way around, which I feel was good.

Even if the greens were pretty bumpy in the end, because of how soft they were, I still run past the hole and really tried to hole everything, and I think this will be a good key for the rest of the tournament.

Q. What did you do on 18?
RIKARD KARLBERG: My drive didn't fade and I ended up in the bunker and I had a little sand behind the ball. Unfortunately I didn't really catch it, ended up in the rough, short right, in the water, couldn't hit it three, had to play it safe, hit a good putt.

Q. Have you played many other events in China on The European Tour, and if so, how have you done in those, and did that help you today, that experience.
RIKARD KARLBERG: I think it's my fourth event this year. Three events I've played this year; it's my fourth total.

It's been good. I kind of finished Top-10 in the Shenzhen International, and then 20-something in Volvo China Open there in Beijing.

So absolutely, it's a little bit same kind of condition as we play in Shenzhen, soft, and you just have to be aggressive all around. But I think mostly come from the time that we are playing on The Asian Tour, which I learned a lot from, how to stay aggressive and how to read the greens.

Q. You played obviously all over the world, but the crowds are always different, aren't they, everywhere you go. How would you describe Chinese crowds as against, say, British or Swedish crowds?
RIKARD KARLBERG: A bit nervous. They are a bit quiet when it comes to if they should applaud or not, especially I think a guy as me who shows up that is not one of the "superheroes" (laughter). And then it's very quiet. We hit a few shots that was just spot on and I looked at my caddie, is that long or short, it looked very good. And I just think, I don't know, they were a little bit scared to applaud you; you come up to a few shots, and they are within three feet.

I think they are a bit scared of being so noisy for good shots. That's what I think. But they are very polite and you can see how this is growing with everything.

I remember playing a few events in China when it's starting, the golf events here more or less, and with the mobile phones was clicking off all the time. And now they are much more -- know more about it. Of course it happens all over the world and it happens here, as well, but you can see a building improvement on that; that they are very cautious of that.

Q. Can you just describe the best shot that was treated with a respectful silence?
RIKARD KARLBERG: It was in the -- we all hit great shots today on hole No. 3. Both me, Fisher and Jaidee, we were all within ten feet there the hole. I was maybe six feet from, and we're just smashing it around the pin, and none of us got an applaud. It was maybe ten people around there. We thought like, oh, are we long or are we short. You get a little bit nervous: What happened with the ball or it spin too much.

I think they are just cautious a bit. They don't really know, how good is that, or is it supposed to go into the hole. But I think it's easier when they are around a big crowd, as well. But that is a good example I think.

Q. Well, obviously you described the fans here, the crowd here, as being quite silent and cautious, but how do you feel inside today? Do you feel a bit more cautious and tensed up for today's game, because you're doing a very good job up until hole 16, you are 9-under, and actually possible to tie a course record today if you had hit a better shot on 18. So how do you feel inside while the crowd is being so quiet?
RIKARD KARLBERG: You know, actually hitting it close to 16, we heard a roar there. It was good fun.

Didn't really think about it really, because I was so into the game. You know, you're in some kind of zone. So I didn't really think about it. Maybe we'll think about it with more people around. But I was not in one of the star-studded groups today, but it didn't really affect me positive or negative. I was just in the game too much.

Q. Your first World Golf Championship, were you expecting anything different or did it feel like just another tournament to you?
RIKARD KARLBERG: When I teed off today, it still felt like another tournament. That's what I was mentally going into to feel and I was able to do that today.

It was just about -- it's always the same thing. Doesn't matter which tournament it is: One shot at a time, stay committed to every shot. That's what I told myself about and that's my goal with this whole week.

Q. What was different about it, anything about the whole tournament?
RIKARD KARLBERG: It's big when you have all the other players, mentally, which I may have not think about, if you play a regular European Tour event, is that you have to shoot low every, every round. We do need to do that on The European Tour, as well. But it's just somehow I think coming down the line, maybe a Saturday or Sunday, if I'm still in it, it's just that you know these guys won't stop.

So hasn't really come to my mind yet, but that's for the whole event, it's feeling that kind of way for me; that I'll just try to make it or break it. It doesn't matter if I shoot 80 tomorrow, as long as I committed to the shot and did my best, I'm happy.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297