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NEDBANK GOLF CHALLENGE PRESENTED BY GARY PLAYER

November 12, 2016

Andy Sullivan

Sun City, South Africa

Q. Nice tee shot at the first. Explain the second shot.
ANDY SULLIVAN: You know, I just -- to be honest, I didn't have a very good warmup today, so I was a bit struggling with my irons. And the start of the round, didn't get off to a good start. The putt kept me in it really. So it was nice to see the ball going in. Just kind of a shocker, to be honest with you. I have not hit a fat hook, so not great going forward. But managed to find something there down the back nine and managed to get it in in a decent number.

Q. And how hard were conditions out there? 68 is a very good score.
ANDY SULLIVAN: Yeah, you know, just the wind, with it being so strong and swirling, it's difficult to get the right club especially when you are trying to carry water, like 9 and 17. You don't want to be flirting with it, so you're always taking that extra bit more and you are 40 feet away and it's tough. Just happy to get it round and trying to hold on to the young man's coattails this afternoon.

Q. Can you believe with this breeze that anyone could shoot 64?
ANDY SULLIVAN: You know, it was probably one of the easiest 64s in conditions that I have seen, you know. He's absolutely flushed it. He's not missed many shots and when he did, he chipped it absolutely stone dead. So he didn't leave himself much hard work to do when he was making -- having to make par. Very impressive. Like I said, just trying to hang on to his coattails and hopefully go at it again tomorrow.

Q. You are 8-under and he's 11-under. There's only three in it.
ANDY SULLIVAN: 7 and 11, so four behind. I'm trying to pull on the vibes of coming from behind in South Africa.

Q. Well, maybe after the first hole tomorrow you'll be 8-under?
ANDY SULLIVAN: I hope so.

Q. Tough day out there today. How pleasing was it for you to get a good round in?
ANDY SULLIVAN: Massively. Putter has been very cold of recent, so to see some putts going in was absolutely fantastic. I didn't have the best of warmups this morning, so to come off and finish 4-under for the day is massively pleasing. Hopefully I can go find something on the range and get after it tomorrow.

Q. Give us an idea of how tough conditions were out there.
ANDY SULLIVAN: Just the wind. The wind was so strong, but it just wasn't staying in the same place. It caught all the time. Obviously when you are trying to make carries and be pretty precise, as we are, with the greens, the pins are in little pockets and you have got to be on the money. So it was really tough to get the right club and get it close out there. I think a lot of the times out there today 30 feet was a good shot. As much as it might look average on TV, we were quite pleased with that. For such a strong wind, like I say, it just wasn't staying in the same place and it makes it so difficult for us guys.

Q. Committing to a club was tough?
ANDY SULLIVAN: Yeah, you see guys out there -- I mean, the few times -- I backed off 17, I think I went wedge 9-iron, wedge, 9-iron. It's so difficult to commit to hitting it. You just try and play almost on the side of caution all the time and hope you hole a putt.

But tomorrow I might not have that luxury of hitting it 40 feet to the left. I'm going to try to chase a few down. It's nice to be on the leaderboard and trying to chase the old man down.

Q. How do you approach tomorrow's round?
ANDY SULLIVAN: That's funny around here. It can change in a blink of an eye. This course can catch you and there's 18 holes that you can make a mess of out there. See how we're going after nine and then assess and then see where to take it from there. I'm generally pretty aggressive out there. So I don't think the game plan will change too much for me.

Q. Do you have an impression or appreciation of just how well Wang played?
ANDY SULLIVAN: Oh, yeah. Massively. He absolutely flushed it. He made it look very, very easy in really tough conditions. Like I said, when he was struggling for par, he chipped it stiff and didn't make any fuss about it. I think that was the key to his round. It just kept the momentum going the whole way around and I was just trying to draw off it and hang on to the coattails.

Q. There's something about you playing in this part of the world. You get a good number of support out there?
ANDY SULLIVAN: Yeah, it's been great out there. I've got quite a few fans out there to cheer me on. It's great. Always nice to come to South Africa. I feel very relaxed here and always enjoy the vibe down here. So long may it continue.

Q. The last par-3, you hit that very close. What were you hitting?
ANDY SULLIVAN: Just again, it was in between clubs, between 8 and 7. I ended up just chipping a 7 in there, trying to hit a little cut 7 in there and come off perfect.

Q. Game plan tomorrow? Do you go off hard at the start?
ANDY SULLIVAN: I think there's a lot of chances on the back nine, so I think you can be patient. Like I said, there's a lot of holes that can catch you out there and it's tight. I'm not saying he's not going to back it up, but when you shoot a low score, it's always tough to back it up with another low score. That's the tough thing out there. If conditions stay the way they are, it's very breezy. It's tough out there. He made it look very easy today.

Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully I'll try to make it look just as easy tomorrow and shoot 64.

Q. I guess the back nine is a bit more of the scoring nine, but then wind generally has also picked up a bit?
ANDY SULLIVAN: Yeah, 14 today for me was probably the first time we couldn't get up in two. Normally you standing on that tee fancying a birdie and today you're playing a three shorter to a front pin. It's always tough to get a birdie. It can change. Like I said, you catch the wind at the right time and you can get that tee shot down out the right and so it's just a matter of how lucky you are to get the wind. It's always been like that and I'm sure it will continue like that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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