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NEDBANK GOLF CHALLENGE PRESENTED BY GARY PLAYER

November 12, 2016

Danny Willett

Sun City, South Africa

Q. 67, that's a brilliant score on what was a very tough day.
DANNY WILLETT: Yeah, as everyone knows, it's been a tricky few weeks. Same again today, the head was in a better place and we just scored well around a course that we know well. We put it in positions because we know these flags pretty good where you can score for great shots. You need to make sure that you are not on the wrong side and we were able to do that and hole a few putts. It was nice to finally get a low score in there.

Obviously Henrick still played some good golf, but it was nice to not fall too far back. A good day tomorrow and just hopefully stay on his tail.

Q. Was it just a head thing or did you find something on the range?
DANNY WILLETT: No, I'm still not hitting it great. We're still working on it. Still not quite where I want it to be. It's a golf course where you can't open your shoulders and really have a go at things. And if you're not quite in a great place, it's not a nice place to be at especially on this golf course.

The head is the missing part. Obviously I think we made a decision to carry on and play five weeks in a row and actually withdrew from the World Cup yesterday due to the fact that the back wouldn't possibly hold up. That kind of eases you off knowing that you now have just got to concentrate on these things and other things. Yeah, the game was a little bit better, just nice to get a low one in.

Q. How important is tomorrow's round for you to take confidence into Dubai?
DANNY WILLETT: Yeah, you take it one step at a time. Today is nice. Go and have a look back and see what we did well, what we did bad, what we need to do. Go and have another range session, kind of work on a few things.

Then tomorrow will be a pretty big day. We're too far off the lead, but certainly not too far off having a really nice finish if you can get another low score.

Q. Good score for a while?
DANNY WILLETT: Yeah, it was better. We probably got the most out of the round today, which is nice. I've had a lot of round where we haven't gotten anything from it. So today was nice. A lot of good golf shots. Actually got rewarded from a couple of iffy ones in there and we scrambled well and didn't drop too many shots.

Yesterday, there were birdies in there but too many mistakes. Today was a lot of birdies again and just less mistakes. So it's going in the right direction and just in time.

Q. There's a certain irony. Today seems to be the most difficult of days with the swirling winds and everybody else struggling?
DANNY WILLETT: I don't know if that helps the expectations to drop because you know that you're not going to go out there and I'm not going to shoot 4, 5, 6-under par. On a day like today, if you play really well you can (indiscernible) if you put it in position. You get on the wrong side of things and you can shoot a few over. So that maybe helps in the fact that we controlled the ball flight great. It's flat, calm at the minute and everyone is one hundred percent going at it as hard as you can, we're probably not quite at that stage yet within the swinging stuff. But been able to shape the ball into the breeze and get it into position, into a position where you can score on this golf course that we know very well. It probably helps us a little.

Q. How conscious are you on closing the gap on Henry and keeping the race alive?
DANNY WILLETT: It was nice to -- a couple under today, moving to 4, and if I had shot a couple over again, it just keeps drifting. So it was nice to stay right there and have another good day tomorrow. You want the scenario where if you go into Dubai and if you win, you win. That's where you want to be. So as long as we're within the realms of that then next week could be good.

Q. Does this do something for self belief, for confidence, energy levels? How is the back, as well?
DANNY WILLETT: It helps a little bit. It's tough when you're not playing great. Your energy level gets zapped. Everything seems a lot harder to do. You get a few aches and pains and that's where the issues start with not feeling well. It was a lot to ask of me to play six out or seven weeks. If you play great in them six or seven weeks, it's easy. But struggling takes its toll and makes it more difficult. So it was nice to -- less shots is obviously less taxing on the body.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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