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UBS HONG KONG OPENDecember 7, 2016Scott HendFanling, Hong Kong Q. What's it like being back at Fanling where you've enjoyed such wonderful success in the past? SCOTT HEND: It's an awesome golf club, great atmosphere. It's always a good place to come to. Sit over on the veranda there, have a few brews after you finish, a bit of food and enjoy the company of the great members. Q. As somebody who has done it, what does it take to win around here? SCOTT HEND: Patience and a little bit of luck. This golf course presents it self quite tricky at times, and you do have to get a couple of fortunate bounces to make sure you sort of hang in there. Q. We wouldn't necessarily associate you and your skills with this golf club, but you've got a knack of playing it, haven't you. SCOTT HEND: Well, I'd like to think that I'm more about than just driving a golf ball. So it takes a little bit of imagination, shot-making, and obviously a pretty sort of sharp short game to get it around this golf course. Q. How do you feel about your game at the moment? SCOTT HEND: I'm getting there. Obviously it's the last event of the year. I'm quite tired. I'm really looking forward to the break and getting into the gym and trying to get strong again. My strength has sort of disappeared over the last few weeks. It's there or thereabouts. Hopefully I can muster up some game this week. Q. How much is your mind on The Asian Tour Order of Merit, which you've dominated at the present, but a good mate, Marcus Fraser, is breathing down your neck. SCOTT HEND: Yeah, it's still open between the two of us. He obviously has the ability to win the tournament this week, as a hundred other guys. But it's something that I would really like to achieve. I could have wrapped it up a while ago, but I didn't. So I've got a job to do is this week and I'm focused on the job I have to do. Q. You say could you have wrapped it up; does that mean it's been playing on your mind a little bit? SCOTT HEND: Not really. Just the way things have panned out. Obviously if you want to pick things apart, go back, I par the last hole at the CIMB the other week, I'm done, dusted, job done. If I won the playoff at Crans Montana; done, dusted. It's just these little things. Every little shot over the year adds up to dollars and the dollars add up to where you are on the Order of Merit. That's the way it is right now. We're battling it out this week and may the best man have a crack at it and win. Obviously I have the handicapped advantage. We'll see how it goes. Q. How much will it play across your mind over the course of the week, because usually you would say, you would just try to push it to one side and get on with the job. SCOTT HEND: Look, the Order of Merit prize is the culmination of the year. The Hong Kong Open is a tournament I'd like to win for a second time. Right now first and foremost on my mind is winning this tournament and becoming a second-time champion. Like I said, I've got goals I need to achieve. I win this tournament, I'm possibly in the world's Top-50 and get a start in the US Masters next year. If I win the Order of Merit because of that, perfect. Right now, I want to focus on trying to win this tournament and playing the best I can, and then the rest of the accolades come afterwards. Q. We've mentioned that Marcus is a friend. How has the banter been? SCOTT HEND: Oh, we're Australian. We're always giving it to each other. We played together last week at the Australian PGA for the first two rounds. He struggled a little bit with his game. I'm sure he did some hard work during the weekend to be ready for this week and this is the sort of golf course that sets up well for Marcus. And I'm sure the sort of guy he is, with the way he is mentally, he'll rise to the occasion and play good golf. Q. Just talk about the year in general, obviously another great year, two wins, probably your career year. SCOTT HEND: It's been a great year. Obviously a couple years ago, I won three times in a year, but this year, I've had a few more Top-10s mixed in with the wins. On a scale of 1 to 10, probably I'd rate it around an 8. It would have been nice to win more. I've been in position to win, and that's what we are all about obviously. We play as professionals to try to get in position to win. And playing solid against European fields solid in Europe, their home ground, has been what's more satisfying to me is I've actually been able to grind out a couple of Top-10s and top fives and had opportunities to win in Europe. I'd probably rate it a ten if I had won on European soil, but as yet, I haven't done that yet. That's still to come. Q. It's nearly been ten years now since you quit the PGA TOUR and took a chance, qualifying school, coming in second in Pakistan. Do you ever look at your ten years in Asia and what it's done for you? SCOTT HEND: Asia has been a great pathway for me to get to somewhere else where I want to go. You can't always be where you want to be and sometimes you've just got to take what you can. It was a great place for me to be at a time where I had nothing and I came to Q-School and finished runner-up to Ben Leong in Q-School. And from then on, went to Pakistan, finished second to all of a sudden hit greater heights and climb my way up to Top 60 in the world. Hopefully here, let's go on with it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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