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RICOH WOMENâ€™S BRITISH OPEN

August 2, 2017

Laura Davies

Fife, Scotland

COLIN CALLANDER: Good afternoon again. We welcome Dame Laura Davies to her 37th consecutive appearance in this championship. Probably won't talk about that too much because that sounds a very long time but you've had a very long week already.

Can you talk about qualifying? You were 2-under par on a very difficult golf course. You must have thought you were going to get into the field without any extra holes.

LAURA DAVIES: Yeah, we left and everyone was saying well done and I'm thinking -- I started believing it, and then about 3.00, the scores started coming down and a few 69s, 68s.

So about 3.30 I started thinking about going back up there. My caddie was asleep, so woke him up. And yeah, I had to get one of her roommates to wake her up and we got there about 6.00 and teed off at 8.00, but only took one hole, so that was nice.

Q. When was the last time you had to play the qualifying?
LAURA DAVIES: I've only qualified at U.S. Opens. I think I've done three of those. I've been lucky, not had to qualify much. I can't really complain. But it's not a fun thing to do. If you want to play bad enough, you'll try it.

COLIN CALLANDER: And obviously you did want to play bad enough. Did you ever think about not bothering?

LAURA DAVIES: No, I'll try and qualify for this tournament until I can't do a good job and represent myself well. It's my favourite tournament of the year, and I want to play in it as many times as I can.

Q. The obvious question is: What do you think are your chances?
LAURA DAVIES: Well, realistically, my results haven't been good but for the way I'm playing, it's a lot better than the way I'm scoring. One of these weeks, the scoring is going to represent the shot-making. Hopefully it will be this week. I'm not saying I can win it. Obviously that's a ludicrous statement but I think I can make the cut and have a good weekend and then you never know.

The last time at Birkdale about three years ago, I finished ninth. Anything is possible and I'm playing better now than I was then. There's no point being here if you don't back yourself to have a decent week.

Q. How are you finding Kingsbarns?
LAURA DAVIES: Well, I've never played it before and because by the time I qualified and registered yesterday morning, there was about 34 balls already signed up. So all I did was went out and walked about 18 holes.

So I had a good look at every tee shot, which is all you can really worry about on a golf course because you know you're going to be stood on the tee. You don't know where you're going to be after that. You've just got a good feel for tee shots and watch some girls hitting some putts, and hopefully that's enough so we know where we're going. We definitely know where we're going. It's a pretty straightforward course, which is nice.

Q. You just said about backing yourself -- have you backed yourself?
LAURA DAVIES: No, I haven't, but I wouldn't put anyone off it. The results say that I'm going to do rubbish, so that's -- but I know, myself and my caddie knows, how well we're playing. I fully expect to have a half-decent week, I really do, because I'm driving it so well and I think if you drive it well around here, I think you can do well.

Q. How big a gap is it in an otherwise stellar C.V., and what would it mean to you if you were to win it this week?
LAURA DAVIES: Well, it would -- well, words couldn't describe it. It would be ridiculous. I haven't had a Top-10 since I finished fourth in Japan three years ago. So you know, it's two years since I've had a Top-10, so winning it's not really -- I'm not thinking about that side of it.

But obviously if something crazy happened, like Tom Watson nearly won it a few years back. I think links golf is a great leveller. So if ever you're going to have a chance, this would be the sort of course.

Even if I got in contention, I don't know if I'd be able to handle it. I hit my worst tee shot on 18 at the qualifier because it's the first time I've been under pressure for a really long time, but I had to hit a good shot and I didn't do it. So who knows. I'm not expecting anything. I'm just looking forward to it. I'm just pleased to be here and making the cut's the first priority and having a good weekend is all you can think about.

The other players, you know, the No. 1, No. 10 in the world, 15 in the world, they are thinking about winning it and I'm thinking about having a decent week.

Q. Tom Watson was --
LAURA DAVIES: I'm not quite 59. I'm 53. I think you could say it would be the same sort of thing. It would be as big a shock when Tom was in there, when, let's face it, he should have won it. He did everything right and just got unlucky at the end. I'm no Tom Watson, that's for sure. So I don't think there will be any excitement like that.

Q. Women's golf at the moment -- the level it's at just now, why do you think there are so many from Asia doing so well?
LAURA DAVIES: Well, I mean, the level of golf, Lexi Thompson, Brittany Lincicome, all the power hitters, they are coming to the fore now, and it was like that 20 years ago, myself, Betsy King, Beth Daniel, all the longer hitters were always doing well.

And it's nice to see some of the young Americans, the big hitters coming through now. Lexi is obviously the head of the parade and she's doing well. The Koreans, there's lots of them and they are all really good. There's no magic formula. They just work really hard and they are really good. Their putting is ridiculous. I understand the technique can be great but how they read the greens like they do, I'll never know. It's incredible to watch but they are all very good.

Q. Have you learned from them?
LAURA DAVIES: I can't learn much from them because I don't want to stand on a putting green for 15 hours a day.

Q. Is that what they do?
LAURA DAVIES: They work incredibly hard. I'm not saying the Western girls or the other girls don't, because everyone works really hard on their game. But they take it to another level and I think that's where their brilliance come from. It's just sheer repetitiveness.

Lydia Ko, she's a New Zealander but she's obviously Korean descent. They work really hard and it's paying off for them, all their hard work.

Q. Do you think that is the way women's golf will be for the next few years?
LAURA DAVIES: I think it's getting better and better, younger and younger, stronger. Like I said, physically a lot stronger. I played with Mirim Lee a few weeks ago, and it used to be the Korean girls, because they are small they don't hit it quite as far. But Mirim, slightly bigger Korean girl, hitting it superbly. Great to watch.

And the dynamics of women's golf has changed completely, which I think's great. The one that won the U.S. Open a couple of weeks ago, she hits it like a guy. Her ball flight is amazing. It's really exciting for people that love women's golf.

Q. Do you wish that you were that --
LAURA DAVIES: Absolutely. I wish I was 18 and mixing week-in and week-out. It would be great fun.

Q. The Ladies European Tour, not in the best -- players saying about changes needed at the top --
LAURA DAVIES: It's been a struggle this year. We need backing from corporate Europe. We need them to put their money behind us and think we're a good product, because I think we are. I think the girls do a great job in the Pro-Ams and the way they conduct themselves at tournaments.

But we need people to step up with the money to back us. TV, we're getting more TV now, which I thought was going to help, which is what Ivan did really well or has done really well. But we're not seeing the results from it.

I'm just a golfer. I don't know why. I mean, I know why we're not playing in Turkey and other tournaments we've lost because of various non-golfing reasons. I just think we're very unlucky. I really do. I think everyone at the Tour is working so hard and they are just getting hammered left right and center, and in a way there's not a lot they can do about it. We'll just see, hopefully they can get better next week. I know for one thing they are working really hard.

Q. Do you think the female circuit hampers the cause?
LAURA DAVIES: Being a female circuit? I don't see any way around that, if I'm honest. If you're saying women's sport doesn't get the support it deserves, exactly what you're saying, I agree with you 100 per cent. I don't know why we don't get the support -- the LPGA Tour is so well backed, and I would have thought we would get something like that in Europe but for some reason, the corporate world isn't that interested in us at the moment. Hopefully that will change. The more we're on telly, the better it's going to get because let's face it, it's all about the advertising and that's where they get their benefit from it from what we're led to believe, so fingers crossed.

Q. Would it be fair to say that back in the day, it was golfers first and athletes second and now it's changed and it's athletes first and golfers second?
LAURA DAVIES: Some of them. I think walking around the golf course, you don't have to exert yourself that much, do I; I just walked it in two hours. It's a nice walk sport, as they say.

Q. You were just saying about 20 years ago, the power hitters are coming back. When you were at your longest, the courses, especially in America, didn't help you?
LAURA DAVIES: When I very first got on Tour, it was the long hitters had the benefit. The courses were longer and all of a sudden they started shortening them up, and I don't know, not trying to make it fair for everybody but par 5s became a lot longer and par 4s became a lot shorter and that helps short hitters 100 per cent.

But hopefully we're going back -- we need shorter par 5s and longer par 4s. To make it with the power game because on the men's game, it's all about the power. I think people, that's what I want to see, when I'm watching the guys play, I want to see them hitting the 390-yard drives and that's fun and I want that to be encouraged in the ladies game. That's all I mean. I think it used to be a bit more like that.

Q. You mentioned the quality of golf from Asia and America. I was just wondering, with the situation with the Ladies European Tour, if ladies European golf would fall even further behind at the moment?
LAURA DAVIES: Well, hopefully there's enough golf around the world where we've got our place in Europe, the Asian Tour, I think there's a couple of Korean tours, obviously the LPGA Tour, a few in Australia.

I think there's enough room for everybody, and hopefully when the financial time is better, a little bit better in Europe, we'll start seeing the benefits from it, but I think there's room from everybody for sure. But the interest from golf around the world and the boom in Asia, it's booming more than the men's.

Q. The problems with the LET at the start of this year, do you think that's going to affect our chance in the Solheim Cup?
LAURA DAVIES: The good thing is, the players are playing really well when they get a chance to play. Georgia Hall has come from nowhere -- I played with Georgia a few years ago and I thought, decent player. But I've played with her in the last 18 months, and she's a completely different player. She had a chance to play some tournaments in America recently and she did really well.

So players like that, you might think might struggle against an American LPGA team, would be scared of that. Not anymore. She's already proved herself out there and there's a number of players that -- Mel Reid is starting to play well again. I think she'll be in there. Although the Americans are going to be strong favourites, if our girls turn up on the week and play well, they will have a chance. But there's no question, the American Team is incredibly strong.

COLIN CALLANDER: Laura, thank you very much.

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