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ITALIAN OPEN

June 3, 2018

Thorbjørn Olesen

Brescia, Italy

BRIONY CARLYON: Delighted to be joined by our winner of The Italian Open, ThorbjÃ¸rn Olesen, what way, way to do it, on the 18th in front of an amazing crowd here in Italy. Can you give us a sense of your emotions right now.

THORBJÃ˜RN OLESEN: Yeah, it was very special just from the start, also. It was such a packed leaderboard and a lot of great players and a lot of players inside very few shots, so I knew it was going to be very, very tough.

Just, yeah, I tried to just stick my head down and try to keep making birdies. I didn't actually look at the leaderboard until 11 or 12 I think. So yeah, especially the way down 18, standing in the rough there and seeing Francesco hole that long putt, put a bit more pressure on me. I thought bogey might have been enough to win but after he holed that, I knew I had to step up and make a 4.

Yeah, it was a special feeling to do it that way.

BRIONY CARLYON: An amazing moment for you. It's your fifth European Tour title and your first at a Rolex Series Event. Maybe if you can give us a sense, as well, of those extra points and what it's done for your season looking ahead now.

THORBJÃ˜RN OLESEN: Yeah, it's very special to obviously win a Rolex Series. Besides the majors, this is the biggest tournaments we play on The European Tour.

Yeah, it's great. In my career, I've won bigger and bigger tournaments, so this is definitely the biggest so far, and yeah, it means a lot and it just came at a very good time, as well.

Q. You're winning almost every year since you won in Sicily, not last year, so you were working on something in particular? What has been your growth in the last year?
THORBJÃ˜RN OLESEN: I did win a team event last year, the Sixes, but you're right. I feel like over the last couple of years, I've gotten more consistent but I haven't got enough Top-10s and I haven't been in contention enough, and that's basically come down to Saturday and Sunday because I've been in a decent position on Fridays in a lot of tournaments, but haven't played good enough over the weekends. But this week, I did, which was nice. But I feel like I'm getting better. I feel like I'm definitely a better golfer than I was five or six years ago.

Q. Can you tell us something more about the mind games in the last two holes? Molinari had a bogey and you had a birdie and it was 20 and you were standing there on the last hole, hearing the cheering.
THORBJÃ˜RN OLESEN: Yeah, on 16, I thought we were tied, and when I made that birdie on 17, I thought I was one ahead but then talked to my caddie and he said, no, Francesco is 20-under.

Yeah, he was two ahead coming down the last. That's why I picked a 5-wood, also, from the tee to stay a bit short and not get the trees in the way. Yeah, the mind game the whole day for me was to just give myself chances to make birdies, and I knew I'd been putting really well all week. If I can get myself on the greens and give myself decent chances, I felt like that would be enough.

Q. I know you are a big Manchester United fan. What do you think about JosÃ© Mourinho?
THORBJÃ˜RN OLESEN: Well, we are not doing very well at the moment and haven't done so since Alex Ferguson. Hopefully next year we can do a little better and be in contention for the championship.

Q. Are you going to follow the World Championship?
THORBJÃ˜RN OLESEN: This time Denmark is in it and we have a decent team, so it will be fun to watch if they can do well.

BRIONY CARLYON: You spoke about the week being fairly consistent for you with your rounds across the week, looking ahead now for the year, does that change much for your schedule going forward, or now that you're sixth in The Race to Dubai, how are you going to look ahead for the rest of the year.

THORBJÃ˜RN OLESEN: No, it's not going to change much. Obviously it's nice to win and it puts me where I want to be, but I'm going to play the same tournaments and I'm going to try to qualify for the U.S. Open and then we have The Open coming up.

I'm not going to change anything. I'll keep playing the same tournaments as I would before, but it gives me a huge confidence boost, especially this time where I had one Top-20 I think the whole year.

So to come here and win gives me, yeah, a lot of belief and confidence.

Q. What's been your best club this week?
THORBJÃ˜RN OLESEN: My best club is my putter for sure. I holed some great putts, 15, 17, 18, those are just a few of them. There's been a lot all week. That's really key to why I'm sitting here.

BRIONY CARLYON: Congratulations again, great win.

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