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DUBAI DUTY FREE IRISH OPEN HOSTED BY THE RORY FOUNDATION

July 3, 2018

Paul Dunne

Ballyliffin, Republic of Ireland

ALISTAIR CORLESS: Welcome, Paul. In the buildup to this event, you said it was your fifth major. How excited are you for this week?

PAUL DUNNE: Yeah, very. It comes at a great time of the year, now, as well, a couple weeks before The Open, having those three links events in a row. I feel like my game got better each day last week and even the first couple of days practise, the swing feels quite good. Looking forward to giving it a good go this week.

ALISTAIR CORLESS: Back in Ireland but Spanish weather, so how is it going to be this week, do you think, out there?

PAUL DUNNE: Yeah, weather's great, but there's still 15-mile-an-hour wind that makes it very testing. Especially striking the ball off like really tight links turf when it's firm. Tends to add a bit more spin and the wind affects it a little bit more.

I think the scoring will be very good, with greens this good, if the wind stays down. And if the wind gets up, obviously it can cause havoc with a lot of things. The course in great shape, firm and fast, but not quite as firm as I was expecting with the lack of rain. They did a good job speaking it relatively green out there.

But the greens are perfect. They are quite firm but they are really true, so I'd say there will be a lot of medium-range putts held this week.

Q. Are you getting more used to the expectations of people playing at home and what an Irish Open means to them?
PAUL DUNNE: Yeah, I've never felt -- like I've never really felt a huge expectation coming home to an Irish Open. This is only my third.

The last two I played, I haven't really -- I haven't got like up there in contention in either of them, either. I just made the cut and finished, I don't remember, 40th or 50th or something. But like I love it, I love having friends and family around. You can feel the support of people, and I have home comforts, as well, a lot of things, especially the breakfast.

So yeah, I enjoy it. Hopefully I can feel that expectation on the weekend but I've got to play two good rounds first, I think.

Q. Can you talk about the course, have you been here before, and just your season and how you think it's been progressing so far and what's coming up?
PAUL DUNNE: I came up here the week after the GolfSixes, five or six weeks ago. We played it once, got decent weather, stayed over and the next morning, it was really windy. I think it was blowing about 40 to 45 miles an hour. We didn't bother. We just went home.

The course, it's a different wind. I played it then and now, and it's much firmer and faster, and the greens are much firmer and quicker. But I think with it being so firm, that if the wind dies, like people will be able to hit their 2-irons close to 300 yards off the tee, or rescue.

So it will play short, and with the greens being really true, the scoring will be very good but then obviously when it's windy, it's very hard to get the ball close, regardless of the golf course. So yeah, we'll see how that progresses. The weather is supposed to be decent but you never know quite how much wind you get.

As a season, I think I got off to a bit of a rough start. I was struggling with a few different things and I was working hard on certain aspects of my swing that felt like I was getting nowhere with them, even though I felt like I was doing the right things, and then kind of from nowhere, it clicked kind of really quickly and then when it I did went on a nice run. I felt like I was playing well every week.

It clicked a little in MÃ©xico. I didn't play great in MÃ©xico, but I started to feel some shots on the course, and the next tournament I played was the Dominican Republic and from that week on, I felt much more comfortable with everything. I felt like I was trying to play tournaments to do well, as opposed to trying to sneak through cut lines.

Yeah, ever since kind of end of March, I feel like it's been pretty good, but I struggled those first three months.

Q. How many times have people mentioned The Ryder Cup this year?
PAUL DUNNE: Lots, more than I thought I would. Ever since I won, I got The Ryder Cup questions. To be honest, it doesn't impact me at all. I haven't thought about the Ryder Cup really once. It hasn't been a goal. It hasn't been something I've said that I want to make this team, only for the fact that I think it's such a difficult team to make because if I was to make it would be through that European Points list and there's only four spots available. You'd have, like even from now, I still think I'd have to win twice, even if I won this week, I still don't think I'd be on the team.

To me, it was one of those things that if it happened, then it would be great, or if I got very close to it come the time, then I would have thought about it more. Yeah, I've been asked about it a lot but I'm more concentrated on trying to improve different areas of my game.

You know, try to hit more fairways and try to continue the work I've been doing on my putter and just look on taking advantage of chances when I have them. That's been really my areas that I've been focusing on, and I just want to try and win another tournament, and if I can and The Ryder Cup happens, great. If not, I'll watch it like everybody else.

Q. You got close to Jon Rahm at the Spanish Open. What qualities does he bring to the golf course and is he the man to beat this week, given his record at Portstewart last year?
PAUL DUNNE: I don't know, really. I played with Jon a few times as an amateur, and I haven't played with him since. So it's hard for me to really say that if I haven't played with him.

The one thing I remember was that he was always really strong and he was very straight for how long he was. That's such a big asset around so many golf courses, and obviously he's got great touch around the greens, but yeah, what is he -- I don't know what his World Ranking is, he's No. 4 in the world or something, so probably does make him the man to beat.

But there are loads of good players playing. So anyone can win this tournament on their day, really, but he's obviously one of the strong favourites.

Q. Any changes to what you've got on the bag this week?
PAUL DUNNE: No. I didn't even bring my hybrid at all. I'm away for a month from last week, so I didn't even bring my hybrid along. It's just a 2-iron every week. I think between last week and France, it was firm and narrow and then the next three weeks being links, I think it will be just the same setup the whole way through. I might put the new Titleist driver in the bag this week, but I haven't quite figured that out this week. Tell you tomorrow.

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