GARY MURPHY: No this was my first time. I walked it on Sunday and I was going to play on Monday but I was in bed sick on Monday so I didn't play any practice rounds, so I eventually played here on Tuesday. That didn't make me feel much better either because I three putted the last not to lose money, but not to win any. But it is a fabulous golf course. It is tricky and you could shoot anything out there if the wind got up. Hopefully the others will get some over the next couple of days!
Q. What were the circumstances surrounding you getting into this tournament?
GARY MURPHY: I got an invite about a couple of weeks ago because I won the Re-Rank on the Tour. I was first on that so Dunhill gave me an invite on the strength of that.
Q. When you came here, what did you think of the course?
GARY MURPHY: I walked around on Sunday and I was a bit scared walking round to be honest but once I was out there it suited me in a sense because you have to lay back and hit longer shots in which suits my game. At some holes, if you go in the fairway bunker it is a definite dropped shot so you have to hit a three wood off the tee and leave yourself a three or four iron in instead of going for it and risk dropping a shot which I am comfortable doing. At the sixth for example, I hit two iron, two iron, four iron and made birdie. So you need a lot of patience out there and I played really well too which helps. I think I only missed three greens which was pretty good.
Q. How did you play on Tuesday?
GARY MURPHY: I think I was round in about one or two over which I was happy enough. Speaking to the lads who had played here before, if you can knock it round in par, depending on the weather, that is usually pretty good. I spoke to Paul McGinley before I went out and he shot 66 last year because it was flat calm on the front nine and although it got up a little bit on the back nine, it was behind him. So I was actually thinking that over the last few holes, if I could match his score, I'd do okay. But we'll see, it is a great start and we'll see what we can do from here.
Q. When you were playing the 18th, did you look in the Burn and think of Van de Velde?
GARY MURPHY: I did that on Sunday and Tuesday and I'd love to get a pound for every time anyone has spoken about that. Mind boggling really. The thing is amazing is that he had such a hard shot anyway, you probably would lay up regardless. But that is history.
End of FastScripts.
