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DP WORLD TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP, DUBAI

November 15, 2018

Danny Willett

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Q. What was the key out there?
DANNY WILLETT: We hit a lot of good golf shots. I think probably missed just the one green. Missed a couple of 5-footers in there for the par saves where we did miss the greens. Just really solid all around.

Obviously I missed this last year. I was injured. It's nice to be back. Kind of got familiar with the golf course over the week. You know, it's a golf course I like and not always ideal to tee off at 8.30 in the morning, but we've had perfect weather. The pins are a bit more tucked today, so it's interesting to see how the guys will go. You often see low scores around here, but they really tried to tuck a few of them flags today. 5-under is a really good knock.

Q. Good week in Turkey a couple of tournaments ago. Is it still the same scenario for you, a continuation of doing the right things, and now seeing that in tournament play?
DANNY WILLETT: Yeah, it's getting a lot better. The visuals; the moves you're trying to make matching the visual of what you see for shots is a lot better.

Since Ireland, we've had another ten or 12 events under our belt and hitting more shots, more good shots under a bit of pressure obviously in tournament mode, and yeah, we're still working really hard trying to get every piece of the puzzle to kind of come together.

It always seems on one day when you get something good, something else kind of goes, and you are just kind of waiting for them weeks like Westy had last week where the things come together. You work on the right things, and it's nice to have them weeks where things kind of fit in.

Today was a nice one to get a nice one in on a Thursday, especially since they have a redraw every day, it's nice to have a late start tomorrow.

Q. You played Safeway, nice little stop in Napa, CJ Cup, as well. What's the plan for you next year with the PGA TOUR versus European Tour?
DANNY WILLETT: I'm not sure yet. We've took full PGA TOUR status. We're probably going to play 18, 20 events over there. We obviously luckily got an invite into CJ and went and played Napa, as well, which was nice.

The plan was always to play The Final Series here and kind of sit down in December and work out how easy it is to get our numbers up in America early enough so that you're not -- I tried playing it -- when I won the Masters, I tried playing both tours and I got ill and I got injured. I had about four or five events, and you pull out of them, and all of a sudden to get your minimum is really, really tough.

You've really got to play a good amount of events over there. I'm not in the World Golf Championships. I'm not in the Top-50. So I'm falling behind, and there's no exemptions over there for if you're not in the World Golf Championships.

It's going to be a busy old year I think. We're going to play predominately out there for the first half of the season, and then hopefully predominantly in Europe the second half of the season. Hopefully you play well and you get in the World Golf Championships, and it does make your life a hell of a lot easier.

This week, we kind of pitched up Monday and had a couple of full days early in the week. It's nice to get back to a golf course I like the look of. I finished fourth here a couple of times.

I'm not the longest hitter out there and it obviously favours the guys who hit it a long, long way, but definitely plays into the hands of someone who is good with the 9-, 8-, 7-irons. There's a lot of shots around that 170-, 180-mark out there if you're not bombing driver.

We had the ball under control. A little bit of breeze, but only five or eight yards at times. Just had the ball under really good control and put ourselves in some nice spots.

Q. Great approach into 18, and short putt, as well.
DANNY WILLETT: We let a couple slip in the round up until then. 17 we hit a nice 7-iron to that back left flag there and rolled in a 20-footer.

Yeah, it's always nice, we thought it was a kick-in but still had a little bit of work left. Still got to concentrate on them three-footers. Solid way to finish.

Q. We talked a lot about going back in the right direction. Where do you feel the game is at at the moment? Seems to be going pretty well.
DANNY WILLETT: Yeah, it is close. It's a shame it's the last event of the season. It is. From kind of June, July onwards, we were making better strides, and we could work harder and work longer and that's had a big impact.

The longer you can work, the quicker your game is going to be and at first I was struggling. Now we're on track, and we're able to work a bit harder and yeah, I'm seeing the results quite nicely in practise and like I said, Turkey was nice to kind of take it to the golf course.

And last week at Sun City, obviously that place can drive you insane. I've won around there but you still stand on every tee thinking you can make a 9 on every hole. It's a strange old week in Sun City.

We got here and have the ball under nice control and movement is pretty good. Again, we're going to play 54 holes left to the year and just play till the bell goes and see where we finish.

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