	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

THE 148TH OPEN

July 20, 2019

Kyle Stanley

Portrush, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

Q. What's your side of what happened?
KYLE STANLEY: I hit a ball right on 17 yesterday. You had a hard wind off the left. After I hit several people on the tee box yelled "fore." My two playing partners, my caddie, a couple of the volunteers or the marshals, even had them signaling it was going right. I mean, everyone to the right of that ball, they knew it was coming.

So to me it's kind of a nonissue. I'm not really sure why he decided to make such an issue about it. I know it hit his caddie's mom's hands off the bounce, and that's unfortunate.

But as far as I'm concerned, a number of people yelled "fore." He made the argument that since I hit the ball that it maybe should have come out of my mouth first. I guess I can see that.

But it's unfortunate it ended up the way it did. It certainly wasn't my intention to put anyone in harm's way. I had my wife in the gallery, my coaches. So I'm surprised it's kind of come to this point.

Q. Do you usually shout "fore"?
KYLE STANLEY: When I hit it off line I do.

But this was a unique situation. You have marshals on the tee signaling where the ball is going. You have guys down there in the landing area. Everyone knew that ball was going right.

Like I said, it's a bad deal. One hopped into his caddie's mom. But everyone knew the ball was going over there. Like I said, five or six people on the tee yelled "fore"; my caddie did, my two playing partners, a couple of the marshals. I thought that was enough.

Q. Incident on 14?
KYLE STANLEY: I hit a 5-wood left out of the rough and my caddie yelled "fore" about a second after it came off the club face.

Q. Seemed pretty heated. Is that a fair reflection?
KYLE STANLEY: I wouldn't say heated. We talked about it briefly. I was surprised. I was caught off guard that it even came up, really. I just explained to him my side of it, just like I told you guys.

And listen, I saw what he said last night. The way things were kind of painted from his perspective wasn't -- he left out quite a few details. I wouldn't really say that was an accurate description of what happened.

They knew the ball was going over there.

Q. Did you fill in the details that were missing?
KYLE STANLEY: Like I told you, there were probably five, six, seven people on the tee box that yelled "fore." There are also marshals signaling right. There are marshals down there in the landing area.

I mean, it was pretty clear to me where the ball was going. I didn't think I really needed to add to it.

Q. The fact that it hit his caddie's mum.
KYLE STANLEY: If it didn't, I don't think we'd be talking about it right now.

Q. Did you say "sorry" and that was it? Is it a bit awkward now?
KYLE STANLEY: I mean, it's not awkward for me. You know, when you talk about somebody playing within the boundaries of etiquette in golf, that's kind of a touchy situation. To paint somebody in a bad light, not playing within the etiquette of the game, you've got to be careful when you do that. When you tell your story, you've got to make sure you have all the details.

From what I read last night, he didn't do that. He's a young player. I've been out here a while. So I don't feel the need to be schooled on the rules of golf or what to do when you hit a shot off line.

So that's kind of my perspective on it. I don't know, maybe a good learning experience for all.

Q. You don't seem very sorry. Have you apologized?
KYLE STANLEY: I haven't, no. Our discussion was brief.

If his issue was with me not being the first person to say "fore," I mean, does he have a point? Does he not have a point? That's up to him. All I know is after I hit the ball it wasn't but a couple of seconds when several people on the tee box started shouting "fore."

I thought that was enough. My intention was to never do anything negative or put anybody in the gallery in harm's way.

Q. You haven't even said sorry for hitting a spectator?
KYLE STANLEY: I went up there and the first thing that I asked everybody was if I hit anybody. And nobody gave me an indication that I did.

That's the first thing you do when you hit a ball off line, when you get up there you ask, Did it hit anybody? Is everybody okay? And that's what I did. No one told me I hit anybody. So it was --

Q. How do you apologise if you don't --
KYLE STANLEY: You sign a ball, sign a glove, ask if they're okay.

Q. How do you apologise, where nobody spoke up and said, Yeah, the person was hit? It's hard for you to apologise for that if you don't know.
KYLE STANLEY: Yeah, at the time I didn't know. Nobody told me I hit anybody. At the time, no, I didn't...

Q. You only found out later?
KYLE STANLEY: I found out in the scorer's trailer while we were signing the card after our round.

Q. Have you ever been involved in anything like this before?
KYLE STANLEY: No, this is a first for me. I always try to be very professional about how I go about things. I don't think what happened yesterday changes that. It was just an unfortunate situation. Certainly not my intent.

Q. Do you think it's a problem with PGA Tour players, European Tour players not yelling "fore" as often as they should?
KYLE STANLEY: I don't know. This is kind of new to me. For the most part, everyone I play with when there's a ball off line, there's an effort to let people know. I certainly don't think guys try to, when they hit a ball off line use, the crowd to their advantage, no.

Q. Did you speak to Bob today?
KYLE STANLEY: No.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297