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BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

September 22, 2019

Danny Willett

Surrey, England

STEVE TODD: Congratulations Danny, you've won some pretty big tournaments over the last few years, obviously the Masters and your first Rolex Series victory in Dubai last year. Give us your thoughts on winning the BMW PGA Championship on home soil.

DANNY WILLETT: Yeah, I've watched this tournament for a lot of years. You know, through the match and then obviously the PGA Championship. Yeah, it's always nice to be able to compete on home soil. I've had a couple looks at The Open a couple of times but to be able to win finally on such an iconic golf course with I think one of the best fields they have had.

Yeah, the last kind of eight months now, ten months with a couple of wins in the Rolex Series Events really, really kind of puts things right in my own mind, which is nice.

STEVE TODD: You mentioned the strength of the field and we've also had a pretty impressive leaderboard this weekend. Jon, a formidable competitor. Just talk us through today, how critical, an obvious question, but was that putt on 11, as well.

DANNY WILLETT: Yeah, you know Jon is going to be sticking around all day. I obviously got off to a quick start and 11 was a real big point in the golf tournament. I think, you know, I've watched a lot of the golf on TV and the people that win every week are not the guys that hit every fairway and hit everything to six feet, this and that. Certain things happen through the week. And one of those moments, might happen on a Sunday, might happen on a Thursday or a Friday, but for it to happen on Sunday early on in the back nine was crucial just to keep my nose in front really, and yeah, just to give me that little bit of breathing room down them last six holes.

Q. Can you just talk us through 11, shot by shot, and looked like you may have sort of hurt your wrist, as well with the shot from the heather.
DANNY WILLETT: Yeah, obviously I've hit it lovely all week and that was the first time -- I didn't have a great picture and I can't wind of sticking to what I was doing, which was annoying. Was very, very close to being real good, that second shot, and just clipped the edge of the tree and as it does goes back and buries itself. When I tried to get it out, it was a little bit funky for 20 minutes, so I popped a couple Paracetamol and did some stretches that, you know, would somewhat ease it off, but it was a little sneaky for a little bit there.

But yeah obviously the 50-footer for bogey, was relatively memorable, and then, yeah, I went to try and get back to get the heart rate back to somewhere normal and played some real nice golf coming down the stretch I thought.

Q. I had it down at 40.
DANNY WILLETT: 50 sounds better.

Q. Obviously the win in Dubai last year was massive but this one gets you not only I think 31st in the World Rankings, top of The Ryder Cup very early stages, but how big a deal is this win for you?
DANNY WILLETT: Yeah, I mean, any tournament win is amazing. That's now my seventh win on Tour, and every single time I've won, they have been pretty stellar events against pretty stellar fields and you know, The Ryder Cup stuff, yeah, it's the first event of what, 40-odd, whatever it's going to be, in a year's time when it's back in America, I think it's Whistling Straits, is it.

Yeah, it's always nice. Obviously there's going to be a lot of questions around that. I might be the guy that plays every Ryder Cup away from home, which will be great fun for me.

But it's more, you know, being able to compete under the pressure with everything that's happened, you know, that self-belief in what you're doing; the inner stuff that you say to yourself, the things that people don't see on the outside, the hours you put in, what you've got to do and what you've got to sacrifice.

The one thing for me is that I would have been completely happy with myself today if I had finished first or 10th, and I think that is the big -- that's the big difference. I think before, winning was one of the main things when you get in that position and that makes winning harder.

For me, it was the ability to get in position, in contention, I think is a lot harder than winning. So yeah, to be able to polish it off, and I've said it before, I feel like I'm pretty good when I'm in contention, when I've got a sniff of being pretty efficient in what I've been able to achieve.

For me, it's to get in contention is the tricky part and it's nice to be up there most of the week. So you get them butterflies; you get that feeling every day, every morning, getting ready, getting warmed up. So it's been an amazing week.

Q. Where do you think this stage of your career can take you to now going through what you've been through, because I think maybe a lot of people forget how good a player you were before you won the Masters; you were still very high in the World Rankings then. So having been where you've been, where do you think this phase can bring you to?
DANNY WILLETT: I don't really know. I think they'll be able to be a better version of what I've been. I feel like my abilities and my knowledge of the game are in a different level of where I was before. That doesn't mean you're always going to play that way but definitely my knowledge and ability to use information that I get given from my team is in a better place.

And I think that, you know, you look at perspective and stuff, and yeah, you've had the two kids and your sleepless nights and this and that and people go on about that stuff, but for me, when the golf was real bad and I didn't really fancy playing it, to be able to then come down the stretch today and enjoy it is -- you know, it's something that's a real beautiful thing to be able to do because at the end of the day when I was ten and that's what I took golf up for because I enjoyed it and I wanted to get better.

You know, that's what you want to play the game for. You want to be able to enjoy it and have a laugh with the crowds and embrace what you're doing and enjoy all the factors around it. There was a lot of time where I had there where I didn't enjoy any second of it whatsoever. I think that helps put you in a place where a bad shot on a Sunday in contention can ruin someone's year, but I'm incredibly happy within myself where, you know, if that would have happened today, it would have been one of them things, I'd have driven home and had a bottle of wine probably and gotten over it and gone and pegged it up next week and that's it. We're all where we're supposed to be at that moment in time and fortunately for me, this is where it's ended up.

Q. When you were last here last May, at least in theory, your World Ranking was as low as it's been since the Masters win and the next week you had a Top-10. Was that a false bottom, what happened at Wentworth last year? Did you feel it was coming?
DANNY WILLETT: Do we have to go back into what happened last year at Wentworth? (Laughter).

The Thursday before Wentworth last year I had a vasectomy, and I was in a lot of pain. I didn't want to pull out. It was the only time I could get it in; I had a busy schedule. And it was painful to walk but I didn't want anymore kids, so it was something I was willing to sacrifice.

So no, I was playing some good golf and unfortunately the timing was maybe not to be, and I knew I was playing some good stuff. And went home and rested up, and I think Italy was the week after this because it was in May came out had a great week and finished 8th when Frankie or Thorbjorn went on to win. It was a false bottom. I don't think it was the lowest I've been. I think I've been lower.

But yeah, I mean, it's a hell of a long time ago now, and it was one of them things.

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