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DP WORLD TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP, DUBAINovember 20, 2019Bernd WiesbergerDubai, United Arab Emirates STEVE TODD: I'm very pleased to be joined by our Race to Dubai leader, Bernd Wiesberger. Bernd, 12 months ago, you were still preparing to make your comeback from injury. Just give us your thoughts a year on, coming here sitting as Race to Dubai leader, and how excited you are at the prospect of going into this week. BERND WIESBERGER: Yeah, good to be in Dubai playing this week. Obviously last year, been a bit different as you all know. I was here, I think -- I don't think I watched the tournament, but I was here getting prepared for my first event, which was Mauritius late last year to come back to the 2019 season. Yeah, lots of progress since, and obviously very delighted to be here in Dubai and even more so to sit here now as the leader going into the final event. So it's pretty nice to be back here. STEVE TODD: Obviously been a terrific year for you overall, but how pleased in particular are you with your performances in the Rolex Series Events? BERND WIESBERGER: Yeah, obviously as we all know, we've had the changes to the point system, and I mean, these events early in the year, if you prepare well for them, do well in those, obviously makes a big difference. I've played really well in those, very consistent. Two wins there and another second and third, so that really obviously helped me get up on the rankings. But all in all, I was very pleased with my season and try to be as well prepared for those big events as possible, and we've done a good job with that. STEVE TODD: Obviously the scenario is in your own hands this year. This golf course, just give us your thoughts on that. You've had some good performances around here in the past. BERND WIESBERGER: Yeah, a couple decent finishes in the past. It's a big golf course. You want to drive it well. They have quite big green complexes, but you want to be accurate towards the flags, and it can be offensive and can be low scoring as the past has shown. I think a really exciting final golf course for our season and a lot of drama obviously on those last holes possible. It's going to set up for, as I said, a good final event for 2019. Q. Was last week's performance more important for giving you some extra breathing space in The Race to Dubai this week or in terms of momentum after one or two performances that perhaps weren't what you were looking for? BERND WIESBERGER: Yeah, I said it last week, that definitely I wasn't quite there with my game in China and in Turkey. Kind of got a little bit frustrated on the golf course, as well, because I wasn't performing the way I wanted to. Going to Nedbank, a golf course that has not been really working well for me in the past, it was the whole mind-set for me was really to be relaxed and take the good with the bad because it is tricky down there to win in the altitude and different grass we're playing. So I just try to be as easygoing as possible, and we did that really well over the whole week. I was quite pleased with the result, even though I was close to give it a good run against Tommy, and slipped away at the end a little bit. But the whole scenario last week I think only gave me a lot more momentum playing golf, and I felt really good out on the golf course, which was the main thing for me last week. Q. A couple of Scottish questions for you, if that's okay. Winning The Scottish Open, confidence-wise, how important was that in terms of where you are coming into this week? BERND WIESBERGER: Well in, general, every time I've kind of been in that position, I've played really well on Sunday and stuck there or thereabout. Especially in Scotland, it was the biggest win of my career at that point. Winning a Rolex Series Event against a really, really strong field the week leading into The Open. Then after winning in Denmark, that gave me a lot of momentum and really kick-started the season to a point where, you know, trying to play for the Race to Dubai title was a real possibility. Like I said, I really enjoyed my week up there at the Renaissance, and yeah, it was yeah, just a really, really pleasing kick-start to what was an awesome season for me this year. Q. Also, if I can take you back to the final round of the Made in Denmark, yourself and Bob MacIntyre fighting it out for that title, leading into the Race to Dubai, Bob is leading the Rookie of the Year. How nice would it be if you could both finish off the jobs this week? BERND WIESBERGER: I've played a lot of golf with Bob, and it's amazing how he's playing this year. You know, it's funny how it actually comes all together at the end with Bob and Kurt Kitayama and Victor Perez all within punching distance of each other, and with that many points at the end, it's fun to see it going all the way. You know, strong argument for any of those guys to get their hands on the Rookie of the Year trophy. But obviously, if Bob was going on to make Rookie of the Year, it would be a great thing for him. I feel like he's going to be one of the future stars on this tour. He's really got a great game and I enjoy playing with him. Q. There are still four rounds remaining, but how important is it for you personally and for Austrian golf if you become the European No. 1? BERND WIESBERGER: Well, it would be a first off, obviously. Unfortunately we haven't had an Austrian winner of the Race to Dubai or the overall ranking at any point. Personally it would be obviously a huge achievement for me, something that, you know, growing up watching European Tour golf and watching legends like Seve, Olazábal, Colin Montgomerie who has won so many times in a row at the time when I started getting into golf; something that looked a long distance away, but obviously much closer now. So we are looking forward to those next four days and going to give it everything we have, and hopefully if we end up -- if we count up all the points at the end of Sunday, we're still up there and it would be amazing. You know, I'm very, very lucky right now in Austria with not only myself playing well this year but also Matthias doing a great job, and almost catching a couple titles this year. Yes, good times for Austrian golf right now. Q. How do you approach this week? Do you approach it any differently, or do you look at just winning the tournament or do you look at leaderboards, Race to Dubai? What do you concentrate on? BERND WIESBERGER: Right now my focus is on that first tee shot, really, and get the week going. I've been here so many times in different situations on The Race to Dubai leaderboard, but I know the golf course really well. Most of the guys do. So it's not about getting over-prepared on a golf course, because it hasn't changed much over the years. So game plan is there and just see whatever the conditions is going to be from day-to-day. From then on, just be as offensive as possible out there. Be positive towards my targets. You know, we add up four rounds of golf and a couple of points and we'll see where we're at. You know, there's just absolutely no point in getting into the mathematics and what ifs and all that. Just trying to play as good golf as possible and that's all we can do. Q. Going back for a moment to Renaissance, there were one or two players, including Rory, that the Renaissance wasn't enough of a test for a tournament of that calibre and field of that calibre. What was your impression? Should it be toughened up in the future? BERND WIESBERGER: I was quite pleased with the golf course. I liked it a lot (smiling). Look, we had a golf course that with tricky condition could be a really challenging test. What happened was that we had a lot of rain the week going in and we had rarely any wind the week of golf in quite warm conditions. If you put a field on a golf course going into a major in the summer, everybody is in top form. You're going to see low scoring. I mean, there's very few golf courses with the quality of golf players we have in the world right now that can't take a golf course apart. If it was baked out or we had like 30-miles-an-hour wind, the golf course could play a lot different. It's just the way the week panned out weather-wise, and that made it a little bit vulnerable. But I'm sure going into next year, maybe they make a couple of adjustments with the rough and maybe some pin positions, maybe the green speeds. But at the end of the day, we were really favoured by the conditions and low scoring was possible for that fact. Yeah, I still thought the golf course was really enjoyable to play. But as I said, pretty good field and conditions that favoured low scoring. Q. Another Austrian golf question. Have you any idea how many golfers there are in Austria, and of those, any idea how many professional golfers? BERND WIESBERGER: I mean, I don't know the exact number, but we are right around 100,000 registered golfers from what I know, and about 200 golf courses I think. I mean, there's a few professional golfers. Obviously we've got had myself and Matthias on The European Tour and Martin Wiegele who won on Tour a couple years ago. Markus Brier is doing really well on the Staysure Tour. A couple of guys on the Challenge and third-level tours. So yeah, always new faces coming up and I think the Federation is also doing a good job in supporting upcoming amateurs and young professionals. Q. Sorry, the 100,000, they are men and women? BERND WIESBERGER: Yeah, roughly, registered golfers. I can't say if all of them are playing day by day. I'd have to ask them, but that's around the number what I've had in my head, kind of around there, the last couple of years. Q. One of the questions that you earlier answered. You began your comeback from Mauritius, and you travelled quite a bit, almost ten events. Where exactly did it start changing? Because the first few events, you had a bunch of missed cuts and not many good results. When did it start changing? In India, you had three of four rounds sub-par on a very difficult golf course. BERND WIESBERGER: So I wanted to come back at a point where I felt I was ready to play competitive golf, but if you don't have a scorecard in hand and play without a competitor, it's different. I've played really well in preparation here in Dubai just the week before Mauritius. Again, once you go on the golf course, it's a little different. You need to get that competitive edge back, and hit the right shot at the right time, wasn't quite there yet early in the year, and needed to get comfortable in those situations again. Took a while. To be honest, the first kind of glimpse where we saw it really turning into more steady golf was around I think Qatar where I started driving the ball a lot better, started to hit the ball into the greens a lot better. Got my control of distance back in a bit of tricky conditions. That's when I kind of felt it's going back into the right direction. Obviously when I came to Denmark then in May, you know, kind of all parts of my game clicked. Get some good breaks every now and then, like at the Sunday, as well, and we really did well after that. But to be honest, yeah, the first couple of weeks were a bit tricky getting back into that rhythm, and from, you know, late February, March, it started feeling like it's turning towards getting comfortable again and feeling good on the golf course. Q. Your decision last week to play the Nedbank, you were always going to play, or did you make that a last-minute sort of move to go down there? BERND WIESBERGER: To be quite honest, we asked ourselves the question late in Turkey, if it was worth going to Nedbank. The plan, I'm trying to make plans as best as possible for my performance on the golf course, and laid out the plan to play all four at the end and give myself a little bit of a break before that. But coming off two weeks where I felt like my game wasn't quite there and I wasn't quite there in the right mental state, I got a little bit frustrated. I knew Nedbank was going to be a golf course that's challenging mentally, as much as it is playing-wise. I was a bit, you know, not worried, but uncertain of how damaging it could be if you had another off-week in a way. So as I said earlier, my main goal for that week was to be accepting of any outcome out there, because there are really loads of scenarios up in that altitude with those wins and the golf course. Yeah, we thrived and we had a really good week. Came back from some sloppy starts and really did well. So very pleasing about that. But to answer your question, always planned to play Nedbank and I'm very, very happy that we ended up going there and have a good week. Q. On the back of that answer, if I can ask you another question, were you surprised that some of those closer to you on The Race to Dubai doesn't follow you down to South Africa and play the Nedbank? BERND WIESBERGER: I don't know. I suppose every individual has to go for their ideal scheduling. We laid out our plan and Shane laid out his plan and Jon laid out his plan. It's an individual thing. For some, it works. Some obviously played a couple tournaments more in Asia and needed to have a rest before this week. You know, me personally, I thought it deserved a bit stronger field from the top of The Race to Dubai, but in the end, everybody has to make their own choices on scheduling. Q. We all know that you've been a very grounded, down-to-earth guy all through your career. But how has the perspective about life changed after what you went through last year, and then all the success that you have had this year? BERND WIESBERGER: Well, we've got to keep it in perspective. I mean, I wasn't in a life-threatening situation. I had a minor injury in my wrist that is not ideal for a golf professional and it set me back for a couple months not playing golf and doing what I love doing and competing. I was able to do a lot of different other things that you don't have time as a golf professional, really. Spent a lot more time with friends, family and that was nice. Kept me hungry to come out here again and enjoy the times we are up there on the leaderboard, as I said. Yeah, it was good getting into new perspective, for sure, on everything. I was able to make a couple changes which worked out nicely, as well. Therefore, it's even more pleasing to sit here now in the position and enjoy this last week of the year and try to do our best, just as we've done the whole year. Q. You've had a fantastic season, and come back from a difficult start with all the injuries, and you must have been disappointed with the result at the Nedbank. But what you actually did and what those last few holes for everybody did, was to re-open The Race to Dubai. Otherwise, it would have been a foregone conclusion, which would have been a bit of an anti-climax, considering the quality of golf that's been played over the last few months. Does that give you the drive to go on and win it anyway? BERND WIESBERGER: I mean, at no point in time when I was at Nedbank or any of the other weeks I had seen The Race to Dubai points in my head. I was in a really good position going into those last six holes on Sunday, and you know, if I could do it again, I'd do it the same. I wasn't thinking about any scenarios that could play out. You know, it's going to be an exciting week for everyone to watch the way it is laid out now. I'm very proud of the way I played last week, even though, you know, it wasn't the ideal finish, but still a good week and a lot of positives for me to take out. I feel like my golfing momentum has changed a little bit, as well, which is perfect into that last week here in Dubai and I'm feeling really good. So hopefully we give everybody a good show throughout those four days. Q. Good luck. BERND WIESBERGER: Thank you very much. Thank you. STEVE TODD: Thank you for joining us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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