BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

October 7, 2020

Danny Willett

Wentworth Golf Club

Press Conference

BRIONY CARLYON: Thank you for joining us today. Wonderful to have the defending challenging I don't know of the BP BMW PGA Championship in the virtual stream.

Just quickly, Danny, how nice is it to be back at Wentworth and in a position where you're looking to defend a Rolex Series title?

DANNY WILLETT: Yeah, it's always nice to come back here. Obviously usual to past years where it's been incredibly busy and great home support being English and stuff. Great to be back at The Flagship Event of The European Tour and Rolex Series Event defending.

Game has not been in an amazing place so nice to be back here and get a few nice vibes of obviously how things went last year, working hard and see if we can get a little bit of form back and put up a little bit of a fight this week.

Q. What are the memories, the best memories from last year, obviously a great final round, duel with Jon Rahm to look back on?

DANNY WILLETT: There was lots of good, great moments within that round and stuff, but you know, coming down the last couple in that position, finishing birdie, birdie, closing out the way we did, just coming up the last with actually being able to enjoy that 200-yard walk up the last with all the family and friends there and crowds there. It's a pretty spectacular backdrop usually on the 18th come Sunday. Memorable moments, and yeah, could be a bit different this weekend but hopefully same scenario.

Q. As you say, a bit different this weekend. Have you struggled with the lack of crowds since the restart? Do you find it difficult on a Sunday perhaps?

DANNY WILLETT: I haven't been there on a Sunday, but it's obviously a little flat. You're not quite sure what other people are doing or how the scores are necessarily around the golf course. You can't hear any roars or cheers or anything like that, but we're still very fortunate and still playing for a hell of a lot of money and World Ranking points against great fields. Still in the fortunate position we're in, but I've just not really been playing great. So it's felt flat, a lot could be the fact that I've not been playing amazing myself.

On the PGA TOUR we finished fourth in Detroit and being in the last couple groups in Memorial on the PGA TOUR as well was starkly different to what you would expect on a Sunday. But I think for the foreseeable future, it's one of those things, for us to play golf, we're probably going to have to get used to a little more. We're just going to try to get the juices going a little bit within ourselves and try and play some better golf.

Q. Couple of great wins the last two years, but you were probably a far more consistent player before you won the Masters. Do you think that maybe that's going to be a change that you've got to get used to, that you're going to get real big highs and lows rather than consistency?

DANNY WILLETT: It's a tough one, isn't. It obviously you've like a great mixture of both. You'd like your bad to be better and you'd like your good to be as good as it is. We are working on a lot of stuff to try to equal all that stuff out and that may be the case, but hopefully, hopefully, we can get the bad stuff better to where the consistency gets better and it is similar within top five, top ten finishes. Again, before the Masters, we were playing more mainly in Europe.

Now obviously it's different circumstances. We've got a young family. You're travelling a lot more on your own. Playing a lot more around the world, different courses, different weather, a lot more variables probably within that.

Yeah, we've just got to get better, basically and just keep working hard and try and get back to some better ways.

Q. Is it going to be a tale of a few missed cuts and one big win every year?

DANNY WILLETT: If I could guarantee the win every year, I don't know, it might be. Depends how big it was. But yeah, you never know. Winning is always obviously an amazing feeling. But the weekends off, having lots of weekends off in the middle, you've got to do quite well.

Q. I presume you've been out and played the course. How it is playing? Obviously a lot of rain over the weekend. Is it a long sog?

DANNY WILLETT: It's going to be playing long, yeah. A little bit of a colder week this week than what we have in years gone by. A little bit of rain forecast, a little bit of wind forecast, it could be in for a really stern test this year. Greens seem to be holding up really well. Everywhere is in good condition. It just is, yeah, as a whole, it is a little bit wetter.

So yeah, you're obviously going to get a few dodgy lies in the rough, ball is not going a million miles out there. Yeah, I think it could be a slightly different test to what we've seen the last couple years.

Q. You mentioned you're working on things with presumably Sean Foley. Anything in particular without bamboozling us?

DANNY WILLETT: Same stuff. Just trying to get better. Just trying to get better, and it's just been one of those things where again travelling back and forth to see coaches, coaches not being at every event, all that kind of stuff does make it slightly tricky. Yeah, we are continuing to try and work it out, and just get back to having all the things kind of match up through the bag.

Q. Your very first answer was it was always nice to come back here. What is it you find so nice about coming back to Wentworth?

DANNY WILLETT: Just great vibes. It's a beautiful part of world and that's me being a northerner saying it about the south. It's a beautiful part of the world and it's a fantastic golf course, and again, the support to Danny is usually second to none. I've always had just great vibes around this place. Not necessarily means you're going to play great but within how a week unfolds. It's just the setup and how everything's run this week is just superb, and it's just nice to come back year-on-year. I think this is probably ninth or 10th time I've been down here and we've had some nice results along the way. Yeah, hopefully we can continue to do so.

Q. Is it possible to win on a course on which you don't have nice vibes?

DANNY WILLETT: I think it is. I think you can probably ask most guys around the world, and they will say that they kind of go slightly hand-in-hand. You know, you look at guys who have been multiple winners around the world at the same golf courses. Tiger is probably the best at that, ever. And I think that having a nice week off the golf course, kind of liking the golf course that you are playing on, I think all of that feeds into obviously positive vibes.

Yeah, not saying that no one has ever won on one that's felt great or the golf course hasn't suited him, but yeah I think that probably helps most people.