DUBAI DUTY FREE IRISH OPEN

June 30, 2021

Jonathan Caldwell

Mount Juliet Estate

Quick Quotes

Q. How much of a career-changing victory and career-defining victory was that for you?

JONATHAN CALDWELL: Massive, yeah. Gives me the exemptions obviously to plan a schedule. Gets me into those big events, like Irish Open this week, Scottish Open next week, the start of next year, even Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It's great to be able to plan that schedule and plan it well.

Q. How much did he belief did it give you coming into a tournament like this that you can compete in these big events?

JONATHAN CALDWELL: Gave me great confidence to win and to know that I can win now is massive. Hopefully I'll have plenty more chances and I can feed off that win a couple weeks ago.

Q. Can you give us your own description of the journey that your career took to get you to that European Tour win?

JONATHAN CALDWELL: Well, obviously, I come out my first year in 2009 straight from Q-School as amateur, kind of in the deep end. Didn't play that great in 2009 and felt like I needed to get better and almost got worse by trying to get better. That continued for a few years, Challenge Tour and down to Euro Pro.

I stuck at it and went back with things that I had done sort of 2007, 2008 with my game, and slowly but surely found some form. I've been playing well for the last sort of three or fours years. Maybe just not getting the results or stringing the four rounds together. Obviously back to Q-School and managed to get my card again, and so good results last year and a tough year obviously with the pandemic.

Yeah, I got great confidence and some good results and knew that I could sort of compete and gave myself chances to win.

Q. It would have been easy for you not to try and show some really hard work, resilience to get back. I'm sure you're proud of what you've been able to do?

JONATHAN CALDWELL: Yeah, massively proud. Obviously that comes from a lot of support that I get at home, whether it be my parents, friends, sponsors have great belief in me and always have, even when I didn't have it. Massive gratitude to them.

Also I love playing golf, practising and playing, something I've done since I was 11, 12 years old and haven't stopped and hopefully won't stop for a long time.

Q. You were an international teammates with the likes of Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy's partner at the Walker Cup. Did you often look to their career path and think, that should have been me?

JONATHAN CALDWELL: Oh, definitely not. We all have our own path to follow. Obviously Rory was a massive talent. Still is a massive talent. Obviously gone on to do crazy things in the game. Shane also was tremendously talented. They both work massively hard at the game. They spend a lot of hours obviously fine tuning their games, and obviously delighted to see both of them go on and it inspires me obviously to come and have my own sort of path if you like.

Q. Now that you're here and that path has taken you to rub shoulders with them at this big events, have you got an eye on hopefully possibly qualifying for The Open in a couple weeks' time?

JONATHAN CALDWELL: That would be lovely obviously. It's not something that I'm thinking too much about. I'll try my best each and every day here and next week in Scotland, and if I'm lucky enough to get one of those three spots, then excellent, yeah.

Q. It does, as you say, set you up really nicely for the next 18 months or so to know your schedule and you're playing in big events now?

JONATHAN CALDWELL: It's great. It's job security for the next sort of year and a half. And like you say, I've get to plan my schedule and I don't have to play every week or every opportunity. I can take weeks off and practice and rest and hopefully that is going to stand me in good stead and I can plan a good schedule and it all goes to plan.

Q. Will that schedule include back to Clandeboye, the Euro Pro Tour event?

JONATHAN CALDWELL: Yeah, obviously when that was announced, I really wanted to play that. Obviously I played Euro Pro for many years and we never had a championship where I didn't get to play in the championship they had in the early 2000s at Clandeboye. It was exciting to be able to tell the guys that I could take a week off and play there. So I'm really looking forward to that.

Q. Darren Clarke won that event.

JONATHAN CALDWELL: That's right.

Q. Something similar would be nice.

JONATHAN CALDWELL: Yeah, that would be fantastic. But yeah, there will be a lot of pressure on that week from the supporters at home.

Q. Is this a venue you've played before? What do you make of it this week?

JONATHAN CALDWELL: First time I came here was many with my dad for the AMEX that Tiger won. I remember it being a lot longer then. I was a lot smaller then. But yeah, the last time I played was probably 15 years ago. So I do remember a lot of the holes and a lot of the shots. Course is in tremendous condition. Obviously the weather has been fantastic the last week or two here at home. I think it's going to be great the rest of the week. So I hope it dries out a wee bit and get a bit of bounce in the fairways and the greens and toughen it up a little bit.