ALFRED DUNHILL LINKS CHAMPIONSHIP

September 30, 2021

Ewen Ferguson

Quick Quotes

Q. How was it out there today?

EWEN FERGUSON: I had a great day. Played really good and managed to deal with the elements and the course really well today and deal with the kind of added pressure of having everyone kind of supporting you and being in your home country and stuff like that.

Q. Just how did you feel about it all? How pleased are you just sitting one shot off the lead?

EWEN FERGUSON: Yeah, I'm really pleased, actually. I wasn't even trying to think about like the top of the leaderboard. I just tried to keep doing what I was doing. There's some holes out there where par is a great score and there's other holes where you feel you can take advantage of. I just feel my kind of stress level was really flatlined today, and played solid and continued it all day. Some days it doesn't work like that. Your heart rate can go a bit up and down. To see myself just one off the lead is just fantastic. But it's only the first day, and there's still three more to go and some tough courses coming up.

Q. You mentioned it there, playing at home with a home crowd behind you, as well, at the Home of Golf; how much does that make it easier, and more difficult, as well?

EWEN FERGUSON: It adds a bit of pressure because you don't want to let anyone down that's watching you but at the same time it inspires to you play well. I kept my intensity levels really high today even on just like these four- or five-footers.

I was really focussed on them, and sometimes if you're just -- or I have done in the past, when you're out there playing, you just miss and you kind of are not as focussed and you can make really simple mistakes.

Today I was so focussed not to make any stupid mistakes, and I think that's what helped me today with kind of the home crowd and my family all watching and cheering me on.

Q. It's such a different tournament for you as well with going alongside celebrities and that sort of thing. Who will you be playing alongside today and how much does that kind of maybe take a little bit of the pressure off, I don't know.

EWEN FERGUSON: Yeah, it depends who your partner is I guess. My partner was Brad Simpson, the lead singer of the Vamps, and I'm a bit of a Vamps fan myself, so I was really excited when I seen the draw. Playing with him, we had a great laugh today. He was trying to get out of my way at the start of the day because he was a really nice guy and didn't want to bother me.

I was like, listen, just mark it, take your time. We're going to be out here for 5 1/2 hours, anyway, and we may as well relax. He started to play some really good golf. We pushed each other on. He's a really chill guy. He helped me today with the vibe I had from him, just a really cool guy.