ALFRED DUNHILL LINKS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 3, 2021

John Murphy

Press Conference

Q. John, thanks for stopping by. Well played. Two nice up-and-downs on the last two greens, and a nice birdie to finish. Must be pleased with that day.

JOHN MURPHY: Yeah, I mean, look, it's -- as competitive as I am, it's disappointing to -- I got into a nice position early on. I was in contention early on. Certainly the competitiveness in me is guarded right now, but looking back at it, it's been a great week.

It's been certainly an experience I won't be forgetting in a hurry. As I said, I could walk down that 18th fairway every day for the rest of my life. Just thankful that the European Tour gave me the opportunity to play this week, and glad I could make the most of it.

Q. You were in a good position there on the front nine, and on the 9th got unlucky and found a bush and penalty drop?

JOHN MURPHY: Yeah, wasn't really unlucky, it was just about tee shots. I didn't hit too many in this week to be fair. I drove it lovely, hit the ball lovely all week, just that one tee shot cost two shots, and it was almost a par-3 today. It was playing pretty easy. Felt like I dropped three there really. Danny made birdie there, I made double, that was a three-shot swing.

So certainly didn't -- I was kind of out of it after that, and that was the turning point. But felt like I had some nice up-and-downs on the back nine. I fought pretty hard and thankfully managed to put an under-par number on the board.

I think it leaves me around 9th, which if you told me that at the start of the week, I'd be happy with that.

Q. Obviously your disappointed, but you had a chance to win, but still a good performance, I think you win about 81,000 euro and move up the rankings, and also you should get in next week in the Spanish Open?

JOHN MURPHY: Yeah, it seems that way. I think they just mentioned it. But I haven't thought that far ahead yet. Going to go over here and see a few people, flew over to support. Going to spend some time with them, and then I'll ask my manager to take care of that.

Q. Who came over?

JOHN MURPHY: Yeah, my sister came over. My parents didn't make it over today. But a few people came over. It's was great having them there. And certainly it was probably the biggest day of my golfing career so far. I knew that waking up this morning. It was lovely to have support out there.

Q. What do you take from a week like this? Does this give you confidence going forward that you belong out here?

JOHN MURPHY: Yeah, definitely. I know I have a lot of improving to do. I know that I'm not the longest hitter out there, I'm not the straightest driver out there, my approach play isn't the best out there, my putting is not the best, but when I stand on the first tee, I convince myself that I can go to toe to toe with anybody out there, and I think I can.

So I'm just going to try and improve in any way I can, learn from this week. And, yeah, there's -- you can always get better. So I'm going to see what areas I can improve going forward, and I'm looking forward to that improvement.

Q. How does it compare, walking up the last, the Links trophy, and walking up here with Danny Willett as the winner three years on?

JOHN MURPHY: I would have preferred it if it was me that was the winner, but, no, it was a cool experience. I knew a lot of people around that 18th green. It was lovely to have some local support out there today.

Yeah, it was -- as I said, I would have loved to have been in contention coming down that stretch, because that's why I practice, why I play golf, to put myself in those situations.

But I'm pretty happy with how I got the most out of the last few holes. Got up-and-down on 17 and 18 to come top ten, so that was a positive take.

Q. Danny was focused on keeping his rivals at bay, him finishing up with you, was it encouraging you for you, what you're doing compared to where he's going?

JOHN MURPHY: Yeah, I suppose everybody out here is different, we've all had different trajectories and different routes to getting here. I'm not here yet. I hope I will be pretty soon. But, yeah, certainly it was great to see Danny do that. He's obviously done some incredible things in the game of golf. He has also gone through some tough times. It's great to see somebody like that in fine form and pick up a trophy at this special place.

Q. Michael Hoey, your fellow Irishman, taking up the team prize?

JOHN MURPHY: Yeah, I'll have a word with him about that. His partner must have been very good. But that was good. I saw Michael a couple weeks ago. All the Irish guys have been great to me. They took me under their wing this week, brought me out, played practice rounds with me everywhere. They didn't have to do that. That was just -- I suppose they're looking out for the younger players coming through.

So, yeah, great that I could get to experience that and learn from them.

Q. How good was your where amateur partner? Where did you finish?

JOHN MURPHY: I'd be lying if -- I think, yeah, 11th, I think we were 12th going into last, we birdied the last, so I think we finished 10th or 11th. He was great. Myself and Oliver Baker had a great few days out there. Had a lot of fun.

Would have been nice coming into the stretch, but we played some great golf the last few days, and nice to have a good time out there too.