GENESIS SCOTTISH OPEN

July 11, 2023

Richie Ramsay

The Renaissance Club

Press Conference

BRIONY CARLYON: Delighted to welcome Richie Ramsay here to the Genesis Scottish Open. You're attached to the Renaissance Club but how nice is it to come here this week with your National Open, eight of the top 10 in the world here, a big week? Give us your thoughts.

RICHIE RAMSAY: Yeah, it's cool to have such a good field. Obviously biased about Renaissance, being a member here. In general, love it here and it showcases Scotland. I think the big thing for me is it gives people the chance to see the best players in the world for all, playing one tournament a year, and seeing them close-up, there's a lot of guys on TV all the time but when you see it close-up, it's a game-changer. When.

I was a little kid, I remember going to Gleneagles, Dunhill, seeing the best players in the world play. It's pretty cool and it's one of those things that I think can hook guys, hook kids on to the game. It does make a difference.

I don't want to roll out that the "grow the game" line, but do I think that having stars that you can relate to, that you can see and watch hitting shots, I think that does have an impact on getting players in the game.

BRIONY CARLYON: Just talk about last week, as well, solely third in Denmark but how much confidence does that bring into this week and moving ahead with the season as well?

RICHIE RAMSAY: Yeah, it brings a lot of confidence. It's great being in the mix. It hurts to lose. Ever since I was a little kid, I hate losing. But it's part and parcel of the journey these days, and it makes you stronger and it makes you more determined to get a win.

But I spoke to my brother this morning, and he's like, you'd have a problem if you weren't butting yourself in that position. Although, he doesn't play too much golf anymore. He's one of my role models. When he said that, I took it on board a little bit more and realised that, you know, the problem is not that I hit a bad shot at the wrong time. The problem would be is if I wasn't putting myself in that position, but I was there taking a shot at it. You kind of shoot for the stars, and I'll hit one of the stars again sooner or later.

Q. Is that what straits professional sportsmen, that mentality to realise that you played basically 99.9 per cent of last week pretty much perfectly and you can concentrate on that?

RICHIE RAMSAY: Yeah, I think the problem is in this day and age, you need, like, shocking weather, or you hear lines on social media that grab people's attention. But a lot of times, that's only the fraction of the story, and I get it. I totally understand it.

But people can get pulled into the idea of everything is negative, and like being relatively experienced, you know that there's going to be stuff that's going to come your way, whether it's like a small bump or a massive wall, it's going to be in your way. Mentally with golf, it's a roller coaster ride but that's why we do it and that's why we love it because you never know what's around the corner. You've got to deal with stuff that will make you stronger and probably make you a better person. For me, for sure, I mean, to beat the Scottish guys, I can still be fiery; I was quite fiery when I was younger and I've tempered that, channeled it, and it's made me better off the course, maybe more patient.

Yeah, you've just got to look, if you tell yourself, you look at positives all the times. It's funny how when it comes around, you will stay positive about it but if you stay negative stuff all the time, negative self-talk will slowly but surely creep into the way you think and stuff.

Yeah, I mean, I was annoyed I didn't win but for me, I didn't do anything wrong. The shot I hit at The Belfry was because I was indecisive. I didn't make a clear decision and that's on me. That's not on anybody else and that's why I -- that's why it hurt a lot more but this one has like, look, my viewpoint is, you've got to hit a great shot down the stretch to win a tournament.

There's an opportunity here, if you don't take it, you're going to regret it. I don't regret taking it, because if I pulled it off, I feel that I left myself in a good position to get up-and-down or 2-putt, and you win a tournament. Had 68 great holes, and thinking, why didn't he take on Made in Denmark -- would be happening for a long time.

Q. You talk about the different feelings from Belfry to the Denmark by you used The Belfry to galvanise you and you won. Do you have the same confidence despite the disappointment, getting in the mix, that it brings out the best in you?

RICHIE RAMSAY: It's cool, nerves on the first tee, how I'm going to play today, that battle, which a lot of people don't see which is like an internal battle. I kind of managed my emotions today to be clear and thoughtful on what I'm going to do. It's funny how you can try to prepare for it and go out and see someone, go play nine holes but nothing compares to playing like Sunday when you're in the mix and there's something on the line.

It does make you stronger and more resilient, and the fact that I come back and did it, like you said last year, I can call on that experience. I feel like my game is in a good place. I want to be confident about this week but my expectations are at a reasonable level because I know the way the golf course plays, and I know whose strengths it plays to. It doesn't always play to my strengths, looking at the winners the last few years.

We have The Open, and then we've got a fantastic stretch of golf starting in Switzerland, and I always look at tournaments and think that's a tournament I can win, that's a tournament I can win. Form is good. I just have to keep on doing the same thing and stay patient and positive.

Q. The strength of field last year was the same, how disappointing was that for you that you missed out because of COVID?

RICHIE RAMSAY: It feels like years ago now but I do remember sitting in the bed just shaking for about two days, which wasn't great.

Yeah, just being here, you've got to look at that as a positive. It's a tough field to get into these days because it's so strong. It's nice to test yourself against the best players, get a feel for where they are at, where you're at. Because we all want to play against the best, to beat the best. Like I say, I'm not a good loser, so I'll be trying to do that this week. But the one person you can't beat is yourself, and I've learnt that over the years.

Q. You have a twinkle in your eye which makes me think you're a new boy on tour.

RICHIE RAMSAY: I look for different stuff to motivate me. I don't think -- I've been here for long enough, but you've got to take small wins. Like small wins, and if you're willing to look at stuff in a different way, you can take the positive out of it. Like yesterday, I got to go and go for a walk with my daughter and have a coffee and a chat and sit down and then we played afterwards, and then went to the gym yesterday. Got down a nice meal, nice glass of red wine, watched the tennis. Those are, for me, that's brilliant things to do.

It's very, very small, but you're always looking at like, try and take the positives out of your day. For me, the positive is I get to play in The Scottish Open against some of the best players in the world if not the best players in the world. I've got The Open around the corner, and my daughter is coming to watch me play. She'll probably watch me for two holes and want to go to the crèche, but those are all really cool things.

They are all positive things. All things you've got to look forward to. All things that are exciting and good for me to play in a time where, like I say, it's very easy to look at social media and compare yourself to others and think that you're not good enough.

Q. Are there any days that you hate?

RICHIE RAMSAY: Yeah, there's days I don't like but that's where I gain. The days where it's cold and it's dark in Scotland, that's the days where you have to really embrace it, where the discipline of pushing the gym door open is like the hard thing.

But some days, you get fuel for that. Takes you five seconds to realise, if you miss today, you might miss that shot next time. So it's like a no-brainer. Like I went to the gym yesterday. It was the easiest gym session every because I had the most fuel and most motivation to get better because of what happened the day before, so I just carried on.

Any time I'm having a tough day, I think about a place that I don't want to be or an opportunity that I didn't take, like that shot, just switches your mindset and you're right on it again. You don't want to give anybody else a chance to get back on you, and it's in my consciousness that, why would I give up a day working hard to be better, a better player, because it gives -- so that it can give me the best chance of winning a tournament because when the tournament is on the line, there's no better place to hit that shot to ten feet or hole that 10-footer, and you've got another win on the board.

Q. When we reach this part of the global golf calendar, a lot of PGA TOUR pros come to this part of world and they make pit stops at Sunningdale or Muirfield, North Berwick. As somebody from this part of the world and this country, does that give you a sense of pride when all of the Americans geek out and check the boxes and play the courses over here?

RICHIE RAMSAY: Yeah, we've played somewhere this year, I can't remember where it was, and previous week I played Scotland, played a few different courses. I just thought to myself, like, how good of a product that we have, these courses, and how much fun are they to play.

We sometimes take them for granted because they are on your doorstep. Like I'm fortunate that I know a couple of guys at Muirfield that I can go and play there. But that place is an amazing golf course. Like North Berwick is a brilliant walk and fantastic, sort of quirky source. You know, different shots, different lies, and it's got that St Andrews feel.

It's kind of -- it's very therapeutic for the soul. Sometimes you take for granted when you do things like that because probably like Long Island and a few other select places, or Sand Valley or some of the new ones popping up, you don't have that. You go into the clubhouses for the history or the lunches, which are fantastic when you get an opportunity to go to them. And then just the fact that -- you've got the whole train station; there's character, and your senses are heightened by going to these fantastic places.

Yeah, it's good to see and that's a huge selling point. Coming here to play The Scottish Open, but you can go into the middle of Edinburgh, that's a castle in the middle, where does that happen anywhere else.

Q. Your approach this week, are you in your comfort zone? Are you expecting that the top players are going to have a big spectator following, and do you hope to get the same sort of thing and will it give you a wee boost of confidence to your attitude?

RICHIE RAMSAY: It definitely helps, adds to the atmosphere. But I think I've learned over the course of like many years that irrespective of where I play, I try to bring my best game that I can possibly bring that week. And never give up, never give in, and be grateful because of what I'm doing. I've got a slight advantage. I know the course more than most guys do, and I know the difference we might see this week with the wind, if it switches from the traditional southwesterly to an easterly.

But for me, it's like, just try to do my best. Be best I can be, which I try and do every week, and kind of keep that idea in my head. If I do that, then hopefully I can play well or there's more chance of me playing well, which gives people something to watch or something to shout about.

Q. Being local, do you think that adds more pressure to you?

RICHIE RAMSAY: No, it's very easy to want it more. I think sometimes when you chase something, it takes you off your kind of usual mindset and it's like, yeah, do we all want The Scottish Open as our home event? Yeah, we all want to do that and we have to focus on what makes us the best, and a lot of time, that's just focusing on the process. It's an old adage but it works.

Q. How often do you play here on your off-weeks, and you mentioned that this course might not necessarily suit I based on having seen the previous winners. Can you elaborate on what kind of players does it suit?

RICHIE RAMSAY: I think I come down here once a week to practise, depending on the weather. If I come there, I won't come for the full day because I have to drive down and drive back. But it has everything I need here. Got like good gym and food is really good. Coffee's nice. Great range, which is double-sided, so when you're -- irrespective of where the wind comes, I can play it to a right-to-left wind, which for a full golfer, that sounds like a small thing. But for me, one of the first things I do is check the wind forecast, and that determines where I practise and how I get the most out of the day.

Gerry has been very good, he always takes care of us really well. I've got some good friends down here that I can play. Regardless the way the goes plays, just on the golf stats, it doesn't always -- like if you send it here, it can make a difference. Like if you move it, shift off the tee, you can take reasonable amount of strategy out of it. That's not my game.

But on the flipside of that, if you hit in the fairway, you can get a roll -- I can get it, but I can't fly over bunkers, and what you'll see -- you'll see a lot of that next week. Next week is a very symmetrical test defense-wise off the tee. This week is different. It's going to be more on the sides. If you can fly it certain distances, you can take some of that strategy out of it.

And I just think there's a lot of -- the best players in the world these days, generally hit it quite far off the tee, and that can be a big advantage around here, particularly if the wind blows in certain directions with regards to hitting shorter irons in being able to control that, getting spin on the second shots into the greens.

Q. It's been more than a month now since the big announcement concerning the tours and PIF. Have you had a chance to discuss with your colleague what is this might mean for the DP World Tour, any sense to how this might play out?

RICHIE RAMSAY: Yeah, I discuss it on an hourly basis (laughter) yeah, as far as I know, the only thing I would say, is I believe, and irrespective of what I believe, that if you can have more tournaments on a global stage, it's better for golf. And the exact model on that is if you said to anybody who watches tennis, right, I'm going to take Wimbledon and put it in America; I'm going to take the Australian National open and put it in America and take The French Open and put it over there, as opposed to the situation, is that better for tennis? Great for America, but I would say it's worse for are the game in general. I would say when you take big tournaments like this, whether you go down to Australia or you go to the Middle East or Japan, all those places, like having big tournaments there really makes a difference. And if you want to galvanise people, and like I said, the first point, if you want kids to actually see the people, as opposed to seeing them on TV and see how they swing it and see the flight of the ball, that, for me, makes a difference. And you play, maybe the next day you get the opportunity to play the course these guys played, that's a cool thing.

So I think moving forward, I believe that is one of the best things for the game. With regards to everything else. I honestly don't know what's going happen. More money is going to come in.

Q. What's your thought on some of the LIV guys coming back?

RICHIE RAMSAY: You know, under certain -- I think it would be just under the conditions, what are conditions they want to come back, because obviously a lot of people were told, like if you go, you're going to be -- you're going to be gone.

I speak to the guys. I'm fine with it. If I was offered, you know, the sums that you've seen in the papers and I was older, I would take it? Maybe. That's their decision. Everybody has got a different decision. You have to respect that. I think it's just tough when there's certain times when you go, you want to come back, that's where the problem is. It's not their part. It's just what are the conditions to come back on. How do they come back into the system. The better we play, the more status you have, and the more status you have, the more opportunities it gives, and you where do they fit into that. And I don't know, that's for someone way above my pay grade to decide but the conditions of coming back would be a big thing.