THE 151ST OPEN

July 21, 2023

Richie Ramsay

Mixed Zone

Q. How about that finish?

RICHIE RAMSAY: Yeah, I played good. I hit a good tee shot on 16. Lovely little coffin bunker, exactly what I wanted, and a nice 4-iron. I thought the wind was in a little bit out of the right and it just drifted, and I thought just caught the bunker so it's hit the face, and it was just -- I don't know how because it's kind of gone in with -- it's been driven into the wind.

It's plugged up against the face, so I had to come out sideways. 17 is always playing difficult, difficult for the wind. There's a flag behind. ^ Check just drifted and I thought it was actually in the bunker on the left, and I thought I hit a really good shot to just get to the middle of the green.

Then two great shots on the last, plugged up against the face. You're obviously not going right there.

It was actually a fraction away from -- it was very, very close to like flying it, and then you come back into the breeze.

But hit a very, very good fourth shot because the ball has come further back. It's given me a chance, but then it's kind of semi-plugged, and obviously hit a great putt, which felt amazing. I just hope it's enough because I feel like today I showed the way I can play in the wind and hit some nice hold-up shots.

I hit a great sort of chip and run from 190 on 3. I just felt like I showed what my game is capable of. It was a little bit of a shame. I felt like the last few holes I just needed like some form of luck, and I was like, I just couldn't find any of it.

Q. You seemed very frustrated as you came off 17 green understandably. (Indiscernible).

RICHIE RAMSAY: I can expand on it, but the members here are very, very -- have been very, very welcoming, so I won't expand on it. It's nothing to do with them.

Q. (Indiscernible).

RICHIE RAMSAY: Well, like I say, one of the things I want to do when I finish playing is go into architecture, and I've studied work and what I feel is really good work and what I feel is not-so-good work.

But like I say, the members here have been really good. I came down for two days in March and they were incredibly welcoming.

I'll stand by what I said, but I'm not going to expand on it because they've been very good to me and I wouldn't want to comment unfairly -- not unfairly, but they're good enough to host the tournament, put it on. Probably wouldn't be right of me to say anything more.

Q. The plugged lies in the bunkers, did you guys get a notice today that the R&A was sort of repositioning the sand to get them more sculpted? Did you know about that or get a player notice?

RICHIE RAMSAY: I didn't get a player notice. I read it on Twitter that they were trying to push the sand further up.

But I don't know if they pushed then too much sand up because the two shots I hit in were not -- I mean, it was a 3-wood downwind which is coming in like a missile, and it's pitched in the middle of the bunker. I didn't see it. It might have run up.

But the 4-iron has pitched that far from the edge coming in on an angle, and it's been driven. Not with kind of -- I know it's into the breeze, but not really spinning a 4-iron if you land it in there and it's plugged.

So I don't know what else they've done to them.

I think the biggest problem is there was one Matt had on 11 yesterday. He was up against the face, but the face was like the height of the fence. But the problem is some of the bunkers are twice the height of that fence. That's where probably the issue occurs is that you can't always have it flat.

I get almost more than anything else, pot bunkers are hazards, and I actually enjoy playing courses like this because they're hazards and because you've got to be more strategic and think more off the tee, as opposed to some courses we play where you're actually looking to be in the bunker and it's a free swing and you can get the control, which I'm not -- I don't think that's the way things should be.

Yeah, it's difficult because now you've got two just shockers, really. I don't know if that's an anomaly or I don't know if that's something that's a regular occurrence. You've just got to try and take the hit, but obviously I wasn't that pleased 16 and 18 to say the least.

Q. The shot that you referred to was a 190-yard -- how many times have you had a shot like that?

RICHIE RAMSAY: Probably here and the Scottish. Last week it was cool. There was a couple holes where there was a decent amount of breeze. It was like a 110 shot you're hitting like a 9-iron and just trying to hold that. For me that's more enjoyable.

I realised this a bit more -- we went away and played somewhere -- I think we were somewhere in Europe, and then I came back and played some links golf. You realise why guys come back and keep coming back, keep coming back.

It's like one day you're hitting a 4-iron into a hole into a par-3 and the next day you're hitting a 9-iron and it just changes it up and makes you think more.

Unfortunately green is not the best form of golf. Brown is beautiful. You want it firm and fast and bouncy because it just gives you a different array of shots.

Yes, I think does it play to my advantages? Probably, because I grew up on links courses and I hit the ball quite straight, and I think there's a big advantage to be that if you're coming from the fairway.

But yeah, I think it's more exciting to watch, as well. I remember watching the worst Masters I've watched on TV is the one, the COVID year when it was in November. Ball lands, stops.

When you watch in April the ball lands, all right, where is it going to go? It ends up going down a hill, off to a valley, and they've got a pitch from 20 yards up over a hill to a pin. That's fun to me.

But I just hope I make it through to the weekend.

Q. (Indiscernible).

RICHIE RAMSAY: Yeah, really good. Obviously playing with Matt was cool. I think on 15 I looked back -- I think someone was coming down 3. Then you look and you see the stands that were filled up. The thing for me is when you see the hills, people sort of like trampling over the hills at the top of the hills, and it was just lined, and that's just really cool. That's what an Open is.

Even on the putting green this morning -- did someone have a hole-in-one on 14? Like we heard that.

Q. 17, believe it or not.

RICHIE RAMSAY: Yeah, we heard that roar. Like the whole putting green went like that. That's cool. That's the little things that make The Open kind of special for me.

Q. Obviously there's local pride everywhere. Why do you think there's particular pride for local guys here?

RICHIE RAMSAY: I think we had this a little bit at Birkdale. I wasn't a local player, but if you look at where we're situated, like they kind of get missed out a little bit because we have the PGA at Wentworth. We always have the Scottish Open and then The Open goes north, and this is the only tournament where they come, and obviously Birkdale and here and probably Lytham, it comes every three, four years.

There's a big catchment, and I just think people get behind The Open.

The fact that it does what it says, it is The Open. There's people from Japan playing, there's people who have qualified last year in Australia. I would love it if certain majors changed some criteria to open up because -- like we as professionals love playing in that, especially guys who don't get to do it year by year.

I think you should see how special it is and people just coming out and enjoying it, and when they have someone to pin their hopes on, it's quite cool to follow, and you've got a vested interest, as well.

Q. Michael is a wee bit younger than you, than 33; first Open; he's 1-under. You've played in a few, obviously, but making the cut in your first in a very (indiscernible) environment when you're not used to this --

RICHIE RAMSAY: Yeah, Mike is a lovely guy. I kind of exchanged -- I always said to him when he turned pro, because Ian looked at him a bit, I said, if you ever need anything, just text me.

He was struggling a bit when he started off. I'd drop him another text here and there and see how he was getting on. When he won at Royal Aberdeen. I texted him, and that's great to see because irrespective of what happens from now on he's got that in the bank and he's shown his class over two day against a world class field.

I think hopefully he can use that as a catalyst to push on because he's still young enough that he's got a bit of time, but he'll probably admit he needs to get moving a little bit.

But I did look on the leaderboard after 9 to see him because he was on -- he was like four holes ahead of us, and I did look every so often, and it was nice just to be like, right, he's still going, because obviously I saw what can happen. It can bite you pretty quickly.