HORIZON IRISH OPEN

September 6, 2023

Adrian Meronk

The K Club, Ryder Course

Press Conference

TOM CARLISLE: Delighted to be joined in the media center by our defending Irish Open Champion, Adrian Meronk. History maker last year, how can you reflect on your victory? Obviously it's been a massive 18 months coming back here for you as defending champion.

ADRIAN MERONK: Hello, everyone, yeah, it's good to be back. Obviously a lot has happened since my win. Had a great year. It's crazy how time flies. I can't believe I'm already defending my title. Excited to be here, and yeah, I hope I can defend it.

TOM CARLISLE: And obviously a new venue but how much do you remember from Mount Juliet and holing that winning putt, and obviously we saw the emotion overcome you when you did hole that putt and become Poland's first winner on the DP World Tour Championship.

ADRIAN MERONK: Yeah, it was a touch of relief because I was coming -- I was close a couple of times last year, so to finally win it and to do it in Ireland in such an iconic event in front of the great crowd, it was just special and I'll never forget that moment for sure.

Yeah, I'm very happy that it happened, actually in Irish Open.

TOM CARLISLE: We must obviously address recent events. Can you just give us your reflections of the last 48 hours and the emotions that you've experienced?

ADRIAN MERONK: Yeah, it's been emotional time for me to be honest from shock to sadness to anger, and now I'm trying to turn it into motivation going into this week. Obviously it's a hard one to swallow. I thought I've done enough to be on the team but it is what it is. I wish them good luck and I will just focus on my game and move forward.

Q. Did you think when you got the call from Luke, did you think he was calling you to tell you you were on the team?

ADRIAN MERONK: I was expecting the call because they told me they are going to call me regardless. So I was in quite a good mood to be honest. I was on the train coming from Switzerland. Had a nice finish.

To be honest, I was in shock, yeah, because I was expecting I have a pretty decent chance to be on the team but it was a quite shocking call, yeah.

Q. Going through this process, can you think of anything you could have done more or do you feel like you've done everything you can do?

ADRIAN MERONK: Probably just focus more on getting that spot through qualification, not lean on the pick. Yeah, I think next time, I'll be more focused, maybe play more counting events if I need to to get more points than just to qualify on my own and just not to wait for the pick. I think that is the only thing that I can think of.

Q. Did Luke give you any particular reason?

ADRIAN MERONK: I heard from him that it was tough for him, as well. To be honest when I -- when he said I'm not going, I kind of stopped listening. It was just -- I was like, didn't listen much to be honest. He was saying that someone had to stay home. It was close obviously and stuff like that. Obviously I wouldn't want to be in his position. I knew it was tough for him.

But yeah, as I said, it was a big shock and I didn't really focus after that.

Q. Taking the invites to play in America, do you think that made a difference in the end?

ADRIAN MERONK: Maybe, but to be honest, I don't regret that. I'm quite happy with the schedule that I did this year. I wanted to grow my game and I wanted to get comfortable playing in the U.S., and I think those starts that I did helped me a lot going forward. So I don't agree with that, no.

Q. You said there was some anger, can you just talk about that?

ADRIAN MERONK: Yeah, Monday, first half of the day was more sadness and disbelief. But then anger, yeah, because to be honest last year and a half, I spent a lot of time thinking about this and that was my goal.

So you know, suddenly, I was just realising that it's not going to happen this year. So it was just sadness turning into anger. I think it's normal process of emotions to be honest. Yeah, I talked to my parents and my psychologist, my coach and they all have been quite supportive and to be honest, a lot of players on tour and coaches, caddies, staff, they all have been very supportive to me. You know, texting me, calling me.

So yeah, that's quite nice to see.

Q. Did you have players coming up saying that they are surprised you're not in?

ADRIAN MERONK: Yeah, quite a few. That's very encouraging. I appreciate all that support.

Q. How do you approach this week then after everything that you've already done? Defending champion, and yet you feel like you kind of got the wrong end of the stick.

ADRIAN MERONK: Yeah, it's not easy. It's not easy. I haven't experienced that before. So I'm kind of fighting with emotions inside of me. Kind of want to focus on this week. It's a great venue, great tournament.

It's still somewhere in the back of my mind what happened a couple days ago, but I hope I'll be ready tomorrow on the first tee, and I'll just give my best as I always do.

Q. What was the reaction in Poland?

ADRIAN MERONK: Yeah, I mean, people didn't take it well. Obviously you don't know Polish but you can read some comments on social media. Obviously everyone was disappointed. I know a couple of people already bought tickets because they were sure I'm going to be there. They probably are going to go regardless, but yeah, they were not happy.

Q. Had your parents bought tickets?

ADRIAN MERONK: No. They were going to stay home anyway.

Q. I think you said you were on the train when you got Luke's call?

ADRIAN MERONK: Yeah, I was coming back from Switzerland from the tournament.

Q. Were you surrounded by other people on the train?

ADRIAN MERONK: I was with my girlfriend. We were just together sitting here.

Q. There was no big reaction?

ADRIAN MERONK: No, I was fairly quiet.

TOM CARLISLE: Thank you, everyone. Thanks, Adrian, for your time.