HORIZON IRISH OPEN

September 7, 2023

Ross Fisher

The K Club, Ryder Course

Quick Quotes

Q. 66, tell us about those seven birdies on there.

ROSS FISHER: Yeah, it was nice to see some putts drop. I felt like I played nicely out there. Gone to a nice run on the back nine, birdieing 16. It was a nice birdie, and then going for 18 in two, left myself a good opportunity for birdie there but then to see a couple of putts on the front nine, rolled a nice one in on 1 and hit two lovely shots on 2 and holed a nice putt on 3. To see the ball rolling in from not short range but putts that you'd like to make but not expecting to make is obviously delightful to see. I've been putting in a lot of work, so nice to see it slowly paying off.

Q. I know Himmerland was a good week for you; and Scotland, you felt like you could have done more?

ROSS FISHER: Yeah, I think Himmerland was a good week. But really disappointed to double the last and miss out on an Open spot. If I had parred it, I would have been in The Open and a birdie, I probably would have been in the playoff.

It was disappointing after coming off, I think I was on the back of five birdies in a row on the back nine, so doubling 18 was a bitter pill to swallow.

Went out and played lovely at The Scottish Open and Friday, just struggled and to miss the cut on such a huge event, puts you on the back foot especially with Race to Dubai points, and then to follow that up with missing the cut in Czechoslovakia was very disappointing.

Stuck to my game plan. Crans has never been a great place for me to play, so I thought, I'm going to stick with it, practise hard. Played a fair bit of golf. It's a busy run coming up with here, next week and The French Open.

So I didn't want it burn myself out because this is a massive event with next week as well. It's nice to see I made the right decision taking the week off. Practise has paid dividends and got off to a nice start.

Q. Do you come to The Irish Open as a past champion with extra confidence? I know it wasn't at The K Club, but given your card, it's a place you obviously enjoy?

ROSS FISHER: Yeah, I've always enjoyed Ireland. As you say, it's great to play Irish Open winners. Yeah, obviously brings back a lot of fond memories from Killarney, and having played well in 2016, looking forward to and forgot actually how strong a golf course is.

To see the scoring as low as it was as we were making our way around the course was a little bit of a surprise, but then wasn't much breeze, and like I said, if you keep the ball in the fairways, you give yourself a lot of chances and the greens are perfect. I was happy to see the lines, hit some putts and see the putts drop, and hopefully it will continue.