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NISSAN IRISH OPEN

May 19, 2006

Anthony Wall

MAYNOOTH, IRELAND

GORDON SIMPSON: You were just staggering through the bad weather through the front nine and suddenly it all changed, and your golf changed with the weather as well, 5 under for these nine.

ANTHONY WALL: Yeah, I played solid the front nine, didn't really do much wrong or right, just plodded along. Had a poor bogey at 8. I hit a really good driver and wedge on 10, four foot. 11, I holed about a 10 footer. And I hit a beautiful 4 iron on 12 to about four foot. So I was off then and I was quite happy. Should have birdied 13; didn't. And hit a 7 iron to about four foot at 17. And again pitched to about four foot at 15. So it was all pretty small; I hit four or five really good iron shots.

GORDON SIMPSON: And you're suggesting the draw seems to have been very kind to you.

ANTHONY WALL: Oh, no question. No question. You can still mess it up. It gave us the chance, even though it's hard out there, it gave us a chance to post a score. I think yesterday everyone would agree was horrific.

GORDON SIMPSON: And the game in general.

ANTHONY WALL: Game is okay. I played well in Portugal. Not swinging as well as Portugal but I'm quite happy. I feel calm in myself which is important. I think I'm happy with my life and I'm just going out there and enjoying things, really.

Q. Why do you feel happy?

ANTHONY WALL: My kids are starting to grow up and getting a little bit more sleep on my weeks off. I don't know, I feel my game is improving. I'm working really hard with a guy in Australia, over the winter, a guy called Lorian Scott from Terrey Hills in Sydney, and I spent five months there and we worked solid every single day for five, six, seven hours a day. I feel I have a good understanding about my golf swing.

When I do hit a bad shot, I know what to do. It's not that I've manipulated something. I've actually made a mistake and I can correct it. So I do feel if I hit a bad one or I hit two bad ones I can correct it pretty quickly where before I was little bit of manipulation in my golf swing, but now it's more sort of a turn and a step and hit it.

Q. Have you been with him long?

ANTHONY WALL: To be honest I've only spoken to him a few times. But we did so much work that he taught me really well. I know if it goes wrong how to work it out. We worked extremely hard on the dynamics of the golf swing, getting the body to move, which has always been my difficult part of my game. The positions I've got have always been okay, but it's getting the body to move with your hands and arms and now I'm doing that. I'm starting to see a more beneficial game of golf.

Q. It was a long time to spend in Sydney with him?

ANTHONY WALL: My wife comes from Sydney and we like to try and spend a bit of time with her family. So it was a great opportunity while my kids, they are both under three, so before they start going to preschool and bits and bobs, so we might do it again this winter, see how we feel.

Q. Was he recommended to you?

ANTHONY WALL: No, I was just down there on my own practicing away and struggling, and then someone suggested I go and see him. Then I was eventually up there six hours a day every day.

Q. Where is he based?

ANTHONY WALL: In a place Terrey Hills. It's an extremely nice, exclusive golf club actually. It's perfect for practicing. It's lovely and quiet. It's a nice place to practice. I was fortunate to be able to go there, let alone have someone who could help me out, as well.

Q. Is he a pro there?

ANTHONY WALL: He works with a number of pros. He's actually a pro himself. He was sort of on the fringe of playing the Australian Tour and found he spent most of the time coaching his friends, and they are all sort of good players and found he actually preferred teaching to playing.

So, you know, it was quite a brave decision, but I think he's quite happy doing what he's doing and it's worked for me.

GORDON SIMPSON: Presumably you just hit it off, the two of you.

ANTHONY WALL: Yeah, I like him. He's a nice character. He loves golf. Before I'd even gone to him, he'd gone through all the stats on The European Tour to find out a bit about me. He didn't just turn up and have a lesson. He loves golf, reads all the magazines, has dozens of old golf books. He's a golf nut, really, and he's quite knowledgeable which is great.

Q. Who suggested him?

ANTHONY WALL: Just a local pro down there, down in Sydney.

Q. Did you get engaged in Ireland?

ANTHONY WALL: I did, yes. I was leading at the Irish Open in what year was that, 2002? No, 2001. I'll say 2001. I should know, shouldn't I.

Q. Inaudible

ANTHONY WALL: No, I'd been going out with her four years, I knew she was the one.

Q. Why in Ireland?

ANTHONY WALL: Why? Because I wouldn't see her for another month. She was going back to Sydney. Yeah, she was an air stewardess with Qantas and it was my first ever trip to Australia, sitting right back off of the plane and she was serving me.

Q. What's her name?

ANTHONY WALL: Sharon.

Q. How do you chat up an air stewardess?

ANTHONY WALL: With great difficulty I have to say. We just hit it off.

GORDON SIMPSON: Where did you think you your game might be at this stage in South Africa; that seemed to be the big breakthrough and six years have past now.

ANTHONY WALL: When I won I was in the middle of my glandular fever. After I won, in three weeks I was sick again. So it was like starting a whole new year for me. I had eight weeks in Spain trying to recover. I really didn't recover until middle of 2002, really. Not an excuse but I had four bad years really. I never used to practice. With just go out and play. Couldn't do both, go out and play 18 and practice.

GORDON SIMPSON: Fatigue, was it?

ANTHONY WALL: Yeah, it was fatigue, I had bad fatigue, it's a job, isn't it. It's not a hard job but it's not very good if you've got something like that because your adrenaline is flowing when really you could be sitting down and relaxing and not getting all wound up.

Q. Did it take a long time to be diagnosed?

ANTHONY WALL: I got it done pretty quickly but it kept coming back, that's the problem. I've got rid of it now. It's something that stays in your system forever but I have no problems anymore.

Q. Having the lead at the moment

ANTHONY WALL: In four years, you can't believe the decisions I've made. Moved twice, two kids, got married. That's life, though, isn't it. If you're not happy if your life, you're not going to play good golf, are you.

Q. You've never had problems keeping your card?

ANTHONY WALL: I've always been between sort of 40 and 80. Yeah, that's why this year, to try and break into the top 40. The way the system is set up now it's hard to break into the Top 50 or 20 unless you play exceptionally well like a Stenson or a Howell. I don't think I'll quite there yet. I feel I'm a step away from that. They are a different class, those two; they really are exceptionally good players and they have a lot less hassles in their life. They can concentrate a lot more on golf.

Now I feel I'm strong again. I don't struggle particularly anymore than anyone else so I've got no reason why I can't sort of get up there. I don't have any baggage. I'm quite happy.

Q. Not the leaderboard people would expect to see?

ANTHONY WALL: Strange, isn't it, because it's a good course, and it's playing tough. So normally the big boys will come to the top. I still think you'll see a couple of the big boys there. I can't see would I have thought 4 or 5 under would be leading at the end of the day. I would be surprised if people like Poulter don't find two or three shots in the first ten or 12 holes, if that's how many they are going to play, I'm not sure.

There are a couple reachable par 5s and the greens are good, so if you hit it close, the big boys put so nicely, they are used to good greens every week, I'm sure they will wander up the leaderboard quietly.

End of FastScripts.

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