|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
SMURFIT KAPPA EUROPEAN OPENJuly 8, 2006Jose Manuel LaraSTRAFFAN, IRELAND STEVEN FRANKLIN: Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome, José. Thank you for coming in. 67 in pretty horrendous conditions out there. That was good scoring. How did you do it today? JOSE MANUEL LARA: I hit the ball pretty good from the tee. And the putts were very good as well. That's the only way, you know, hit the ball in the fairway, because the rough is very hard and it's wet now. STEVEN FRANKLIN: Two years ago at this point you were one back behind Goosen going into the final round. Looks like you might be leading this time. What's your game plan for tomorrow. JOSE MANUEL LARA: Looks pretty the same, no, nearly the same situation. I'm three years older now, so the thing is, I'm going to try to play my golf, you know, do what I can do, you know, just play golf and I'll try to play like that. STEVEN FRANKLIN: I believe you also you won the Pro Am here two years ago as well, so the Smurfit Course obviously suits you. What is it you like about the course? JOSE MANUEL LARA: I feel comfortable, you know, even in this very difficult weather. I like the course. I like the greens and I like the conditions, how we played today. STEVEN FRANKLIN: We'll go through your card and then some questions. You started with a bogey at the first? JOSE MANUEL LARA: Yeah, hit a driver right and just missed the fairway by four metres and I hit a 7 iron to the right side of the green and chipped from there. Didn't make up and down. 3, I hit a 9 iron in the bunker, put it up to like one metre and made a birdie there. 4, another birdie. I make a putt like three metres downhill. 5, driver, the ball was on the fairway with mud and I laid up with 4 iron and wedge to three metres and holed it. 9, driver, 6 iron, put the ball two, three metres and holed it again. 11, driver, lob wedge, metre and a half, made a birdie. 13, I missed a driver in the left side and then I played 3 iron straight to the right bunker because it was raining a lot and it was pretty difficult to reach where the flag is today. Then I didn't make up and down from there. 18, 5-iron just to the edge of the green pin high. Q. What was the most difficult thing about playing in those conditions? JOSE MANUEL LARA: That was the most difficult thing when we play like that, probably you have to keep yourself in the moment, you know, because the weather is very tough for all the players. You must try to, you know, fight for every shot because it's quite tough. Q. How will you cope tomorrow. Are you someone you looks at the leaderboards? JOSE MANUEL LARA: I'm just going to play my own game, my own golf and depend, you know, how you're feeling in every moment. Some days you look at the board and sometimes you know, I'm not sure what I'm going to do at the moment. JOSE MANUEL LARA: Definitely, no, probably I'm leading or tied with Anthony Wall, I don't know how he finished already. The thing is, we are too many players between two shots, so anyone can win. I'm not leading by five or by six; it would be better. The thing is that I'm one of them, so the only thing is, try to play in the way I played today and see what happens. Q. Did you ever feel you could beat Goosen two years ago? JOSE MANUEL LARA: He (Retief Goosen) was pretty confident, you know. He had just won the U.S. Open the week before so he played like the last round Q. Did you impress yourself with the way you played that day? JOSE MANUEL LARA: You know, for me that was my best probably round of golf in that year. I played really good that day. I played pretty solid and I hit the ball very good. I was very confident I can win, but he was putting really good, very good, and he holed all the putts he had to do, you know. I was very confident in my swing. I was hitting the ball really good that day. I felt I could win at that time but the thing is, you are in front of a player like that and he played really good golf. He put the ball always where he wanted to put it. Q. Are you happy with your career so far? JOSE MANUEL LARA: At the moment, I am okay. I can't say I'm very happy because I have no wins at the moment. Could be a little better this year so far probably, so tomorrow that can change. JOSE MANUEL LARA: If I start thinking in that, definitely, no, so I'm going to try to, you know, play my own game. The thing is, as I tell you, there are many players within two shots of the lead. So I'm not leading by six. I'm leading by one probably, or tied for first. And there are many good players behind. Q. Are people telling you that you should have won? JOSE MANUEL LARA: That happens to me many times, many times. People say, how didn't you win already. The thing is, I thought I'm going to win, definitely, tournaments. But the thing is, I have to keep to myself probably put less pressure on my game, you know, because that's the only way. So I'm learning and, you know, probably the years are passing and I'm learning a little bit about that. Q. What part of the game has stopped you doing that? JOSE MANUEL LARA: I don't know. People say we are Spanish, so all of us have a good short game, but long irons, probably. Because now I am hitting the driver much better than before in the last few tournaments. So now, my game is okay. Q. The weather has been terrible for the last four events in Ireland. What must you be thinking? JOSE MANUEL LARA: It's good. But, you know, we know where we're coming to play. So we get everything and it's not a surprise for us. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|