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ALFRED DUNHILL LINKS CHAMPIONSHIP

October 5, 2006

Bradley Dredge

ST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND: First Round

GORDON SIMPSON: Well, Bradley, congratulations, 64, and as I say, a new course record for the extended Old Course. Not many people can say they got the record here. It's a nice feeling, I imagine.

BRADLEY DREDGE: Yeah, there's a lot of good players who have played this over the years, so to be the current course record holder is quite nice at the moment. But you never know, if the weather stays good, at the end of the week it might not stay at 64.

GORDON SIMPSON: You started well, didn't you, five birdies on the spin?

BRADLEY DREDGE: Especially on the back nine. Obviously that's where the more difficult holes are. But the five birdies on the spin. It's nice when it comes to that sort of start, especially around here, knowing that I was going up to 16 and 17 and the wind was starting to pick up. And then you've got the back nine pretty much all downwind. You know you get past 16 and 17 and then you've got really nine chances coming up. You start thinking about something really low then.

GORDON SIMPSON: Is that what you thought you were doing then?

BRADLEY DREDGE: Yeah, I had a pretty good chance at 16 and made that, as well. I hit it OB on 17 which wasn't the best thing to do. Then made a birdie at 18, so seven birdies on the first nine.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRADLEY DREDGE: Yeah, I was just trying to hit a good solid one straight in the middle. I tried to just anybody can wing it, but I wanted to hit a good drive, and with a good drive then I can go at the flag with the second shot. The greens were meant to be soft, so depending on how good the drive was, I was still thinking, well, I can make 3 there. Why not? I'm playing really well. I just came off the drive and hit it OB on the right there.

The ball actually goes back quite a way. I knew it was going to be quite tight, but I think it just caught some bushes just the other side of the wall there, so it was just out of bounds. Anyway, it was a good 25 or 30 yards away from where I was trying to hit it.

I holed a good sort of 12 , 15 footer with the second ball for 6. Yeah, it was a good 6.

GORDON SIMPSON: But you've shot low before. Everyone knows 60 Madeira. Any other course records to your name apart from that one?

BRADLEY DREDGE: I don't really know. I don't know if it was an official course record because Steve saw me there the following week.

Q. What have you done since Crans?

BRADLEY DREDGE: I've been playing at home a bit, getting some money to Stephen Dodd the other day, but playing with some friends, but apart from that nothing competitive. That is competitive, playing against those guys (laughing).

Q. The money was down?

BRADLEY DREDGE: Oh, yeah, a bit of money.

Q. Did you win or lose?

BRADLEY DREDGE: I lost 19 quid to Doddy (Stephen Dodd) and I really I gave him 20 and I wanted a pound in change, as well.

Q. Clearly you need the £400,000 odd this week?

BRADLEY DREDGE: Oh, yeah, definitely.

Q. Was it a planned break?

BRADLEY DREDGE: Yeah, well, unfortunately I was never going to play Madrid, and I just missed out on the WGC at The Grove. I think I was about 63rd in the World Rankings and then 26th or 27th on the Order of Merit, so just missed out both cases. So two weeks off unfortunately.

Q. You enjoyed watching the Ryder Cup?

BRADLEY DREDGE: I thought it was fantastic. I find it so addictive for three days. I was actually in Spain for three days in front of the TV watching it and I thought it was fantastic.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRADLEY DREDGE: I played with Billy Dewsall, who's sort of chairman of the management company and also a sponsor through the guys, so he's a very nice fellow, good company, and Michael Sofaer, who I've played with recently, as well, in a company day, so I've got some nice guys, and Alessandro Tadini. We had a great fourball. It's probably a five and a half hour round, so you've got some nice guys to have a conversation with.

Q. How long were the rounds taking?

BRADLEY DREDGE: Five and a half, I think that's pretty much standard. Anyway, it's just a long day. You know what to expect.

Q. Are the amateurs encouraged to speed up?

BRADLEY DREDGE: Well, the good thing with Billy and Michael, they've played in it probably four, five, six times, so they know that if you're not having a great hole, pick it up and just carry on. When you've got two decent golfers, as well, they know what they're doing, so it just helps play then.

Q. Johan Edfors said it feels like a company day. What do you think?

BRADLEY DREDGE: Yeah, I mean, unfortunately as opposed the gallery will go to Kingsbarns today, so that's where the crowds are going to be, and it's understandable. You're out on the golf course and not having any spectators, so it does feel a bit unusual for such a big tournament where there's not that many people actually watching.

On the last day we get some good crowds here then, and it gets to be a good atmosphere then.

Q. If you were running the event, would you run it this way?

BRADLEY DREDGE: (Laughing) that was a good question. I think if I was an amateur, I think this has become the amateur event to play in in Europe. There's a lot of guys that want to come over from the world now because you get some of the Americans coming over now. This and the Pro Am at Pebble Beach are probably the two big amateur events in the world. If I was Johann Rupert, I would think it's a great success. It gets good publicity and you've got a good professional field here again, so I think it's a great success and a very good tournament.

Q. (Inaudible.)

BRADLEY DREDGE: I think a lot depends on if I mean, luckily, I was saying about the guys I'm playing with, I know both of them and I know them to be very nice guys because you spend so much time with them. I think it's important that you get lucky with the draw and end up with some guys hopefully you know and certainly that are nice people. I've been very fortunate, five or six times playing here, and I've always, always had some nice guys to play with, and it does make it a lot easier.

Q. Do you approach this tournament differently?

BRADLEY DREDGE: I try to approach it exactly the same as I did in Switzerland. You have to play the three courses and you know it's going to be terribly windy and it's links golf. You're practicing chip and runs, knockdown shots because you know you're going to have to play that. But apart from that, mentally I'm trying to go out there and shoot as low as I can go.

GORDON SIMPSON: Brad, well done, good luck for the rest of the week

End of FastScripts.

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