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JOHNNIE WALKER CLASSIC

March 2, 2007

Oliver Wilson

PHUKET, THAILAND

GORDON SIMPSON: Welcome, Olly, halfway leader at the moment in the Johnnie Walker Classic. If there's such a thing as a good bogey, that was it at the last. Take us through the 18th hole first of all.
OLIVER WILSON: Yeah, first hole all week so far where I just lost my composure a little bit. Tried to force a drive. Tried to get a bit too much out of it. Thought it was okay actually. I lost it in the air, I thought it was just sort of in the rough. I don't know whether it's lucky or unlucky it was good to see it in a decent lie close to the water. But there was a twig right there which I couldn't move which made it trickier, and made a mess of it all the way to the green until I got to six feet and managed to hole that, which was a nice way to finish.
GORDON SIMPSON: Nice to be in charge of the tournament at this stage?
OLIVER WILSON: Yeah, I've just been working on a few mental things really this week trying to stay relaxed and enjoy it and it seems to work. So if I can keep doing that, you know, and you never know what happens on the weekend.
GORDON SIMPSON: Is the mental discipline very important here in the heat and humidity that you've got to keep the focus and concentration?
OLIVER WILSON: Yeah, especially on the back nine. You can be doing fine and then you suddenly get to a hole and you suddenly just feel awful with the heat, and you get all kinds of things going through your head, so it's quite hard to do. It's just really important to keep fluids on and all that kind of stuff and stick with it.

Q. What kinds of things go through your head? Can you give us an example of one of these dark moments at some point today?
OLIVER WILSON: 14, definitely, I stood on the teeing thinking all kind of things: You've played really well, it's tough hole, a bit of wind, you've been playing all right, don't want to mess it up here. Kind of gathered my thoughts and managed to hit quite a good shot in there.
On the green, it was worse. Got the tee shot over with, and you're kind of tempted to talk yourself into things out there and make things harder than they are when, you know, a hole like that, it's quite hard. So you hit the green think you're doing the hard work, then all of a sudden, oh, this is a hard hole, I can still mess it up from here.
So that was a prime example, and I managed to compose myself and work on it and managed to hole the putt, which for me is something I've improved on a lot.

Q. How long was the first putt; you had two there, did you?
OLIVER WILSON: Probably about 25 feet.
GORDON SIMPSON: You've been in eagle mode this week. You had an eagle at the end yesterday and two more today. Tell us about the two today.
OLIVER WILSON: Well, yesterday I just had a good finish. Very average round but scrappy and another birdie, birdie, eagle finish which was nice.
Today I tried to just keep plugging my way around and made a couple of eagles. On 9, I missed about a 5-footer for an eagle which was a shame and I managed to hit some good shots on 11 and made the putt.
GORDON SIMPSON: How far on 11?
OLIVER WILSON: 11 was about 12, 14 feet, something like that. So that was kind of nice, that got me going into a bit more of a positive mind frame.
And then obviously the putt on 15, hit a good drive and had a good distance, cut a little 3-wood in there and got me just behind the flag. I played a really good chip and it was tracking the whole way which was nice.

Q. I have a vague recollection, I think it was the Irish Open the year before last, where you had a real spell of scoring like that; is that right?
OLIVER WILSON: Yeah, I played real well, my first year out, started at the British Masters and I finished badly in the last round, and after that I played really well in Wales and Ireland which was good.

Q. Didn't you have a spell where you had a run of lots of birdies and eagles or so?
OLIVER WILSON: In Wales I did. I think I birdied the first seven holes or something like that to get into the lead which was nice.

Q. So when you're getting this positive thinking like on the 14th and it's proving very, very difficult, do things like that in your past history provide any kind of assistance?
OLIVER WILSON: They do, I think they breed more confidence. You don't necessarily rely, you don't necessarily go back to those moments, but they sort of give you inner confidence.
Yeah, I've been improving each year. I didn't have a great year last year. I got off to a good start but kind of fizzled away. I was working on quite a few things but everything is coming together now and I'm looking forward to this year.
To be honest, this is one of the first weeks I've really enjoyed myself out there. I had a few weeks off before and the first holiday in a few years so nice and relaxed and come out and just see what happens, just try not to force it.
GORDON SIMPSON: Did you take a break.
OLIVER WILSON: Yeah, I went to the States for a couple of weeks. Left my clubs at home and went to the Bahamas and sat on the beach. It was nice.

Q. Can you tell us about these -- you say you've been working on one or two mental things; can you tell us what they are?
OLIVER WILSON: You know, just the same old boring stuff, nothing magical. Just trying to get yourself into the right mind frame before you hit each shot. It just amazes me how many things can go through your head before you're trying to hit a shot, so I'm just trying to get rid of those and just have fun with it. You know, trust it and just see what happens.
I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself, and I know I'm good enough to play well out here, and consistently, and my consistency has not been there since I've been on Tour, which is a bit disappointing. The only thing that is is my mental game which gets in the way, especially on the greens. I've been reading a few books and sort of thinking about what I've worked on the last few years -- well, to be honest, the last five or six years on mental stuff and just trying to put them all into action and try and enjoy it a little more.

Q. Are you doing it yourself, and what are the books you're reading?
OLIVER WILSON: Bob Rotella's books. He's got a few. I'm sort of about halfway through them at the moment. I used to read Golf is Not a Game of Perfect a few times. I went back over that while I was on the beach, and working my way through the rest of the collection.
GORDON SIMPSON: Even on the beach in the Bahamas, your mind is still on the game.
OLIVER WILSON: Can't get away from it completely, can you.

Q. You haven't seen Bob Rotella himself or any of the psychologists?
OLIVER WILSON: I've never worked with Bob before. I worked with Jamil Qureshi last year, which we worked on a few good things. But I wanted to towards the end of last year I wanted to work on things myself. You get a lot of information, and sometimes it's hard to put it into action when you keep constantly getting new information. So I wanted to kind of think about it and analyse it and work on it myself which is working.

Q. Just looking down the board, you have Monty at 5-under, Goosen at 6-under, who do you see as the danger going into the weekend?
OLIVER WILSON: To be honest I have no idea. It's so hot out there, it's just and I don't really care either. Just want to go out there -- I have got little goals more myself and go and play and try and achieve my own goals and see what happens.
You know, I'm sure, the cream always rises to the top. So you know those guys are going to be coming down the stretch, they are probably going to be around there. So hopefully I can be in there, too, and hopefully they will be chasing me.
But I'm not going to put any pressure on myself which I normally tend to do. Today I just went out there trying to do the same thing I did yesterday. I played really well yesterday -- well didn't play very well, but today I played a lot better; I managed to score better today. Yeah, just see what happens.

Q. You're not intimidated by people like Monty and Goosen?
OLIVER WILSON: I'm not intimidated. They are great players. But if I'm intimidated by them. That's one of the other things I'm thinking about other than what I'm trying to do. So we'll get on with it and see what happens.
GORDON SIMPSON: Well, we'll look to see if you're the cat that's got the cream on Sunday afternoon. Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts

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