	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 24, 2007

Paul Broadhurst

SURREY, ENGLAND

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Paul, welcome.
PAUL BROADHURST: Thank you.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: I think 66 is your best round here around Wentworth in the BMW PGA Championship.
PAUL BROADHURST: Yeah, definitely is.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Give us your thoughts on that.
PAUL BROADHURST: Well, certainly took long enough to pull one out. Not sure what to expect after the last few weeks. Game hasn't been particularly good all year. Been sort of searching for the answers a little bit and working on technique and stuff, and I think that I just got rid of the technique and just shot the score and do what I do best - that's get it around the golf course in a certain way.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Did you speak to Bob (Torrance) on the range to sort anything out?
PAUL BROADHURST: Yeah, I've been working with Bob, but it hasn't been as we like it, and we just decided to go back to something I had been working on in previous years, and that's what I went with today.
Felt pretty good the front nine. I hit the ball reasonably well. Still missed one or two fairways, but even when I missed the fairway, I was able to get a lie and get reasonably close and made a putt and putted fantastically. Probably the best putting round, I don't know about ever, but I certainly made a few.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: How many did you have?
PAUL BROADHURST: I have no idea; 21, 22. It was in the low 20s, I can tell you that.

Q. Have you been here before, just tried to get rid of technique and tried to score; you've told us this before.
PAUL BROADHURST: When you're not playing that well, what do you do? You go down the technique route and try to improve it, and my technique is always a little bit up-and-down. I was getting a bit frustrated the last few weeks. I finished 18th in Spain, which was better, but I mean, it was a course where you didn't have to get the driver out. You just hit an iron down the fairways and it suited me really.
But last week was an absolute horror. It wasn't the sort of course I needed at the moment. But I changed a few things Tuesday and decided to ditch the technique a little bit and just work on something that I've worked on for four or five years with Bob, really.

Q. Is that one key thing you go back to?
PAUL BROADHURST: Yeah, it is really, yeah. Just a bad habit with on the downswing off the instep, right instep. A lot of the time the right hip will fly out early and drops me inside, and I either block it right or hook it level and I was doing that a bit down the straight last year. Obviously got a bit of work to do.

Q. You've waited for Wentworth to become the hardest it's ever been and you get your best-ever score here. It's funny because you've struggled a bit here.
PAUL BROADHURST: Yeah, I've had some horrors around here in the past. I think, I don't know, probably may have had one top 20 finish around here in 19 years, so not too bad.
But yeah, there's something about this week, I never seem to perform. I always seem to come into Wentworth struggling with the game, not a lot of confidence.
But, you know, I got off to a really good start. I hit a good shot into the tech, second good shots in the third, and the at fourth, I chipped in from 25 yards after hitting it in the trees off the tee. A start like that, you think, "Hmm, got to make something of this." It's not very often you're 3-under after four out here. Managed to keep it going.

Q. What do you think of the changes?
PAUL BROADHURST: It's certainly different. I think the majority of them are very, very good. The odd one I'm not too keen on, but, you know, majority of the changes have made the course a lot better.

Q. Same thing really, Paul. You've just had an absolute horror last week and you're coming to a course where you have no track record, were you almost fearing the worst?
PAUL BROADHURST: No, you just go out -- I hit pretty well on the range the last two days. I didn't play particularly well on Tuesday and made one or two shots that felt better. Certainly the first few holes I was hitting it well and was quite happy. Then the old hook started to come in a little bit around the last few holes. 17 was a nice tee shot. I managed to get it down there somewhere and made a good four. So that's still a bit of work to do.

Q. After getting so close to making the Ryder Cup Team, how much of that was a hit to you?
PAUL BROADHURST: Oh, I didn't feel as though I played that well the last six weeks of the Ryder Cup, you know, leading up to being picked. That was one of the reasons I made a decision trying to change the swing a little bit.
Made all my money, really, before July time. And the end of the season, I was a bit frustrated not hitting it how I had been hitting it the last 18 months, two years and went down the technical route. That's never a good thing with me. I'm not good at this technique. (Laughing) I'm a bit of a natural player.

Q. You know about the up-and-downs of golf, any sympathies with Paul (Lawrie) at the moment? You were playing alongside him today and he didn't have the best day -- especially going into what's got to be a big tournament for him.
PAUL BROADHURST: Paul's just hitting the odd bad shot, that's all. He hit a couple of bad drives, cost him big time, but he's hitting enough good shots. He still made four or five birdies I think. He hit a lot of good shots. He's just got to get rid of the one bad shot, really, which is the one that he hits left.

Q. You're still very ambitious, having come through the time where you'd be glad just to get back on Tour?
PAUL BROADHURST: Yeah, I'm still ambitious, I'm too old to try to make these changes really. I've just plodded along. Yeah, I've got in the Top-50, I'd like to stay there and my rankings are dropping like a stone at the moment. A couple of good weeks and force your way back in there.
It's a fine line when you're not hitting it that well to go down in the technical side and try and make a few changes. I certainly always find it difficult to play on the golf course when you lose technique and that's probably what I've done this year. My own fault. You know, there's always got to be a bit of technique in there but start overdoing it, get a bit confused, a bit deflated. Yeah, this will help a little bit.

Q. I wasn't there last week; was there one sort of hole where all went horribly wrong?
PAUL BROADHURST: From the first tee. (Laughter) I hit three fairways the first day; on a course setup like the U.S. Open, you've got no chance. A fantastic sand wedge 70 yards out of the rough; brilliant, that shot.

Q. Was that about as bad as you've played last week?
PAUL BROADHURST: Probably not, no. I wouldn't say so. It was just you've got to hit the fairways last week. You know, if you miss the fairway by a few yards, you just bury it. The rough was eight, nine inches deep, and, you know, I was struggling to hit it 70, 80 yards out of the rough.
No, I hit some good shots last week. I missed a good par 3 at the end. I wasn't hitting it in the fairways to give myself a chance and that's what you've got to do on a course like that. Here, the rough is thick but it's not -- it's nowhere near as thick as last week. I was a bit fortunate when I missed the fairway, I found a reasonable lie. I missed the green and managed up-and-down, which doesn't always happen like that. But take it when it does.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Well played again.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297