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BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 25, 2007

Ross Fisher

SURREY, ENGLAND

SCOTT CROCKETT: Thanks as always for coming in to join us. The old songs says, 'It's not how you start, it's how you finish.' I suppose that was the theme for your round today. A fantastic end; you must be delighted with where you are in the championship, as well.
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, definitely, like you say, didn't start so well. But yeah, I kind of battled my way back after making double on the first. There was a lot of highs and a couple of lows, as there always is around here because it's such a demanding course.
But like you say, to finish birdie, eagle, birdie, was absolutely fantastic. Walking off 15, Adam (Marrow) just said to me, he said, "Come on, let's have a good finish, try and get it one better than yesterday with two birdies, which is what I tried to do." And obviously it's turned out a little better with 4-under for the last three.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Give us the details of that stretch. What did you do at 16?
ROSS FISHER: 16 I was a little bit lucky I didn't hit the best of 2-irons and I was just short in the right-hand trap and hit a really good sort of three-quarter pitching wedge to I suppose about six feet and made it for three.
17, I hit a really good drive quite a long way down there. I think I had about 270 to the flag, and just thought if I try and hit 3-iron, pitch it short and hopefully it will chase up there, and hit it a little bit left but I always thought it was going to be good. So I tried to take the applause and as it sort of was pretty low to start, but it grew and grew, and I thought, well, this could be pretty good. But to walk up there and see it, that I hit it quite close and to see the ball three feet away obviously made a job a lot easier. Obviously made three there, so that was great.
18 was always going to be a tough decision off the tee, really, and just sort of turned and said, well, it's just a decision now and said, well, mind is already made up and the 2-iron was already out of the bag. So made it very easy for me to know what exactly I had to do. Just hit the 2-iron in the fairway, give myself a chance.
And probably got a little bit greedy probably played for a little bit more, the adrenaline after making 3 and being on the last hole and just hit 4-iron, actually thought I was in the trap. But to see it just short was obviously quite pleasing. But then thought, crickey, I've got quite a fiddly little shot here. I've practised those quite a bit, and to play it how I played, I absolutely nipped it in perfectly; and to see it check up and finish about a foot away and to tap-in was very good.
SCOTT CROCKETT: We talked about your finish, what happened after the first, you got off to the worst possible start.
ROSS FISHER: A lot of guys are hitting 3-woods and some are hitting driver. I just felt for me, hit driver, just stay aggressive. And I've hit it right in the bottom of the hill a couple of times, and hit driver yesterday and made five.
Today I hit a decent drive but it was just in the right-hand rough. Lie was pretty good so just tried to smash a wedge up the hill and the grass just snagged the club and came out short in the trap. I actually thought there was going to be quite a bit of sand and there was not much sand at all and just caught too much ball and it went to like the far side of the green and had a tricky 2-putt. Then I fortunately saw Anton hit his and he sort of went about six, eight feet past. So I knew how quick the putt was, and even then, mine still went probably close to eight, ten feet past. So to start with the 3-putt obviously was very disappointing.

Q. You had hit a 3-iron 270 yards at 17?
ROSS FISHER: Yes.

Q. Do you do that often or is that an exception?
ROSS FISHER: Probably not, no, not on a flat, calm day, no. I probably hit a 3-iron about 230. But obviously 17 the ball was a little bit below my feet and the wind was a little bit off the left and helping. So 270 to the flag -- it was 246 to the front. So I just figured if I could hit a really good 3-iron and pitch it around 225, 230 it will have a chance to go to the middle of the green. And to walk up and see it three feet away, it was very, very pleasing, and obviously the right club in the end.

Q. We spoke a little bit just after your round, you said in here, "I really think that if I play well, I can win it." That wasn't just idle talk obviously.
ROSS FISHER: No, no, definitely not. I never joke about things, Charlie. You should know that by now, the amount times we've spoken.
But no, I feel really good in myself and with my game at the moment. You know, to hear your coach say, "You know, you're absolutely perfect. Your divots are perfect. You're flushing it." It just gives you so much confidence to stand out there knowing that your swing is in very, very good order.
And obviously the last two days have shown it, but, yeah, like I said to you, I'm not just here to make up the numbers and represent the club. I'm here to win the tournament, which, you know, I firmly believe I can do it.
So there's a long way to go, but I've certainly given myself a good opportunity with two days to go.

Q. Did you have a kind of reaction after Dubai after you did so well; what happened in the weeks after that? Obviously you can't do that every week, but nevertheless.
ROSS FISHER: It was pretty manic. Easy and obvious question everybody kept asking me: "How was it playing with Tiger? What was he like? Did he talk to you?" Which was great. As you saw, it was an absolutely amazing week, one which I'll remember for a very long time.
But obviously, you know, it's a long season. You don't want to dwell on things. You want to take the positives from that week and look forward and unfortunately things after Dubai didn't go so well. Obviously I missed quite a few cuts in a row, had a reasonable finish in Singapore, but I just hate missing cuts. I don't like being at home on a weekend. I want to be out there playing and turning in, you know, the golf titles.
But I stuck to my guns and took three weeks off, which was I felt really beneficial. Had a really good week at home. Did loads of work with Christian, and then I went away to Dubai for a week with a good friend of mine, Ryan, and actually played probably 27, 36 holes every single day in 40 degrees of heat. It was a really good week and came back for another week just before Ireland, and again touched on a few things with Christian, made sure everything was good.
So I went to Ireland with a lot of confidence and obviously to miss the cut was very disappointing, but I still felt that my game was in really good shape. I was coming into this week with real good expectations and I felt like I had a genuine opportunity of winning. And obviously so far, so good, but like I said, I still have two rounds of golf to be played so, a lot can happen.

Q. Away from Dubai, can you give us an illustration of the confidence that lurks within you?
ROSS FISHER: I guess I'm just very level-headed, very easygoing, and just enjoy playing golf and I'm just a confident type of guy on the golf course. I don't know why.

Q. Are you confident in other walks of life? Were you confident in school?
ROSS FISHER: I'd probably say no to that. Didn't really like school myself. I wanted to be up here practising and playing. So the school side of things weren't so hot. But fortunately, I'm doing all right in other aspects.

Q. How easy or how difficult is it, rather, to keep your feet on the ground after a day or the week that you had in Dubai?
ROSS FISHER: To be honest, I found it pretty easy, because like I said, I'm quite a laid back, easygoing type of guy. Obviously like I said before, it was an amazing week but it's just one week. That's been; that's gone; I've got to look forward to the next two days here now.
Obviously it gives you a tremendous amount of confidence and to hear all of the people that have been watching you, supporting you, following you; it's really great. Having people come up, "Well done" shaking the hands, pats on the back, it means a lot to know I have so much support behind me. It just makes me want to try even harder and harder just to pull it off.

Q. I was wondering if that in itself might be a problem that there was added pressure.
ROSS FISHER: No, not really. Obviously being a Wentworth member for so long and having a tremendous amount of support almost drives me to achieve better and bigger things.
I don't feel, you know, so far any added pressure. I just go out and try to perform to the best of my ability and obviously to see so much support here, I'm trying my damnedest to shoot as good a score as I can to give the crowd and the fans as much to cheer about as they can. So hopefully I can keep doing it for the next two days.

Q. How much will having played with Ernie and Tiger in those last two rounds help you now when you're going to go out in probably one of the leading groups?
ROSS FISHER: I hope it will. Obviously playing with Ernie and Stenson on the Saturday and Tiger and Niclas Fasth on the Sunday, yeah, playing with the big name players is what you really want to do. It's what I've dreamt of doing for a long time. Ever since I was three years old, I've just wanted to be a golfer. And watching the guys on the TV growing up, watching them, you want to get out here and play. Obviously I've had a chance to play with some of the best players and the best player in the world. It's a great achievement so far. You know, hopefully that will hold me in good stead whoever I'm playing with tomorrow.

Q. Similar, if you got in a position on Sunday that equivalent to what you were in in Dubai, where you were leading with four or five to play were you?
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, I think I was maybe tied lead or maybe leading by a shot with maybe four or five to go, yeah.

Q. What would you take from that that would help you this week?
ROSS FISHER: I think in Dubai, I took a lot -- I knew that I could be in amongst the best player in and amongst the mix on Sunday afternoon which is what you want to do. That's where you want to put yourself and that's where you want to be. I'm sure every golfer is the same. They want to win golf tournaments and I'm no different. Hopefully I can shoot a good one tomorrow and put myself into contention, you know, fingers crossed coming down the stretch, last three holes on Sunday, you know, I'll take the same finish as I had today. That would be quite special. But who knows, there's a long way to go but I'm still feeling confident but at the same time, you know, I'm keeping my head level and keeping my feet on the ground.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts

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