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BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 27, 2007

Anders Hansen

SURREY, ENGLAND

SCOTT CROCKETT: Anders, thank you very much for coming in to join us. Many, many congratulations. Most players are delighted to win this great championship once you've now won it twice. Just give us your thoughts.
ANDERS HANSEN: First time I won, I came into the tournament playing really good and everything is going -- I was having a good year on the Tour and I was playing really good. This year, you know, that's five years ago, and a lot of things have happened since.
This year, I qualified to play in America and I've played ten events over there. I haven't played great but I just played okay. I just kept shooting myself in the foot all year, not really feeling I was playing that well. I came back and played in Italy a few weeks ago and played decent. The last two weeks I've just worked so hard with my coaches, just trying to get it right. You know, I think it's time it sort of means a lot more to me than the first time. It's just a fantastic feeling especially thinking about all of the hard work I've put in lately.
It's sort of funny, because last weekend, I was playing a club match, our club competition, two clubs in Denmark playing against each other, pretty much on an amateur level. I was doing that, I was only going to play once on the Saturday, which is 36 holes. I thought, I'm not going to do 72. I'm only used to doing 18 a day. I thought I would do the first day. I played with my old mates and I thought, you know, I was playing pretty decent so I wanted to go out the second day. And I took another 36 the second day, and I was pretty battered coming in Sunday night.
But I did it because I wanted my game in check coming this week. I'm just really happy, even that shows how much work or how much effort I've put into trying to get back on track. And though I don't feel I've been off-track, it certainly is back on track and it's been really good.

Q. Did you win the club match?
ANDERS HANSEN: We won the second day. The first day, we lost. I lost my foursomes -- I lost my foursomes Saturday morning, but won it Sunday, won my two singles.

Q. How has it been to adapt to the PGA Tour this year?
ANDERS HANSEN: The traveling is pretty hard for me. I've got family in Denmark and it's really hard for me to be away from the kids and I miss them a lot when I'm away. So it's been quite tough.

Q. Anders, you seem to be having a lot of fun out there joking with your caddie. Is that a new caddie you've got?
ANDERS HANSEN: That's first week he's out, yeah. He's a great guy. He's done so much for me this week that, you know, I could say, I don't think I could do it without him and I don't really think I could. He helped me out. He just seemed to understand how I was thinking and seemed to understand what was going on in my mind and in my golf swing. So it was just -- he was such a great help that he was -- you know, I couldn't do it without him, no.

Q. Is it better if you're having a laugh with somebody like you obviously were that that just relaxes you?
ANDERS HANSEN: Obviously it's going to relax you, but it's always going to keep you a bit more happy. But it's not only that; he just accepted things the way they are and he's so relaxed out there, and it was really, really, really great. It was a great feeling and I just felt very comfortable with him and felt very comfortable hitting the golf shots, you know, and the way we went about the things was very good for me obviously.

Q. His name?
ANDERS HANSEN: John McClaren.

Q. Have you missed the kids so much that you gave yourself a period of time in America and does it also make you think that maybe Europe is the place for you?
ANDERS HANSEN: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I'm not giving up America, not at all. I've only played ten events and I'm going to go back and try and at least play five more.
So I want to get 15 in because when you commit to something, you've got to stick with it; you can't just say, well, I'm going to bunk off now and I feel that's how I've been told, you know, my parents always taught me, when you say yes to something, do you it. You don't just stick your tails between your legs and go off if you don't like it or if you're not doing well or whatever. We're going to go back and do the five more if I get a chance to.

Q. But you could be back full-time in Europe?
ANDERS HANSEN: Yeah, I want to play in Europe because that's closer to home and I'm just more comfortable here.

Q. Do you feel you get the credit you deserved following your first win here?
ANDERS HANSEN: I've never thought about -- I've never thought about it that way. You know, at the end of the day, what means the most to me is how I feel inside. What the journalists and everybody else writes, that's up to you guys. You guys can judge. You guys can do whatever you -- whatever you do. I can say one thing and you can write another thing. No, I haven't really thought about that and it doesn't really bother me if I didn't. What matters to me is how I feel about myself and how I feel about my game and what I do.

Q. From the way you're talking about your caddie, you sound as though you're about to give him a handsome bonus on top of his ten per cent.
ANDERS HANSEN: He will get a very good bonus, don't worry about that.

Q. Should we know about it or not?
ANDERS HANSEN: No.

Q. Is this a permanent arrangement now with him?
ANDERS HANSEN: We'll see. I'm certainly not going to sack him tomorrow. He'll last another week. We have an agreement next week, so we'll see.

Q. I presume this is the first time that you're ranked the top Dane in the world?
ANDERS HANSEN: To be honest with you I don't really care. I really don't. I mean, the end of the day what was most important is that I feel good about what I do and everybody else feel good about what they are doing. Whether you're ranked the highest in your country or not, the way -- I've been asked that question so many times, first time from a foreign journalist but a lot of times we've been asked this question in Denmark; are you going to be the best Dane and so and so. I really don't care. I really do not care. I mean, you know, I'd rather be the fourth ranked player in Denmark being the fourth in the world or being the fourth on the Money List in Europe or whatever and then being one, two, three, four, than being No. 500 in the world and being the best. It doesn't really matter, at least not to me.

Q. Were you disappointed after winning the first time that you didn't press on and perhaps win some other tournaments after that?
ANDERS HANSEN: Well, you're always disappointed because you always try to win tournaments and you always try to go out and do your best.
You know, it just so happened that I didn't. Obviously I'm disappointed that it took me five years to win another one; but that it should come here, I never would have guessed.

Q. Who did you steal the caddie from?
ANDERS HANSEN: He's been off for a while. He has been caddying for Duffy in America. That sort of added, too, as well, if I wanted to go back and play a few -- and I am going to go back and play a few in America. He knows the courses, so that way it worked out quite nicely. Whether he's going to stick with me or go back to Duffy, I don't know. Duffy does have a caddie, so hopefully he'll stick with me.

Q. Do you feel stronger or more capable now of building on this win this time?
ANDERS HANSEN: Well, it's not a matter of building. It's a matter of going out and working hard on what you're doing and see what the results are. You know, it's not like I played bad, I just haven't succeeded to the level that I could have or maybe should have. But it just so happened that I haven't. Now is now, and the future is ahead and we've got to look forward. We can't look back. It's a bit too late to look back on what happened. I can't change it, can I? Nobody can. That's it. We're going to look at it now and going forward and hopefully everything turns out well.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Thank you, Anders. Many congratulations.

End of FastScripts

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