	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

BARCLAYS SCOTTISH OPEN

July 15, 2007

Gregory Havret

LUSS, SCOTLAND

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Well done. Barclays Scottish Open Champion, how does it feel?
GRÉGORY HAVRET: Not that bad (laughter). Yeah, it's awesome. It's a dream come true. I have to say that the French Open is obviously very important for me and for us, but after that, to win a tournament in Scotland is just something else. Really over everything, maybe The Open is over that, but after that, maybe BMW PGA or something like that. But it's just an awesome tournament; this, BMW PGA, to win one of these two tournaments, it's just a fantastic dream.

Q. The bagpipes, what did you think?
GRÉGORY HAVRET: I love it. Yeah, I love it, of course! I love rugby, and I just love hearing this sound. We wake up on Sundays and we hear it from the village.
I love tradition. Tradition for me is very important. I was living in Dubai, my little girl was just born a year ago and we came back to France because tradition for me is very important and I want her to grow up in this kind of tradition. And Scotland is probably with two or three other countries, home of tradition. When you play golf, it's just an amazing, an amazing thing to be here, to play golf here. Loch Lomond is awesome. I don't have the words in English to say what it means to me.

Q. How does it feel now that you have qualified for The Open Championship next week, and why did you not go to qualifying at Sunningdale?
GRÉGORY HAVRET: Awesome again. I was very close last week, and I decided to miss that qualifying in Sunningdale and I did it two or three years ago and I was very tired after playing K Club and Loch Lomond. So I thought trying to qualify through K Club -- I missed the spot last week, finished third, Pelle did also, but he had a better last round and he went through, not me. I was disappointed, but I knew I had another chance. I felt good. I was really playing well since the French, since a little while now. I knew it was possible, especially on a course like that that I love so much.
So I came and played very well on Thursday; Friday; yesterday I'm very proud of my 1-under because it was really hard stuff. It was really blowing and a hard day. And today was obviously harder for other reasons; playing with Phil was amazing, was a lot of experience and I went through it. It's awesome.

Q. Why has it taken you so long to come through?
GRÉGORY HAVRET: I was very happy with my previous years on Tour, after the French, 2005, since that, I was not really happy with my game until Austria this year. The reason, I don't really know why. I finished 45 in 2005. I had a great start in ten tournaments, nearly seven Top-10s or something and Dubai finished fifth. I had brilliant results and since that, since that French Open where I finished fourth, I have really 24 months of sadness. I was not really happy with my game, my putting, the way I was working. I was working but I knew something was maybe not in a good mood or not in a good way.
I started with the tournament at the PGA this year, you know this guy, Jos (Vanstiphout), he's working with Ernie and these guys. Jos came to me and said, oh, do you mind if I just talk with you ten minutes on the range. I said, of course, and he said some brilliant things. And after that at the rage, my coach came to him and said, "Oh, you better work with Greg and he needs this kind of talking. He's very good, he can hit the ball and I don't really see why he doesn't score that good."
Jos came to me at the French and we spoke a little bit every day -- and then we talked even before, you know, a little bit before, but really since the French and this week, and didn't see him at The K Club, but it helped me this week a lot.
I also changed my putter at the French. I had some very bad stats to the French in putting, so I changed to the belly putter. And the belly putter has been really good at the French; really, really good at The K Club; and this week has been really, really, really good. I mean, I holed some very important putts, especially that one on the 12th. I had a bad chip on 10. I had a nice 2-putt on 11, then bad chip again on 12. This putt was really important and I holed it and the other one, also, and the other one also, and that was very important, especially under pressure. So these two things make a big difference.

Q. So what have you learned about yourself and your ability?
GRÉGORY HAVRET: It's funny, because I came on Tour, I won straightaway in Italy. Then the year after, obviously, I won, so I had the exemption, otherwise I would have missed my card -- lost my card. Then I came back a bit and a bit down again. I don't really know why, but whatever I play, I just try to play shot after shot. And it's very important since a long time now, Jos said the same thing, but it's very important for me to just keep trusting myself on every shot, every single shot, even on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when it not that important; it is, in fact.
So I've been trusting myself, but I have definitely learned things and it's made the difference. Under pressure I have to say it's tough but it's tough for everybody. It's like that. You have some good days under pressure. I had obviously some very bad days, also. At Deutsche Bank in Germany three or four years ago, I was leading two shots straight from Padraig, had an 82 the last round and finished 25th and it was just a nightmare. I came here a month later, I was leading after three rounds and finished 10th.
So I was very disappointed and definitely last rounds were a bit against me. But I knew it was going to turn one day or the other as I said yesterday or the day before, and it turned today, so it's awesome.

Q. How much did you enjoy the champagne?
GRÉGORY HAVRET: Yeah, I thought about it earlier on the course. I thought that, well, maybe these guys will be around and if I do something good -- but I forgot totally on the 18th and when I heard them, I was just running. Yeah, it's a little tradition. When Lara (ph) won in the beginning of the year in Asia, we did it. I was a little bit disappointed but I just went straightaway. I was very happy for Thomas, he's a great lad, a great friend, but it was just too hard for me. I had a little kiss if you remember on TV, but here (pointing to his cheek) -- (laughter).

Q. What's the most important thing you've learned from Jos?
GRÉGORY HAVRET: Well, it's little talks. I don't know, the way he talks, he's a funny guy. You know, you can talk with him and, I don't know, it's funny, somebody can say that, but I mean, millions of people can say what he will say to me and will not affect me as much as him, you know.
I don't know why, he's a real friend, we've been work, just since a little while together but I know him now for or five years and we are quite close and we have a nice relation. And what I did learn was that shot after shot was really important, as I said. Also to really think about my ability to do things more than my head. So I was practising and doing things, but the less you try, the more it comes. In French I would be more able to explain than in English but it's something like that. It's very simple things. And yeah, I love it.

Q. (More about major qualifying).
GRÉGORY HAVRET: It's nice. I've been on many qualifyings. I've been trying hard because majors are over everything, especially The Open, of course.
But I was a bit disappointed a few months ago when I finished in the U.S. Open, finished 10th, but only nine spots. It's very tough qualifying, 36 holes. It's tough, it means a lot to go play in these tournaments, but you need to have a really hard work.
And I did it for the U.S. Open because after Austria I had a week off and that was fine, I was able to play the Pro-Am on Wednesday. But I decided to don't play those ones before K Club because K Club and Loch Lomond were very important, maybe not as much as The Open, okay, but I knew if I did well at K Club and Loch Lomond, I would get one. The majors, it's a little luck, also, because The Open, it's the one I know the better. We have the Alfred Dunhill Links over here. It's not going to be the same course; it's going to be probably tougher, more pressure. But I'm very happy. I love this course. I really love it. I know not so many links course, but quite a lot and I have to say that this one is a fantastic test of golf.

Q. Do you remember Van de Velde at Carnousite?
GRÉGORY HAVRET: No! Of course I do remember it was a nightmare for him obviously. But for many, many, many people, to the only French I think, it's sad for golf; not for Paul Lawrie.
But anyway, it's eight years ago. It's quite a bit, yeah. I remember watching that with two French friends in a home in south of France, and yeah, it was crazy. It was crazy to see him playing that well and putting that well for 71 holes and then finish like that. It's just a nightmare for any golfer. I obviously didn't think about it at the 18th today but it's the kind of thing, you know, that can happen now -- not as bad as this.
He played well since he won last year and he's doing well. But yeah, I'll go over there and yeah, obviously see what the 18th is really, because I think on the Alfred Dunhill we play it a little bit forward and obviously stronger from the back. Yeah, it's a tough finish, probably the last four strongest hole maybe on the earth or something like that, you know, 15, 16, 17 and 18 are just a nightmare to finish. The rest is not that easy, but this is awful, you know, 16, forget it.
But yeah, I'm pleased to go there and feel myself over there, you know.

Q. Will you be thinking of Jean when you play the 18th in practice this week?
GRÉGORY HAVRET: Well, every Dunhill Links we play, we have a little something from Jean, yeah, on the 18th. But that means a lot because it means that -- it's easy to say, everybody says it, but it is there to remind us that it's never finished before the last putt. It can be so true.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Grégory, congratulations, thank you very much.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297