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THE DEUTSCHE BANK PLAYERS' CHAMPIONSHIP OF EUROPE

July 25, 2007

Niclas Fasth

ALVESLOHE, GERMANY

THE MODERATOR: Thank you for coming in. Welcome to the Deutsche Bank Players' Championship of Europe, a tournament you're very familiar with. Won it a couple years ago. Glad to be back here?
NICLAS FASTH: Yes, very much so. It feels kind of at home in some way. It's nice just coming here. I like to play, and good vibrations in general. Obviously good memories as well. So nice to come here.
THE MODERATOR: Having won in Munich, now are you going to go for the German double.
NICLAS FASTH: Yes, I'll try that. I seem to be doing well in this country. So obviously makes me feel more at home and again the game this year is doing very good in general. A win recently helps the confidence as well. So very nice coming here and feeling good about the game and doing good in general.

Q. Obviously a really good season so far for you. Have you got any aspirations towards the Order of Merit. It's going to be a little bit difficult to stop Padraig winning it again? But a couple of big wins?
NICLAS FASTH: Yeah, he won last week and had a huge jump on the Order of Merit). That could happen to any of us. And I must say that the Order of Merit is kind of an aggregate for the whole season. It's not something that you think about any particular tournament during the season. It's more like, yeah, fine. The last few events, if you're in the hunt for it, you might even adjust your schedule to give it a good go. You don't know how many chances you'll have at that. But really we've passed halfway this season and some. But there's still a long way to go, and I'm glad I am where I am now.
And I'll always give it as good a go as I can. But I don't really think a lot about it. It would naturally be my goal to win again this year anyway. And if I would manage to pull off a big one, then I would be in the hunt for it.

Q. What was your view of Padraig's win on Sunday, first European winner of a Major for a while?
NICLAS FASTH: I don't think the players have thought as much about it as you guys have, that we haven't had a European winner. We're all trying the best we can. On Sunday Padraig played fantastic. He deserved to win. There's a few more in it, of course.
But he probably deserved one by now and he played fantastic this time and he's won tournaments. It's not a huge surprise.

Q. I don't suppose it would be a huge surprise if you were to win a major as well. You've got one to go?
NICLAS FASTH: In the big scheme of things it would probably be a bigger surprise than winning one. But like I've said before, the one thing I do have going for me is I know I can win. Well, you all know I can win. So it's a matter of playing good enough in a major. But I would just love to be in the situation again which I was nearly in the U.S. Open. I was close enough to really give it a go.
And I know I can do that. And it might have worked. And if I get the chance again I will push as hard as I can. And I really relish those situations. So I could pull it off in a major. But obviously the competition is quite tough with all the world's best players there at once.
So you have to have a pretty good week to get in position, first of all.

Q. Niclas, there has been some doping discussions recently. Have you heard rumors about doping?
NICLAS FASTH: In golf? Nothing more than rumors, and that was years ago. And it wasn't the European Tour. I didn't hear any names at the time and it was only about rumors and it wasn't about the European Tour. You can hear an opinion if you like.
It would be just as bad if people used performance-enhancing drugs in golf as in any other sport. And it would be hugely disappointing having a tough battle down the last few holes with someone who you knew or thought was taking drugs to help them out, when you really want the strongest man to win.
It's never happened to me that I'm aware of, but I'll be hugely disappointed. And I think drug testing has as much a place in golf as in any other sport. It's not all about building muscle, is it?
However, more in golf than any other sports, you catch a lot of innocent people from simply taking medicines, and that would be devastating for the people involved, of course. I mean it might be anybody, really. And who knows how bad it would hit the sport. It's very likely whoever was doing it deliberately would really know what he was doing and you catch some innocent guys from just having taking medicines perhaps not knowing about it.
I don't know how bad that would hit the sport. But inevitably somebody is going to get caught having eaten something. Hopefully not deliberately.

Q. Is there anything that can help though?
NICLAS FASTH: Of course there is, anything that would make you calmer, more relaxed, lower your pulse rate. We're all very nervous coming down the last few holes. There's nobody immune to that.
And some can have better than others. It's part of the game, isn't it? If you can get around it to a degree, but taking drugs, that's terrible.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts

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