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HSBC CHAMPIONS

November 11, 2007

Ross Fisher

SHANGHAI, CHINA

Q. Your win in Holland was dramatic, but that was unbelievable.
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, obviously you remember your first win and sure enough, I will. Obviously for probably either the wrong reasons or my screwing it up and holing the winning putt and having to go through that blather.
You know, it was a tough day. It was really tough. I mean, I thought I had not blown it but I thought I was way out of it by sort of seven, eight, nine holes, but I kept telling myself just hang in there and still the back nine to go.
And I stayed really positive today and obviously Phil had a few hiccups and he kind of let me back in and holed a few decent putts. Obviously massive putt on 15 to get the lead, obviously after he bogeyed and then played 16 pretty good, had a good chance there and 17, not a great putt.
And then 18, I hit a really good drive and thought I hit a really good second, just a little bit left.

Q. What did you hit, the second shot?
ROSS FISHER: 3-wood. Just a bit of a smelly lie but I thought, come on, focus. And right in the middle of my backswing, bloody camera went off. Whether that did anything, I don't know. I thought I played it quite nicely, but it was such a tough shot. And obviously for it to go in the water, I was thinking, right, come on, just suck it up and didn't really have much of a shot from there. And I just thought, get it on the green give yourself a chance.
Hit a good putt, and I thought I did tremendously well to suck everything well and sunk that 8-, 9-footer to get me in the playoff.

Q. What were your thoughts going into the playoff? There must have been a thought there that you were not going to be in the playoff at one point.
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, after I knocked it in the water, I thought, you drop for four, out for five, and I've got to try and 2-putt this. Obviously I'm trying to hole it, and Phil has a chance and Lee obviously shot a great score to get to 10. You know, and I'm thinking if I miss this, I'm not in the playoff. It shows how far I've come, that I can be really, really patient with myself.

Q. Was that a good six feet?
ROSS FISHER: I'd say a good eight feet.
And obviously to get into the playoff, I still felt good. Obviously disappointed that I had not won it but I thought come on you've still got a chance.
And Paul Casey was great, he's like, "Come on, Fish, you've still got a chance. You haven't lost it yet, go out there and win it." So that was obviously really encouraging coming from Paul and his caddie, Mickey.
And thought I hit what was a great drive but in the rough, and just smacked 3-wood and hit it really good just a little bit left and left me just a difficult pitch obviously after just chipping in the water. And I thought if I don't catch this, well, this could be in the water. And I thought, well, I've nipped really nicely; and to see it go that far past, I was a little disappointed. And then to see Phil miss and Lee miss, thinking, I've got another chance for this.
I hit a good putt; it just never was going to drop. It was always a little -- not a enough speed.

Q. Was it a horror moment when you thought, 'It's in the water again?' It didn't seem as if it was stopping.
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, I didn't think it was going to go in the water, but I wanted it to obviously rest as close as possible. But to see it race on that little bit, probably nine feet I guess, a little bit longer than my first putt in regulation, probably eight, nine, ten feet, but then obviously, you know, such is life. You can't hole them all.
And then we all hit pretty decent drives; and then to see Lee knock it in the water, come on, hit yourself a good solid 3-wood and feel exactly the same again and just went left-to-right and pulled it a fraction and had a bloody tough bunker shot, again.
But was like, come on, open the face wide open, full swing and just see what happens and I felt like I played it really, really well, and with all that pressure just to give myself a chance and just unfortunately didn't hit, you know, as good a putt as I've been hitting all week and came up short. And obviously hats off to Phil, he made a great up-and-down and he's a very worthwhile and worthy champion.

Q. Bad thing for you, you haven't won here, but there's lots of good things, you held your own with the world No. 2, you've got Ryder Cup points, you've got World Ranking points, you've got Order of Merit points, there's lots of good things out of this week for you?
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, definitely. Obviously you come here to win, and obviously that wasn't the case, but like you say, I can walk out of here with my head held very high. I played two rounds of golf with Mickelson, who was, you know, to me past Woods the best golfer in the world. Obviously I held myself very well when I played with Tiger and I did very well, to hear some positive things like Adam was saying Phil said about me yesterday after like 10, 11, 12 holes, for someone, you know, of that stature and that high quality to say, this guy has got some serious game means a lot.
You know, I can take a lot from that. I've pushed the world No. 2 all the way. I've beaten guys like Ernie and obviously Monty missed the cut, but I finished ahead of some very high, top-quality players. I thought, you know, obviously a little bit disappointed not to walk away with the trophy, but still, I think it's been a great week.

Q. What's the plan, Hong Kong?
ROSS FISHER: No, I'm going home. I'm getting married on Friday next week. So I'm looking forward to that.

Q. All this golf nonsense will be nothing when the real stuff takes place next Friday.
ROSS FISHER: I'm really looking forward to it. Yeah, it's going to be a great occasion and you know, there's hopefully quite a few people that I know and a couple of guys off the Tour are coming. So I think it will be a great, great occasion and looking forward to a bit of time off and then start up again in South Africa.

End of FastScripts

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