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EMAAR-MGF INDIAN MASTERSFebruary 7, 2008Shiv KapurNEW DELHI, INDIA SHENTON GOMEZ: Shiv, solid round for you, seven birdies, you must be quite pleased today. SHIV KAPUR: Actually, it was a pretty scratchy round. I managed to pull a 68 out of nothing really. I started off on the back nine and it was quite a seesaw, lots of birdies and lots of bogeys. Wasn't really settled in and I wasn't swinging too well. Got a good break on 14 when it bounced out of the trees and made birdie. And I didn't find my swing until the front nine, which was my back nine. It was one of those days of grinding it out and being patient and making things happen. I guess you can't complain. 68 is a pretty good start, but just the way I played, making seven birdies, I would have hoped for a better round really. SHENTON GOMEZ: You are up there among the leaders, so what are your thoughts of the course today? SHIV KAPUR: The course is exactly what I was saying yesterday. You know, you keep the ball in play, you give yourself a lot of birdie opportunities, and I managed to do that for my last sort of 10 or 11 holes. But to start with, you know, I was hitting a few errant shots. I haven't looked at the leaderboard really, so I don't know what the scores are. I've actually set forward a goal that, you know, par for the course for me is 68, because all of the par 5s are reachable for me. So if I can just shoot 68 every day, I think I'll be in contention come Sunday. SHENTON GOMEZ: Still where you expected it to be around the opening round amongst the leaders. SHIV KAPUR: I expect myself to be there whether anyone else does or not, I don't really know. But I'm obviously comfortable on this course. I'm happy with the way I'm playing. Like I said, I got off to a shaky start, but I managed to hold it together. I guess overall I'm pretty pleased with 68. SHENTON GOMEZ: Might be an inspiration to all of the other Indian players follow suit. SHIV KAPUR: I think you'll see a lot of Indian players on the leaderboard. I haven't taken a look, but they are comfortable in these conditions and know the course better. And like I said yesterday, they have not had much of an off-season so they are all pretty sharp. At the end of the day, I wouldn't be surprised if we have three or four Indians in the Top-10. Q. What score would you be happy with? SHIV KAPUR: Like I said, a golfer is never satisfied. So if I set forth a goal, if I can be 68 every day or 16-under for the tournament, I'll be right up there. But I know if I shoot three 68s, I'll be saying, oh, it could have been a 65 or a 66. It's tough to set a score. It just depend on the conditions and how cold it is, if you get a wind, this course can be pretty tricky and 68 is par for me and the par 5s I played at par 4s, and if I can keep doing that, I'll be pretty happy. Q. Still, a confident start for you? SHIV KAPUR: Yeah, overall I'm actually pretty proud of myself that I hung in there. Things were not going my way for the first sort of six or seven holes, I was actually over par at one stage. It's just one of those things that you learn in competitive golf that you have to learn how to grind it out, even when you don't have your A Game, you have to learn to post a score and I managed to do that. And I found I got into a rhythm my last eight or nine holes, and when you're getting into a rhythm, you have to make some birdies and I did that as well. I'm happy with the way I'm swinging now, and if I can keep that going, hopefully I can get lower and lower scores. Q. Putting was good? SHIV KAPUR: Yeah, my putting was pretty good. Whatever realistic birdie opportunities I gave myself, I made the majority of those, so I'm happy about that. There's always room for improvement. Like I said golfers are very greedy people, we're never happy, you get off the golf course shooting 62 saying, 'it could have been a couple better.' Overall I'm feeling pretty solid about my game and I've improved in a lot of areas which I've been trying to improve in. Q. You hold the course record of 10 under. Can you beat that this week? SHIV KAPUR: That would be great. Obviously a round like 62 comes around, you know, once in a blue moon so to speak; if I can do that at the right week, that would be great. You know, that's not something you try and think about. You just get in the zone when you're not there and if you kind yourself 9- or 10-under, then you think about it, but realistically, if I can get close to that, I'll be pretty happy. Q. Surprised to see someone take a nine on the 18th hole? SHIV KAPUR: No, I'm not surprised at all. And yesterday I was saying, as well, you know, by putting some of these bunkers in, you're taking some of the big numbers out because a lot of people are hitting irons off tees. If you take the bunkers out, you tempt people to go with their driver, and that's when you find the bushes and when you find the trouble. I've seen big numbers made here. In fact, my caddie commented to me something that 5-under -- walking down the last hole he said, "5-under is leading." I said, "Well, 5-under can change to 2- or 3-under question quickly on this golf course." So the guy that makes the least amount of bogeys is the guy that's going to play well on this golf course. Everyone is going to make birdies. There's birdies to be made if you find the fairways, but big numbers are what you need to avoid. The shots I dropped in bogeys I made up in birdies. If you can manage to do that, usually you'll be okay come the weekend. And nine doesn't surprise me, I've seen bigger numbers than that, as well. SHENTON GOMEZ: Thank you, Shiv, and keep it up tomorrow. End of FastScripts |
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