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JOHNNIE WALKER CHAMPIONSHIP AT GLENEAGLES

August 26, 2008

Marc Warren

GLENEAGLES, SCOTLAND

SCOTT CROCKETT: Marc, thanks, as always for coming in and joining us. Defending your title this week, as you said last week it's always a bit special when it's in your home country. Give us your thoughts on the week.
MARC WARREN: Definitely. Looking forward to the week. It's going to be great, hopefully some good golf and get some good crowds following us and get some good support this week.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Coming in fourth in Holland last week, you must be pleased with that.
MARC WARREN: Yeah, my first Top-10 of the year, so the timing was impeccable really. A lot of confidence after the last two weeks, so really looking forward to it.
SCOTT CROCKETT: You said in Holland you got the DVD of your win last week. Tell us about that. How did that come about?
MARC WARREN: I just had not seen it and at the World Cup I managed to speak to European Tour Productions about getting a DVD.
And it was strange, it was just the final round but had not seen any of it at all especially the start of the round. It was interesting viewing seeing actually what happened.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Getting good feelings again seeing the shots you played?
MARC WARREN: Yes, obviously watching DVDs of yourself, you feel the confidence.

Q. I think everybody expected you, and no doubt you expected yourself, to have a kick on this year from that win 12 months ago. Have you been able to figure out in your own head why things haven't been quite as you would have expected, and do you feel now you know where you are going and how you are going to get there?
MARC WARREN: Yeah, I think obviously the decision to leave Bob was well publicised. I think that probably dragged on about a year more than it should have. I should have made the decision a lot quicker but with Bob personally it took a lot longer than a decision of just sacking a coach I guess. So that probably dragged on quite a bit. That's been playing on my mind a lot.
Technically I haven't been where I wanted to be, so I think putting a couple of things together, you get the results I've been getting so far this year.

Q. I presume that you now feel you're right technically and you're in a position to start with more Top-10 finishes and get up the Order of Merit?
MARC WARREN: Yeah, definitely. I had the month off and I was working on seeing the right things, basic things really, and allowed myself to go out and play golf and enjoy it a bit more than what I have been.
I've been thinking about my swing so much and not really knowing where the ball was going to go; not looking forward to getting on the course and not knowing what's going to happen but now I feel as I've been working on the right things and it will get just better and better. There will be off days, and golf is golf, but I do feel that I'm working on the right things and I cannot wait to get on the golf course, which is a nice feeling that I haven't had for a while.

Q. Obviously won here, you won the World Cup with Monty and you were in the Seve Trophy last year as well; is it frustrating with The Ryder Cup here that things didn't go as well as you wanted them to go?
MARC WARREN: Yeah, I think the timing of this was well before the points started last year.
Yeah, it's a disappointed not being up in the rankings for The Ryder Cup, but as I said, a number of things have affected that. And I believe I'm good enough to get in that position in the future where I can be contending for a Ryder Cup spot and maybe other tournaments. But unfortunately so far this year, that hasn't been the case.

Q. On the subject of The Ryder Cup, it looks like unless Monty gets in on a wild-card, that we are not going to have a Scot on the team; how do you think that reflects, if you like, on the home of golf?
MARC WARREN: It's a tough thing. It not easy to get in the Ryder Cup. You're going to be obviously top five in Europe in the -- or not the World Ranking, the Order of Merit, and other than that, you've got to get a pick, one of two picks from the captain.
I don't see it as being a problem. Obviously you want to be represented in it, and Monty has been the main one doing that, apart from Paul Lawrie and Andrew Coltart. It's not great for Scotland, but I think Scottish golf on the whole is looking up now with some good performances.

Q. Coach-wise, who are you working with at the moment?
MARC WARREN: I've been working with Ian Ray for a couple of weeks. I've seen him three times.

Q. I think you saw him Sunday night, didn't you?
MARC WARREN: I saw him at the Scottish Open. I've seen him here four times this year. I saw him yesterday.
The decision to go see Ian, I was doing some work with Gary, but I just feel that I wanted to just make things really simple and work on what I believed I need to work on. Gary was giving me that, but a month off, and I spoke to Ian at Loch Lomond, and I've seen him at one of my friends weddings actually and he was there and I had a good chat to him.
Obviously I've got a previous kind of relationship, partnership. We worked together for about seven or eight years. Obviously get on really well with him. The decision I made to leave him the first time was just because we get stale over such a period of time.

Q. Also mentioned that your thinking was to find somewhere in Florida for winter practise; are you anywhere with that?
MARC WARREN: Have I got a place or not? Yeah, I got a place, purely for -- well, basically wintertime in Scotland, you can't practise. A place over there is an investment to tell myself to practise and get better where the majority of the guys are spending their time getting better and practising, and you can't because you're too busy playing golf. I needed that and I think the starts I've had the last few seasons have probably been because of standing on the range and golf around and working on things you need to be working onto get the scores on the board.
SCOTT CROCKETT: You have said in the past that this is the time of the year that you come into your game, and that would suggest that is the case; you're almost benefitting from a few months of good form.
MARC WARREN: Yeah, I think you come back, you look at what issues and what you need to improve, and I've done that. And for me it's been difficult to switch off between thinking about technical things and going out and playing. I think it's very difficult to do that.
I think when you're not playing, which you can't really do in Scotland in the winter, you can't practise your short game. You can't putt -- well, you can indoors, but you can't really be working on what you need to be working on. Apart from your swing at the driving range; but then you don't see the true flight of the ball and it's difficult to see what's actually happening.
The main reason I've done that is I've tried to change my practise to more playing and kind of scoring-orientated rather than just trying to swing it pretty.

Q. Can you give us a line on the video tracking system?
MARC WARREN: TrackMan, yeah, that's another thing I've added to my practise over the last six weeks. Besides the dimensions, I know how far the ball is going to go, and I've worked on my wedge play and I know a lot of other guys have been using it. I know Graeme McDowell has been using one for a while. It's a great practise tool. You can see your definite yardages and you're working on constantly hitting the ball to different numbers which is ultimately what you've got to do on the course. So you're not thinking about technique.
It was originally designed for ballistic testing, obviously bullets or whatever else, so tracking a golf ball is a piece of, whatever. So it's very accurate and it's very simple to set up on the range. I've been using it again this week. And it's good fun, you've got a handicap on and you've got the computer against yourself which is a different aspect to practising which you don't normally get on your own. It shows spin rate, how accurate you were, the carrying distance and the finishing distance. And I can take it with the wind or without the wind as well. You can set it to judge both.

Q. Obviously a big tournament with the timing of the Captain's selections at the end of it; will it feel like a different tournament come Sunday, and is there a danger of it becoming a circus and people losing focus on the fact that this is the Johnnie Walker Championship?
MARC WARREN: I don't think they will lose focus on this being the Johnnie Walker Championship. I think this tournament, the golf course and where it's placed has got the kind of place in the schedule it deserves.
This year is going to be the strongest field ever I think. It feels like the tournament it deserves to be this week, on the range and everything else, it's got a good feel to it. I'm sure come Sunday, the golf world's eyes will be on it on Sunday. It's great for Johnnie Walker and great for the event.

Q. Longer term do you have thoughts of becoming a PGA Tour member in Florida with a house in Florida, something to think about in the years ahead?
MARC WARREN: Well, at this time I wouldn't. But with guys over there, Justin Rose, Nick Dougherty, Luke Donald is full-time, you've got to have a base over there. You spend so much time over there. I think everybody, every kind of top European has a base in America or Dubai, somewhere hot, and maybe that's one reason why they are the guys that they are always in contention.

Q. Was Martin Laird a contemporary of yours?
MARC WARREN: I spoke to -- I never met him before, I think he was a year younger. No, I never met him before. How's he doing this year? He got off to a good start didn't he?

Q. He's in the FedEx standings.
MARC WARREN: He's kept his card, has he?

Q. He's got half a chance. He's made half million dollars.
The course will probably be softer than it was last year, how does that suit your game?
MARC WARREN: I've not been out yet and I think last week, the course was really soft, and it was very similar -- the greens were similar last week and the fringes were very similar.
So I think obviously playing last week is kind of a good setup for this week. Last year, being a long course and undulations and everything else, it's going to play tough this week. I've not seen the forecast but I think it's going to be windy.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Marc, thanks, as always. Good luck this week.

End of FastScripts

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