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JOHNNIE WALKER CHAMPIONSHIP AT GLENEAGLES

August 26, 2008

Alastair Forsyth

GLENEAGLES, SCOTLAND

SCOTT CROCKETT: Thanks, as always, for joining us, and welcome to the Johnnie Walker championship. Give us your thoughts on the week. Form is pretty good, 34th in Holland but everybody talking about the performance at the US PGA which must have delighted you.
ALASTAIR FORSYTH: Yes, a wee bit disappointed last week. I played pretty good but my driving wasn't very good last week. If I had been on song, I think I would have had a chance last week. But I still managed to carry some of the form from America into that but obviously the tournament in America was a big bonus. I played really well, probably as good as I can play, and that doesn't feel too far away at the moment, so looking forward to this one.
SCOTT CROCKETT: I suppose if you're not that pleased with the game, the scores are encouraging, because if you can shoot roundabout 68, 69 and still feel you're not playing your best --
ALASTAIR FORSYTH: Yeah, it's the type of course where you get punished for bad driving last week, and I got punished quite a few times for that. I made plenty of birdies so that's always encouraging. You need birdies to be in contention, but I hit too many poor shots. And as I said, you can't get away with bad driving, and you won't here, either. The rough is pretty thick, as well.
And the rest of the stuff has been pretty good.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Thoughts playing at home, Marc has just been in saying he enjoys it. You would be the same, I presume.
ALASTAIR FORSYTH: Yeah, I always enjoy the Scottish events, from Loch Lomond to here, and I can stay at home this week which is nice and just sort of take it easy and chill out.
As I say, it's a golf course I know very well. We've played every year for a good while now, and I know the course well and I can just go and play the Pro-Am tomorrow and I don't need to play today.

Q. What's your goal between now and the Volvo Masters? Do you have a target in mind of what you would like to achieve, maybe your best-ever finish in the Order of Merit or something like that?
ALASTAIR FORSYTH: Yeah, that would be nice. My best-ever finish is 19th on the Order of Merit. I think as far as a target that would actually get me anything in the top 20 would be I guess in the Open, so that would be a pull there, realistic. But I've still got a long way to go to get even near that. I would probably have to win again or a couple of big finishes. That would be the first target that would actually -- that would actually mean something.

Q. Marc was in saying he's bought a place in Florida as a winter practise convenience. Has of it crossed your mind to do something similar?
ALASTAIR FORSYTH: No to be honest but I can see his thinking. It's a great idea. It certainly is a long winter over here, and it is a slight hindrance to the Scottish players I think. But I've never actually thought about it. I don't know how friendly it's going to be with kids, but it's a great idea and I could see it's beneficial and maybe something worth thinking about it.

Q. Getting into The Open after your excellent performance in the PGA but it might be tricky to get into the Masters next year; is it a goal next year to play in the other three majors and to be more involved in the bigger events?
ALASTAIR FORSYTH: Definitely. Obviously I've played in the U.S. Open this year, and the PGA. I played okay at the U.S. Open and played well at the PGA but over the years people talk about getting into this and that. You don't want to just get there. You want to get in and play well and play your best and see how your best stands up against obviously the best players in the world.
Obviously I've played in a few Opens and I've now played the PGA twice and the U.S. Open. So I'm getting a real good feel for it now and obviously want to go back and you want to play as many of those as I can. I'm in the PGA through my finish this year and obviously hope to one way or another get in another Open, a great opportunity to qualify for the U.S. Open. So there is a chance I could go and play in the three majors next year, which is perfect.

Q. Are you surprised, short of a miracle, there's not going to be a Scot in the Ryder Cup?
ALASTAIR FORSYTH: Not really no. I don't think -- well, obviously the results speak for themselves, because nobody has played well enough to get in. Monty, on his experience and record and might have a chance at a wildcard with a good week here.
The results speak for themselves. No one has played well enough to be in contention, so certainly at the start you might hope that there would be two or three but no one's played well enough.

Q. And yet looking ahead to the next Ryder Cup, potentially two or three Scots could be involved, yourself included?
ALASTAIR FORSYTH: Potentials, yeah, there's no doubt about that. It's just guys like myself, Mark, Stephen Gallacher, Paul Lawrie, Monty obviously, playing well, playing the way he can play, playing better. And obviously there's one or two knocking on the door, a couple of youngsters hopefully coming through from the Challenge Tour.
There are a couple of guys on the fringe now. The more Scottish players we can get on the Tour, the more chances we have of getting in The Ryder Cup. Hopefully next time there will be a few Scotts rather than just everyone else.

Q. How would you assess your year? Obviously wasn't a great start, and then you had that great spell and then a slump again, wasn't it.
ALASTAIR FORSYTH: It's been strange. It been a strange year. Obviously the highlight, winning, and then losing the playoff two weeks later. Obviously the PGA a couple of weeks ago was a big highlight, but the rest has been pretty poor to honest.
I've had two or three weeks I've been pretty good and then the next I've been very poor and not a lot in between. Last week was a reasonable result but I haven't had many of those. As I said, I must have missed the first five cuts of the year, and you have no idea and you're thinking at that time, when is this going to end. And then you win and I played well for three weeks in a row there, and you think, well, hopefully it's going to be a great year.
There's still a chance with enough tournaments left and I'm playing well enough at the moment to make it a very good year. It's been odd. In general you can say it's been a decent year, and I'm in a reasonable position on the Order of Merit. And I would like to be higher obviously but all of that has been made up of obviously three or four tournaments. I've been very inconsistent which is not really like me. I'm usually reasonably consistent.
If I can find that consistency and add that to the good results -- as long as there's good results, then you're going to do all right. But it be would be nice to play a bit like that more often.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Thanks for that. Good luck this week.

End of FastScripts

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