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BALLANTINE'S CHAMPIONSHIP

April 26, 2009

Thongchai Jaidee

JEJU ISLAND, SOUTH KOREA

CALVIN KOH: Congratulations, it has been a roller coaster week for you, especially the last two days, yesterday and today. Can you just take us through the last four days here at Pinx Golf Club?
THONGCHAI JAIDEE: I'm glad to play this golf course. My first two rounds, I start very well. I'm putting well and driver is well, also, except on the third round, the wind is very strong. I'm very good not to have too many 3-putts on this day. I think we have no chance yesterday; we finish the tournament yesterday and we have four shots difference.
And then final round, we started very well. Start off first one, got birdie at No. 1. I missed the tee by three feet, and birdied No. 4 and 3-putted No. 5, and all the way on the back nine, even par. 2-under is the final. On the back nine, every hole, two putts and very good. I think putting is not very easy on this golf course, and also the wind it's very important and difficult to control the putt. Putting short, long, short, long all the time, so very good to have 2-under for the final.
CALVIN KOH: I think many things were going through your mind, yesterday you were four shots off the lead; what were you thinking about, especially when you teed off today, how to combat the strong winds and the conditions out there?
THONGCHAI JAIDEE: This week, I played very well all week. Just only bad thing, like last week, putting is so bad. And this week, also, five or six holes 3-putt, I think five holes for 3-putt this week.
I think the main thing is if you are putting well for this course, you'll have a good chance to win the tournament. Everybody is in trouble on the putting. Yesterday, the wind is gusting, and difficult to control the putt. When you stand up, like to set up the ball, and the wind is blowing, it's difficult to control the club head, sometimes open, sometimes closed.
We are also doing yesterday -- it's tough to putt. I'm going in my brain: Don't worry about that, play your game. If you hit a lot of greens, I think every hole, you cannot make a 3-putt. Some hole, two putts, you make birdie, be very happy with that.
CALVIN KOH: Can you just take us through the playoff hole?
THONGCHAI JAIDEE: The playoff, we have three guys play together, like myself and one Korean and one Spanish guy.
You know, I just finished on 18 a couple of minutes, ten minutes, 15 minutes before that. When we started the playoff, we have to make the hook, and teeing off on last, I got lucky, because I got the draw, teed off last. I saw all of the people -- I know how to play the hole.
I think the first one was a 3-wood, and if I can hit the same one, it's very easy to do the distance, because you use the same club. All three guys hit in the fairway off the tee. One hit driver and one hit 3-wood, and the distance is almost the same.
I hit a second shot, and the second person, Gonzalo, he hit a 9-iron. My caddie told me he used a 9-iron 165 yards to the pin I think we had. I used the same club as Gonzalo but I take it more easy, I take 9-iron more easy, but downwind, and wind left-to-right, downwind. Pretty much downwind. I think we had the right club. We had the perfect distance and hit to four feet on the second shot.
The other guys hit very well. Gonzalo missed a little bit long, and the Korean, he hit to about eight or nine feet from there.

Q. This is your 12th Asian Tour victory and your fourth European Tour win, can you give us your overall impression, your overall reaction to staying calm and winning that three-way playoff?
THONGCHAI JAIDEE: I know one thing about winning the tournament, I try my best all the time, but to get in a playoff, I think we have a good chance, also. I know the distance because I had just finished before that, about 15 or 20 minutes before the playoff. So I was ready to play on the playoff hole.
I was thinking that if I win the tournament, it would be 12th on Asian Tour and fourth I'm on European Tour in my life. That's one very good thing.
I think this win, the prize money is bigger than our win last time, bigger prize money. Also I think about if I won, I think that my target this year, I think if I won, I think that I'll be close to the Top-50 in the World Ranking, and that's my target.

Q. For this year?
THONGCHAI JAIDEE: Yeah.

Q. Do you drink alcohol?
THONGCHAI JAIDEE: No.

Q. So this is the special blend by Graeme McDowell, what are you going to do with it?
THONGCHAI JAIDEE: Because I have a collection in my home, we have a collection of the whisky, I think I would like all the guests to come to my house, I do it for the collection. What I like to do is have a collection in my home, and we already have Ballantine's that I got in Loch Lomond last year, we got one 21 Year Old. That one I put in my home, and I think it's very good, this stuff.

Q. Just spoke to your caddie earlier and he said he drinks a lot and he'll be helping you out.
THONGCHAI JAIDEE: I told him, don't drink too much on the last night. Just enjoy. You have to work hard for tomorrow, and one bottle of beer is fine. Tomorrow, you have to work hard and you cannot walk on the course -- it's very windy on the course, you'll lose everything; you'll lose your job. I told him, and he said, okay, okay. I just told him, one bottle of beer for last night is fine and he said okay.

Q. So my first question is after turning pro, you won a tournament here in Korea in 2001, and you came back to Korea about nine years for your second win in Korea; so I would like to know what is Korea to you? What sort of feeling or relevance does Korea have to you? And this year marks the 10th year since you turned pro, and you talked about how your target is to become one of the Top-50 top players in the world, could you also talk about that.
THONGCHAI JAIDEE: And also, I would like to say something, because when I won my first tournament in my life when I turned professional in 2001 in Korea, the first time I won the tournament, when we won, we made my target and everything.
When I come to Korea, like to play well, because I know the golf courses in Korea are very good golf courses everywhere, and depending on the weather, very important. We come here, every time we have trouble, like I think a couple years ago in Pusan. The wind was like this, also. We have like the ball moving. You pick up the ball and put in the same position and the rule, I got a penalty, disqualification for the tournament.
I never came to Korea in a long time, since about three or four years, and this year, I think it's a very good year and a very good performance for me. The thing is, I can play good with bad weather, as well, cold, rain and wind. I think it's going to be a good start to play in Europe for this year and then my target this year is going to be to get in the Top-50 for the World Ranking this year. That's my goal, target for this year.
If I play well for the next couple of weeks, I can be in the Top-50.

Q. So this is a question I'm asking because you won the tournament today. Yesterday when you made the address at the putting green, the ball moved, and so you had a penalty stroke. Did you feel that when you were going into the playoff, did you think if that did not happen yesterday, you would be more comfortable or more at ease in the playoff?
THONGCHAI JAIDEE: I don't think about putting all the time. If I have a bad putt, I forget all the time. If I'm finished, what can you do? If you have a 3-putt, I think the next hole, I don't like to 3-putt again. I try, and I think my heart is quiet even when everything is angry. Sometimes when you have trouble, if you are thinking bad -- I think it's going to be one more day, one more hole.
The tournament is never finished and you never know who is going to win the tournament. That's my thing. I know wet get angry when we have trouble. We had a one-shot penalty on No. 7 when the ball moved, when we set up to putting, the ball is moving before that, and that's a problem. But tomorrow, I can mark it and we do again. Don't do it the same time, same thing. I think that's a very good thing for me.
CALVIN KOH: Thank you, Thongchai.

End of FastScripts

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