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THE 3 IRISH OPEN

May 12, 2009

Richard Finch

BALTRAY, IRELAND

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Richard, welcome. Thanks for coming in. Strange defending a title you didn't win here, but give us your thoughts on sort of the title defence and coming into it.
RICHARD FINCH: Yeah, really looking forward to it. Obviously the title I won last year and the other one was in New Zealand which I have not been able to go back and defend, so it's nice to come back and be able to defend this one.
Although it is the same title in the Irish Open, it's a slightly different event, new venue, new sponsor. So although it's a title defence, I suppose it is quite a different event in a lot of ways from last year. Obviously completely different golf course rather than sort of the inland course; this is obviously a links course. Different, but I'm looking forward to it.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: You're a man of a lot of links experience.
RICHARD FINCH: A lot of the amateur golf which I played for quite a number of years is all really played on links courses. So I have a lot of experience of playing links golf; although not so much in the last sort of five years, because there's not that many tournaments that are played on links courses on the Tour now.
So I think many players are delighted it is on a links course, and I think it's good for the Tour to have that diversity. We are quite lucky that we play all over the world and we play in so many different climates, different types of courses. So it's nice, another different angle to play on a links course.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Did you come across Baltray in your amateur days?
RICHARD FINCH: No, just came here this morning and played the back nine. Looks really good. Had a lot of reports from a number of the Irish guys that have been here before and I think when the tournament was last year when Brett Rumford won; that was before I was on the Tour.
So I can remember Brett winning but I can't really remember watching the tournament and what happened on the course as such. But I suppose in some ways he's probably defending this week as much as I am because last time the tournament was here, he was the winner.

Q. In the immediate aftermath of winning, what did that do for you mentally and in terms of your -- did it affect your self-esteem as a golfer, or did it make any great difference to how you approached the game?
RICHARD FINCH: I think it did. Probably longer term it did make a difference to how I approach the game because all of a sudden it elevated me from winning the Irish Open into winning new tournaments, World Golf Championships; I got into my first major in the British Open and playing in those events suddenly makes you realise where you are in the scheme of things, and it made me realise there was certain areas I have to work on and try and improve in order to compete in those tournaments in the future.
So it's been a great experience, and as I say. I think it's opened my eyes, my schedule changed sort of thing really through playing those events.
They have been good eye-openers and those are the ones that you get a flavour and a taste of playing those events, you want to do it more and more and that's what I'm hoping to do.

Q. In terms of looking at your game afterwards, what were the areas you really needed to improve to consistently be in the running for winning these events?
RICHARD FINCH: It was consistently to be fair and looking at my performance last season, I tended to be up there in contention, Top-10 or missed the cut. There was no in between. So far this year, I've been a lot more consistent, which is one of the things I've tried to work on.
And you know, hopefully now that the results, a couple of events ago, I had a good finish in China, but trying to get up in that position more often and making sure that bad weeks are not disastrous weeks really. I think my consistency has been better this season so far even, though I have not had possibly as many good results as I did last year.

Q. In terms of what are the elements of consistency; is it technical or mental stuff?
RICHARD FINCH: Mainly technical to be fair. A little bit mentally, but I think the mental comes with the technical; if you start hitting better shots, you do think better. So I think that develops on its own.
But technical, I've always hit the ball quite low really, so I always played a lot of amateur golf on links courses. So I worked on trying to hit the ball a bit higher and generally more consistent and bringing into the fact that I can shape shots a bit more and try and draw it. And that's something I've always struggled with. I used to hit it quite low, and I just realised that through playing in majors and the big event that you need to have every shot in the bag. So that's something I've worked onto try and improve my swing so that I'm able to do that.

Q. How much schtick did you get about falling in the river last year?
RICHARD FINCH: It wasn't so much schtick. I never think about it in a bad way at all. I think it was more good fun. It would have been schtick had I lost the tournament by one; there would have been a lot of schtick, and had anytime anyone mentioned it, I probably would not have felt too good about it. But as it was a good ultimate result, anytime anyone mentions it, I'm always thinking in the back of my mind, "I won." So for me it's not been a problem at all.
A lot of the lads, especially caddies, have nicknames connected with the incident.

Q. What do they call you?
RICHARD FINCH: Splash. All sorts of little ones here and there. Tournaments, spectators you get the same thing. It's all good. I don't mind that one at all.

Q. Your brother is a deep-sea diver, did he have anything to say?
RICHARD FINCH: Not really, no. He's obviously given me a few lessons but hopefully I don't need those this week.

Q. Is Splash the only one?
RICHARD FINCH: There have been various other ones to be honest, but that's the one that's probably stood with a few of the caddies. There's Aquaman and Flipper and all the rest of it. There are other ones, but that's the one that's most prominent.

Q. Would you do it again?
RICHARD FINCH: If it meant winning -- I wouldn't mind doing it if it meant winning. It would be worth it.

Q. I know you've just played nine holes, but given your links background, would you prefer to see a good, stiff wind for the four days here and let that experience help you? Gary was just saying he knows the course like the back of his hand, but he would prefer it be a little bit benign and let everyone have a go at it.
RICHARD FINCH: Yeah, I think links golf, the rain, the wind, that's all part of it for me really. It's one of those things, it is how it is, and you know, I don't really have a preference whether it's really windy.
When it gets to the point of view whereby it's difficult to stand up and balls are blowing and hard to keep still when you're chipping and things like that, I don't find that that much fun. But I do think a good breeze is all part of links golf.
And if it is windy, for instance, like today, I really think your ball-striking is key because you have to have such control of it, control your trajectory; it's on the spin you get. When it's still, you can get away with a few more shots if it's not quite hit perfectly but when it blows, you've got to be spot-on. Otherwise you'll end up -- there are a couple of shots today when you get it going into right-to-left wind and you're into it a bit and it coming up 20 yards short of the green, and you sort of think -- but you take one more club and that goes over the back, so you just have to execute the shot properly.
So I think it sorts everyone out. I think a better breeze keeps it interesting, really.

Q. And just on your own game, you had a high finish in China recently, what game are you bringing with you this week in defence of your title?
RICHARD FINCH: Pretty good really. I've just had a couple of weeks off. I've not played that much. I played the two events in Asia but that's all I've played in the last couple of months.
Coming into a busy time now of the season, and the way I've tried to plan my schedule, that's the way I've done it in order to come into these events, quite fresh and put in some good performances.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Richard, good performance this week.

End of FastScripts

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