|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
JOHNNIE WALKER CHAMPIONSHIP AT GLENEAGLESAugust 28, 2009Colin MontgomerieGLENEAGLES, SCOTLAND Q. A disappointing 76 yesterday, eight shots better today, what was the difference in your play? COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Well, I hit the greens, meaning I hit the fairways. I hit 18 greens in regulation today, which is always good, and bogey-free obviously. Tap-in, longest putt for a par was a tap-in. So I holed four putts and that's all I did, and that's the way I used to play. Actually I used to do that, and four rounds of that and you win the tournament. But I haven't hit the fairways. The fairways have been a ghost to me, so I lost two balls yesterday, and there's four penalty shots straightaway. I've never, ever lost two balls I don't think in a round of golf before off the tee. So that was totally disappointing today and much better today. We can only try and improve, but 18 greens in regulation is as good as one gets. Q. Do you know what's causing the poor driving? COLIN MONTGOMERIE: I think striving for extra length maybe. I think that I found myself getting shorter and shorter as the courses get longer and longer, and I think I'm striving for more length and I think it's sometimes not always the best way. I should play to my strengths and not the weaknesses, you like, and the strength is certainly hitting the fairways, they were. If I hit the fairways, I hit the greens and I did today. Q. Did you approach the round knowing you needed to make 70 just to make the cut? COLIN MONTGOMERIE: The wind was due to get up today and I knew that we were thinking plus two would have been roundabout the cut to double yesterday's score, but the way it's looking now, plus one is going to miss and level par right now is in. So they are tight, these cuts, very, very tight, as last week's cut was, as well. Level par in the conditions around here is very good scoring. Q. Do you feel extra pressure as Championship Chairman to be here on the weekend? COLIN MONTGOMERIE: I think so, yeah. I don't want to miss out and I haven't, thank goodness. We've got a big do, a big party tomorrow night in the Johnnie Walker Pavilion here, and I look forward to that having made the cut and can hopefully move up from the 50th place I am currently. Q. How will you approach the weekend, Paul Lawrie eight ahead at the moment. COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Don't worry about that. Let's walk before we can run here. But if I can get a top 20 out of this, it will give me some confidence for the rest of the month. Q. Did it ever occur to you to think about four cuts in a row it would have been? COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Three in a row is the worst in my professional career. Four would have been any record set, which I don't want to set those sort of records. And today was a good score. It wasn't easy. The greens were quite bumpy because of the fact that, of course, we've had a lot of rain and 156 competitors. So the back nine became quite difficult obviously. The wind, as you see now, it's picked up again and it swirls around, and so it is quite difficult. And 68 is a good score when one has to do that. I'm quite pleased with that and to hit every green in regulation, not to make a mistake, that's good golf. Q. Did you find something on the range? COLIN MONTGOMERIE: The first drive gave me confidence, hit it down there past my two playing partners, and thought, okay, come on, I can do this and wedged and holed a putt and thought, well, that's one out of the way and I needed another two or three but later on managed to get it. Q. Due to a lot of recent practise on the course, do you mean? COLIN MONTGOMERIE: I know this course as well as anyone I suppose. I practise down here now and have done for the last two years. But it's a different setup when the tournament comes around, and you know, I wouldn't play it in this -- well, it will be closed. This course would be closed to amateurs normally. It's right on the limit of being open, how wet it is out there. Q. The bounceback must be very satisfying. COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Very, I think that scoring 76 yesterday, as was mentioned a number of times last night's Forum, too often, was mentioned. But I just wish the Forum was tonight and I could say 68, much, much better. But to do that is always better that way than having shot 68 followed by 76. It was good, we described the curtains to the nation. It was very interesting. Q. Did your rebound last week help you today as well? COLIN MONTGOMERIE: I think the 67 yesterday was the second day in Holland was okay on the Friday and gave me something to go with, but I lost it there yesterday. To lose two balls off the tee, that's crazy and that is giving four shots away to the field. You know, without two silly, silly drives, I'm 4-under and lying in the Top-10. So it's not far away. It's just two stupid drives that I've never lost two balls in a round of golf in my life. So you know, I'm not far off that. Q. You were saying that level par is pretty good here, the conditions. 8-under, is it laughable? COLIN MONTGOMERIE: It's quite good. It's quite good. He's obviously putted well. He's a bad weather playing, isn't he, Paul Lawrie. He seems to do well in the bad weather. He won the Dunhill Cup in atrocious weather, in Wales I think, as well, so he's done very well and good luck to him. It's nice to see a Scot in the lead here. Marc Warren won a few years ago and it's nice to see that Paul Lawrie is up there and let's hope he can continue. Q. And also Ollie and Søren Hansen. COLIN MONTGOMERIE: Very much so. The leaderboard is quite strong, the leaderboard is quite strong, of a weaker field, yes. It will not be that way next year. It will be a strong field with a strong leaderboard. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|