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COMMERCIALBANK QATAR MASTERS PRESENTED BY DOLPHIN ENERGYJanuary 30, 2010Bradley DredgeDOHA, QATAR SCOTT CROCKETT: Bradley, thanks for coming and joining us and congratulations on another good day in Qatar. Just give us your thoughts on the round and your thoughts going into tomorrow. BRADLEY DREDGE: Got off to a good start birdieing 2 and 3. Bad tee shot on 5, and I was honestly struggling to make bogey there. So was quite pleased. Came back quite well after that, and birdied, what was it, 7 and 9. So 2-under at the turn and was pretty good after that. Obviously looking to press on on the back nine. I played okay on the back nine, gave myself a lot of chances but missed a lot of putts, which is frustrating. But I managed to knock one in on 17 and level par on the back nine was disappointing to be honest. I was looking forward to push on. 13, I hit in the middle of the green, actually, and just sort of hit two poor putts really, hit the first one hard, about four or five feet back and misread the one coming back, thought it was going to come back left-to-right, and 3-putts there. SCOTT CROCKETT: Tomorrow in the last group out. Thoughts on that? BRADLEY DREDGE: Yeah, looking forward to it. Haven't been in this sort of situation for a while. Trying to get myself back in contention for tournaments, so it's nice to be playing the second tournament, back out there. Obviously Ryder Cup aspirations and all that, and I need to be winning tournaments. That's what I need to do. Obviously this week I look at World Ranking points, a big issue this week, and I'm looking for obviously a good day tomorrow. SCOTT CROCKETT: And gives credence to what you did in the winter over in Spain, still doing quite a lot of work there, so your game is not fresh, but in good shape. BRADLEY DREDGE: Yeah, just because of the weather, some guys go to Florida for the winter, just to work on their games more. You can get sharper on the greens more, because obviously if you practise on bermudagreens over the winter, and I've been out of the rain and snow for a couple of months, and turn up here trying to putt on greens like this, it's not easy to go straight to tournament play. But at least the weather, it's better practise. Q. How big would it be for you to make The Ryder Cup? BRADLEY DREDGE: It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, for all of the Welsh guys, not just myself, The Ryder Cup being in Wales. And for my playing career, to have a chance to play in it, you're only going to have one chance. So I want to perform my best this year and give myself a chance. Q. How much of a realistic chance do you think you have? BRADLEY DREDGE: There's probably another 150-odd, at least, members -- well, 150-odd guys who have got a chance I think. I think everybody's got a chance. So some more than others. Obviously someone like Westwood, Casey, McIlroy, Harrington, those guys are hopefully going to be sort of propping up the team. I think it's up to people like myself and some of the others, you look at all of the -- Hanson. So many guys playing well, there will probably be guys trying to grab the last three spots, something like that, and the wildcards, Monty is going to be looking for experience. I think it's up to people like myself to try and play as well as we can and grab one of those spots automatically. Q. So there'd be no room for sentiments in Monty's picks then - he wouldn't just pick a Welshman for the sake of it? BRADLEY DREDGE: I would be very surprised, wouldn't you? No, I think even if I was very close, obviously I know that he's got three wildcards, but realistically, if I was picking the team, I would be looking for experience. You obviously also look for guys in form, towards the end of the year, so we'll have to wait and see. Obviously I'm not thinking, well, if I get close I'll get a pick. I'm trying my best to play my way on to the team. Q. What has pleased you in particular about your game over these three days? BRADLEY DREDGE: I would say that probably my iron play has been pretty good. I've actually played quite well with the rough, getting the ball out of the rough on to the greens actually sometimes. I could be driving the ball a little better than I am. I've put on a bit of length over the winter. Generally I've putted well the last few days. I've done some of the scoring things, short game, putting, you've always got to be short, so I've done most of those quite well. Q. Percentage wise, where is your game at the moment? BRADLEY DREDGE: I would say at the moment, about 70, 75 per cent. Q. With the huge world ranking points at stake these three weeks, did that give you the impetus to go to Spain over the winter to ensure you were sharp coming out here? BRADLEY DREDGE: Yeah, always feel good starting off the first three events after the winter break, usually practise quite a lot over the winter and usually feel recharged and ready to go. Q. They are huge point events aren't they? BRADLEY DREDGE: Yeah, exactly my intention. I normally take four weeks off over the winter. This year I took two weeks off where I didn't touch a club. I was very aware that I wanted to come into these three events with my game as good as I possibly could be and didn't want to feel rusty with my putting or feel like I'm not chipping great. I wanted to come here with my game in good order and I wanted to give it my best shot. The thing is, obviously for guys who are outside of the Top-50 in the World Ranking, you're not in the majors or the WGC events coming up, and it does make it a little bit harder to accumulate the points and the money. So I feel if I win this week and sort of next week, I get into the Match Play in February. But that's quite a tall order. But you need to be inside the Top-50 in the World Rankings. Q. The last time you were in this position was the Irish Open in 2008 - does this give you a buzz? BRADLEY DREDGE: I've always said, whenever I tee it up, I'm trying to win. However good or bad I feel I'm playing, at the start of every tournament, you start every tournament on level par. You never know. Sometimes you go out there, you can hit it awful tee-to-green and you can get it around. And you can have a bit of look, good week with the putter, you can win. Q. Will that adrenalin buzz be a help or a hindrance? BRADLEY DREDGE: I think I always enjoy being up there. That's what I play and practise for. I enjoy being up there and I enjoy contending in a tournament. I've been on Tour for a few years now and I understand that to win tournaments, you have to be aggressive and you have to shoot at the flags, you have to make birdies, because that's what the rest of the guys are doing. I'm sure that Paul Casey and Lee Westwood and Quiros and Robert Karlsson and those guys tomorrow will go out there tomorrow shooting at all of the pins, because that's what you've got to do to win. Q. It's great to be up there? BRADLEY DREDGE: It's good fun. Certainly that's what we all practise for. Q. Do you have a number in mind for tomorrow, or a strategy? BRADLEY DREDGE: I haven't seen a forecast yesterday. If it's the same as it has been, you know, like I said, if you want to win, you've got to play aggressive and you've got to make the birdies. If you have to play, if it's a short iron or from middle of the fairway, we've all have to putt well. So, you know, it's easy to putt from six, eight, ten foot for birdies rather than 20 or 30 feet. It is very much a case of getting it close to the holes. Q. Is it hard to read the grain on the greens? BRADLEY DREDGE: Yeah, it's the same for last week, there was only a little bit of a grain. These are a little bit more grainy. Sometimes with more grain, it's almost easier to see it, so you're pretty sure it's going to knock the ball. So if you read them well, as in judging the grain, and they are the sort of greens that really get your eye, you can knock in a lot of putts. Q. Do you then hit the four to five footers a little harder? BRADLEY DREDGE: I think that depends on if it's into the grain, then generally hit the putt firmer, it will hold its line better. But if it's downgrain, you can roll it in a little bit more. My preference, I always prefer to fire the ball in. That's just the way I putt. Generally I prefer to fire them in. But like I said if you can get them into the grain sometimes or quite strong across grain -- I think for me it come down to each putt. I don't go out there and think I'm going to bolt it at the hole. It just depends on the putt. Q. Are you confident you can hold yourself together in such exalted company at the top of the leaderboard tomorrow? BRADLEY DREDGE: I hope so. I'd like to think that I won't collapse. Well, I've been working hard at it and hopefully I can go out there tomorrow and put in a good performance; whether or not I can sort of shoot a low enough score to win, you never know what the other guys are going to do, but I'll certainly be doing my best. Q. Inaudible? BRADLEY DREDGE: Really doesn't make any difference to me. I just prefer to be as low under par as I can possibly get myself. And whether I'm last group out or in, it doesn't make any difference to me. End of FastScripts |
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