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BALLANTINE'S CHAMPIONSHIP

April 25, 2010

Marcus Fraser

JEJU ISLAND, SOUTH KOREA

STEVE TODD: Marcus, congratulations on a fine victory there, a fine performance on the last day. Your first win for seven years, can you just sum up if you can in words just what it means to you.
MARCUS FRASER: Yeah, it's unbelievable. I've had a lot of chances over the last six or seven years to win golf tournaments and I haven't taken them. So a lot of doubt starts to creep in your mind, and you question whether you should be doing it. But today I just went out there, and, you know I just gave it everything I had and lucky enough, everything worked in my favour.
STEVE TODD: Apart from the last hole today, which I think we could all let you off with, you only dropped one shot the whole tournament, how much of an achievement was that given the days and the windy conditions?
MARCUS FRASER: For sure, it was pretty tough. The first day we had many really good weather, luckily on the right side of the draw.
But the second and third round was pretty windy, so to only drop two shots for the entire tournament I thought -- that's as good of golf as I've ever played. So you know, I'm very proud of myself to go out there and stick to my own game plan and do it the way I did it.
STEVE TODD: You came through 8 and 9, some good shots and putts to get yourself through; did you just pick up confidence from there? Four shots is quite comfortable in the ends.
MARCUS FRASER: Yeah, I had sort of a bit of a look at the leaderboards on the way around, but you know, I just tried not to get ahead of myself and just stick to what I was doing.
So 8 and 9, I didn't really -- hit a poor drive off both tees, and then missed the green, left one in the bunker on No. 9. That was probably the only low point of the round but I managed to save two pars which is a big plus.

Q. Over that seven-year period, how low did you get? Did you ever get the feeling where why were you bothering or were you keeping yourself going?
MARCUS FRASER: Probably three or four years ago, I thought about giving it away, just because I was playing terrible. You know, golf swing wasn't improving and everything wasn't really getting any better. So I thought I was wasting my time and you really start to question yourself, whether you think that you should be out here or whether you deserve to e out here.
And I think I went through a patch like that and luckily I went back and saw my old coach that I used to see when I was an amateur, and we got things moving in the right direction. So it's been a lot of hard work over the last couple of years to get back to this position.
My last win was when I was coached by Denis McDade, and I've had another win today, still being coached by him. So I think we've done a lot of things to keep things moving in the right direction.

Q. You lost in a playoff in the Australian Masters, how important was that -- how important was that to giving you a confidence boost?
MARCUS FRASER: Yeah, that was a big positive. I wasn't really in contention at the start of the day and I think I shot 65 on the final day and I think it was the best score in the day by two shots. So gave me a lot of confidence to go out there and play well, which on Sundays in previous experiences has not been my strongest day.
So something like that, even today, I just kept drawing on the experiences I had a couple of years ago at the Australian Masters, and you know, just kept trying to stay as positive as I could.

Q. Is your wife now looking for a bigger house?
MARCUS FRASER: Yeah, probably. Definitely a life-changing week this week. I never thought I'd be in this situation again, so it's extra personal this week. At this time last year, I lost my uncle, who was also my Godfather and I missed his funeral because of this tournament.
So to come back and win this week, that's definitely for him.

Q. Did you it help leaving school early to work in the supermarket?
MARCUS FRASER: I'm not sure how much the supermarket helps golf, but yeah, school wasn't for me. I left school to push trollies. As I said, school wasn't for me, but I went out and worked for a little bit and decided to try and practise as hard as I could to give golf a shot.
You know, never thought I would be sitting up here, but there we go.

Q. I heard that you didn't bring your own caddie and you used a caddie from the golf club. Could you tell us her or his name, and did that caddie help you in your win? And also, when professional caddies -- usually you pay them ten per cent of your prize money; will you do that?
MARCUS FRASER: I have no idea how to pronounce my caddie's name but he was great. He carried the bag for the week and every time I looked over, he was smiling and buzzing. It was great to have someone who was so upbeat.
But yeah, you normally have a caddie every week, obviously a professional caddie but decided to do things the way I did them last year and just have someone for three or four weeks at a time.
You know, it's a little bit hard to get to this week with the travel, so I didn't bring a caddie, so that's why we have a local caddie this week. He'll get a cheque, for sure. I'm sure he's got his hand out waiting down there, but I haven't got that money on me (laughter). I might have to send it to him.

Q. So I think looking at the front nine and the back nine, you had different game plans, and especially in the back nine, I think your game plan was maybe to play more conservatively and more safely, and if that was your game plan, you know, when did you start playing safely and conservatively?
MARCUS FRASER: I think maybe on about the 13th hole, I decided that -- I think I had about a three-shot lead and I thought if I keep going for the middle of the green and get a couple of outside chances, you never know when you might get one.
On 14, I hit a really good shot that fed its way down to the flag about six feet and managed to make it. But from there on in, was just trying to hit greens, hit fairways and was playing almost as defensive as I could. But managed to hold on towards the end.

Q. So at this tournament, we have a lot of superstars, Anthony Kim, Y.E. Yang and Ernie Els and the tournament was reduced to three rounds; do you think if we had the tournament at four rounds, it might have affected your victory?
MARCUS FRASER: Well, my fourth round scores are the no the greatest so probably would have affected the outcome of the tournament. But at the end of the day, to come out on Sunday and play well leading the tournament I led after the first day and to end up winning the golf tournament, to lead all the way, it's obviously a huge plus for myself, something I'm very proud of.
You know, to have those names in the event, Stenson, Ernie Els, Y.E. Yang, they are world-class players and I'm very, very proud to be able to walk away with a trophy with those guys in the event.

Q. I think because of the delays on the first round, you played on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, and some of the players who were I guess on the -- some of the players, they had to play 36 holes all together on Friday. So do you feel that this was sort of a disadvantage to them and you are in a sort of advantageous position because you were able to take the day off?
MARCUS FRASER: Yeah, for sure. Obviously to get better to play in is a huge plus, and also those guys had to play 36 holes in one day. You know, it's obviously very tough, especially in the conditions that they had to play those 36 holes in. You know, I was just very fortunate I was on the other side of the draw. At the end of the day, Saturday and Sunday, it was pretty windy and managed to go out there and play well, also.

Q. You've now got a nice exemption under your belt and a lot of World Ranking points this week; how does it change your plans for this year, general outlook?
MARCUS FRASER: For sure, I always said I would love to be able to play 20 events in a year, that might be my perfect schedule. I might try that this year now that I have an exemption.
I've worked so hard to get back into this situation, I want to keep working hard to try to get another win now. I'm going to really enjoy this, and friends and family will enjoy as much as I have, they have supported me a lot of the way, so I can't wait to get back and have a drink with them.
Yeah, just want to obviously keep working hard and try and get another win.

Q. Seemed like everyone else fell apart on the back nine; if you can talk about the wind a little bit more?
MARCUS FRASER: Yeah, the wind was from the completely opposite direction today, so it was like a golf course we had not played all week. I mean, all of the holes that played into the wind at the start of the week were now playing downwind, so sort of changed that a lot.
I just tried to hit fairways and hit greens and I was very fortunate that I came out with a win at the end of the week. But you know, tried to stick to my game plan and plod my way along, which is what I tried to do.
STEVE TODD: Congratulations again on a well-deserved victory. Thank you for all your time this week and why don't you go and enjoy a nice glass of Ballantine's.

End of FastScripts

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