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BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 23, 2010

Simon Khan

VIRGINIA WATER, ENGLAND

PAUL SYMES: Well, Simon, last time we spoke was after you won the Q-School last year, not too much has gone your way since then. But I guess if you're going to win one tournament this year, this should be pretty high on your priority list.
SIMON KHAN: Yeah, I suppose in the past, I'd always struggled at start of the year. And then generally picked it up between May and sort of July, and it's obviously coincided with this event and a few events in Britain and The Open.
I suppose if you look at my record over the years, that's where most of my money or done well. It's always been an event that I had in my mind all the way through the year.
To get the call on Monday and to get in, that was elation; to get in the tournament. It would have been hard not to play this week. I just the place, I just love coming here, I love just being here and playing and enjoy being here.
PAUL SYMES: And it's been about an hour since the last putt dropped, or a little before, not sure to how it dropped. Defied the law of gravity.
SIMON KHAN: I haven't seen one like that all week. Maybe it was meant to happen. But I don't know, I mean, to be at Tour School, and then you know, the last year was such a hard year, and probably from the middle of '08. And funny enough, my wife and I were reading an article in a golf magazine at the start of the week, and I mentioned at the Tour School that the golf ball and the club don't know that it's the Qualifying School and you've still got to commit yourself and be on the ball of every shot.
I just thought, well, if you can do it there, you know, you can do it -- it's not a nice place to play. This is fantastic. To go back was a real eye-opener.
Even the start of this year, I've struggled to get going really. It's sort of getting the blend right of working the right way technically and mentally and I felt last few weeks, I've got that right.
PAUL SYMES: And today what was the major difference, just the fact that the putts started to drop? Because over the first three days tee-to-green you've been almost as good as anyone.
SIMON KHAN: Yeah, I saw that stat. Monty mentioned it to me yesterday as we walked on the first tee after the first two days. That was nice of him to say that.
I thought, well, don't go out and expect to do the same. Just treat it as a new day, just a round at Wentworth, and enjoy it, and then, you know, playing eight or nine holes, I started to feel it a little bit I would say.
I just started to realise, you know, that a 4- or 5-under score was going to be good today. I wasn't sure it was going to win, but I managed to just sort of relax myself and remind that as a kid, I would have given my right arm to be in this position. I enjoyed the back nine and coming in, I felt in control of my game. It felt great.
PAUL SYMES: And how does it feel to see your name alongside some of the greats of the game?
SIMON KHAN: I was just trying to see when my first year of coming here -- whereas it used to always be the Match Play. That was a special event, and watching Seve here in the Match Play, he won it I think consecutive years, '84 and '85 and those are my first memories of going to a golf tournament. This whole place is a world away. No disrespect, Gants Hill is a lovely place in Chingford, but the golf course here is amazing. I think the changes have been a lot said about them, but I think basically you've got a harder test.
The easier holes in the past have been made harder. But then a hole like the third that I thought was unfair before was made a bit easier. I hit a shot today and it rolled up the back and towards the pin to six-foot where that used to go over the back if you hit it up the top tier. No one has really talked about that.
I think the harder holes have been made -- I think it's still Wentworth, it's still a heathland golf course, and maybe the greens are a bit firmer. But the premium has always been here on accuracy and good iron play, and you know, I managed to do that this week.

Q. It always used to be that the Q-School beginner got an invite and knew about that when he won the Q-School; did you think that was the case?
SIMON KHAN: I knew it wasn't going to get in that way, because Richard McEvoy said to me when he won it, I think it was the first year not to get in. It used to be the winner of the Q-School got in. But, you know, I think obviously I asked George kindly.

Q. When was that?
SIMON KHAN: I spoke to him back in Seville and obviously wrote to him. I mean, you know, I've had a decent record here in the past, and yeah, obviously alongside winning the Tour School I suppose, and Stephen Gallacher, he had a good week, as well. That was good.

Q. Can you just contrast the low you must have felt when you lost your card and what you're feeling now?
SIMON KHAN: Yeah, Graham Otway just reminded me, in Hong Kong, because all last year, towards the end of the way, I felt I was playing really well, and you know, I just really -- I don't think I putted well probably until the school and I still felt that I could do it.
And Portugal Masters and a few other events, Dunhill Links, I felt I had played well enough and just had not finished it off. And Hong Kong, I had a good run in the final round. I was going really well, and I suppose that when it didn't happen in the end, you know, the realisation, it just hit me.
But one of the best things I did was flying home from Hong Kong that night was just to write down all of the good things that I had been doing towards the end of the year and really, I sort of thought, as well, it's been a good period, and that changed my frame of mind completely going into the qualifying. I just went there think being, well, you know, what I've been doing has been good. It didn't happen, but I'm going to finish in the top 5. That was my mind-set in the qualifying when I managed to win it, so it was great.

Q. You said it was a real eye-opener, was that the eye-opener just writing down the fact that you did positive things or were there more things that you had to do with your game?
SIMON KHAN: Yeah, no matter what you've had as a record, you know, it's only the recent record that really counts. And I must admit there were times end of '08, beginning of '09, I thought, you know what, I didn't have the feeling there that I had had. There's personal stuff and things that happened at home and you just -- and also the difficulties on the course; that was an eye-opener to me and made me realise, I got through it and I managed to keep my sanity and keep upbeat about my game.
But with it was an eye-opener, the Qualifying School, because one of the officials actually came up to me and sort of looked at me and said, "What are you doing here?" And actually I sort of -- first of all, I felt a bit offended and then I thought, well, hold on, I've got to take that the right way. He did look genuinely surprised, and that was nice, I suppose.
Then at start of this year, it's been a tough, tough road still at the start of this year, but I just kept in my mind that the big things that I want to achieve and the most important thing in this game is not that -- it is a big deal and obviously my name is always going to be on that trophy, but the journey, as well, I think is the most important thing. It's just part of the journey to what I say I want to do in the future.

Q. What are you going to do tomorrow?
SIMON KHAN: I'm down to qualify. Someone said to me that this doesn't get me -- all the other exemptions, but not the U.S. Open. I really don't know. My caddie said to me, "Don't do it." But obviously this was a few days ago before this has happened. He felt that I needed to play in Madrid and concentrate. Because last year at Bethpage, I missed the cut by a host, and I came back, missed the cut by a shot in the French Open, Scottish Open.
But that's not what I'm about. Pebble Beach, U.S. Open, there's not going to be anything much bigger than that, and I loved Bethpage. That's something that I always remembered that last year. I think if you stopped dreaming of going there and winning those events, you might as well stop, really.

Q. So your plan is to go?
SIMON KHAN: (Laughing).

Q. What time are you off?
SIMON KHAN: 8.30.

Q. You paid tribute to your wife down at the prize-giving. You said it was her birthday today?
SIMON KHAN: It's her birthday today.

Q. What did she say to you before you went off?
SIMON KHAN: She just said, "You got the invite Monday." I tried to look for stuff for her in Windsor, she's the hardest woman to buy for. I just managed to get a card. (Laughter) I got a card from me and my daughter and gave her that this morning. She just said, "Look, I'm not worried about it. You concentrate on what you're doing."
She just sort of said, "Look, go and do it. You can still do this." I must admit, I came up here thinking, I just want to go out and shoot my score. 16 was obviously when I realised that I was really in the tournament and I was quite proud of the way I played the last bit, even with an iffy tee shot on the last. But that and 17, I played that nicely as well really.

Q. You seem to be very strong mentally.
SIMON KHAN: Yeah, it's stuff I've been working on and I think when you're in contention and you're trying to win something, the hardest thing is for your mind; it races forward all the time. I just kept saying to myself, the most important moment is now and that's all that matters. I just kept saying that to myself really.
You know, just not to get ahead of myself and really just I always think even if you make a bogey or a bad swing or something happens to you, or you hit an iffy shot, anything bad that happens to you, there's always a benefit as well and I just try to keep looking at it that way and that's going to help me focus well on my next shot.

Q. You realised you were clear in your mind. The more you work on it, the easier it gets and like you showed today.
SIMON KHAN: Yeah, it's definitely a skill. You have to keep thinking that way. It's a bit like training or working out and going to the gym. You stop doing it, it will go away. You just go out there. And Scott Cransfield has helped me a lot with that over the past and just like to say Matt Bellsham, as well. This win is for him, as well. He lost his wife last week. He's my coach and he's helped me over the years so much with my swing and the stuff I've worked on come coming in.

Q. Did you watch any of Luke Donald playing 17 and 18, and when you knew he had won, was that the best emotion you had ever had on a golf course?
SIMON KHAN: It was a bit surreal. I had sort of been on the range. It was unbelievable. But when I saw him on 17 and where he was on the right and then I went out to hit a few balls; I've learnt from a long time that anything can happen.
And he was so close to holing his shot on the last, wasn't he. I thought he's going to hole his shot on the last and I just didn't want to switch off. So straightaway, I was a bit -- I think I was still a bit in shock really.

Q. Can you put the difference in words between Hong Kong and here?
SIMON KHAN: You know, I love the Tour so much. Your dream is even to start to be out here, and then to win, and then you sort of -- after I won in Wales, it sort of got a little bit hazy. I think The European Tour is still fantastic. I know it's a difficult time, but to lose your card, and to realise, that moment, it's gone; that was the worst I've ever felt. You know, this has got to be the best this year, without a doubt, the best to win this tournament.

Q. Having just got your wife a car for her birthday, which really is appalling, is there anything that you know she wants that you can now get her?
SIMON KHAN: No, I don't know. She's just -- I don't know what she wants. I don't know. But I said we're going to go stay up in London for a night and go to Harvey Nichols or something like that and just let her loose. (Laughter).

Q. You said about holding up to your dreams; you played with Monty yesterday, so he's seen your game, you've won at Celtic Manor, what do you do in September, October time? Is that even something you can start to think about?
SIMON KHAN: Well, you know, 2004, I won, it was a Ryder Cup year. 2006, I had a second here. You can't not think about it. If you don't think you can -- I think you do definitely draw yourself to some stuff, the way you think, and I'm not saying -- I've learnt the hard lessons, as well.
Like I said earlier, I'm going to deal with what's in front of me, and that's it. But if I keep sticking to my process, so to speak, then that's a bit of a miracle, but that's all I'm working about really.

Q. Are you know longer a slow player?
SIMON KHAN: Well, I had to keep up with Monty yesterday. And we were on the clock today actually with me and G-Mac.
I must have slowed down a bit towards the end toward, but that's maybe understandable. No, I've never -- I haven't had an issue. I don't think I've had a bad time since 2005 when I got those. But no, no problems there.
PAUL SYMES: Congratulations.

End of FastScripts

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