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THE CELTIC MANOR WALES OPENJune 2, 2010Simon KhanNEWPORT, WALES GORDON SIMPSON: Simon, welcome back to Wales, a venue you know very well having won The Celtic Manor Wales Open here in the past, obviously on a different golf course, but it's been a fairly whirlwind few days for you. Maybe take us through what's happened. Obviously you won the title and you just missed out on the U.S. Open and you've been on breakfast TV. It's been an interesting few days, I would imagine. SIMON KHAN: Yeah, got up and played the next morning. I actually felt pretty good about playing (the US Open Qualifier). To go out and on the course and turn the phone off was nice for four hours. As I say, I played in the morning and felt fine and played well in the morning. The afternoon was almost as good. It was just a shame it didn't work out in the end. By the time the playoff came around, I really was dead on my feet after waiting an hour and a half, and I had a couple of things to do on the phone and I sort of got a little bit switched off. A bit unfortunate for me, the guys all made birdie on the short par 4, a birdie hole. GORDON SIMPSON: Shows you what a fickle game it is? SIMON KHAN: Yeah, I've been playing long enough to know both sides of it. So just got to brush it off a little bit. I felt disappointed driving home, and I spoke to one of my friends, one of my best friends on the way home from Walton Heath and sort of talking to him, and known him since I started playing golf and that sort of made me realise what I had done on Sunday. Then obviously there was a week when I'm -- when it started to sink in. I played Wednesday and then later in the week and it hits you, really, and obviously the next tournament starts and with golf, that's what I admire about the Olympians and people like that is they have got four years and they have got the big event and that's it. With golf, it can become -- there's another tournament. I got a few texts at the weekends mainly from my family. GORDON SIMPSON: How many did you get? SIMON KHAN: God knows, hundreds! It just seems winning here was unbelievable. Winning Wentworth, our biggest tournament, and just the response, yeah. Q. Who did you hear from? SIMON KHAN: Yeah, a couple of -- I played with Ruud Gullit - he called me. I won a Pro-Am with him and we had been playing the last couple of years in Holland, Kennemer. Won a Pro-Am with him a couple of years ago there and he's a real good character, he really wanted to win the Pro-Am, you could tell, from the first tee. We really hit it off and then I sort of see him every year at the Dunhill Links. Yeah, he called me, and so that was really nice, and a couple others I've played golf with, but people you don't expect a lot of the time, as well. A few of the players at Walton Heath on Monday, as well. I think, such an individual game, and I've never been one of those players to think, you know, whatever you like on the course or around the golf course. That's fine by me. It's our place of work. But the more experienced players come up to you and say how pleased they are for you, that meant a lot to me, as well, on Monday. GORDON SIMPSON: Seems as if it's still just gradually working its way into your system, the enormity of what you've done. SIMON KHAN: It is, really. When I went to pick the trophy up on the 18th green, that moment had been in my mind so often, and maybe it is that you've got to believe it before you actually do it. You know, a few weeks earlier, playing in Mallorca and then so much building up to that, it seemed -- it's a bit ridiculous. I figured winning a tournament like this, but when I put the invite into George (O'Grady) in Seville, and one of the best bits of advice is you've got to think that you're already going to get in it. And so when I got the call on Monday, I sort of felt ready to go and play. Q. What does this mean to you personally and in career terms? SIMON KHAN: In terms of like my values and who I am, first and foremost for me, my wife and family, it always has been, and always will be, and you know, the golf -- and Ruby, one child. In terms of career, it's everything. I mean, I wants it to be part of the journey so to speak. When I won in Wales and when I won here, it was -- you know, to get on Tour and then to win, then I sort of reached my goal really. But to win in Wales, and to win at Wentworth was -- it feels like, yeah, I want to do that, and more. So it's just, like I say, golf tournaments can become a bit of a procession, but how you play and how you are in yourself, that's what I learnt at Wentworth was how I played, I wanted to play for all four days, and it just so happened it turned out and it worked out well. I was saying to Mark last week, I used to go watch -- not by any means putting myself in that bracket of player yet, but the Faldos and Langers, used to go and watch them and think, oh, hold on, birdie there, birdie there, yeah, they shot 66, won the tournament. A couple of guys said to me this week, often it can happen like that in the bigger tournaments when the course is playing tough, the guy who gets in first can set the target and often they are the ones who win. But in terms of the future, still taking it in but I still want it to be part of the journey going on really now. GORDON SIMPSON: Have you revised your schedule now? SIMON KHAN: Yeah, it's quite nice to look at the schedule now. Tournaments like Ireland, Scotland, France, Barclays and the French Open, I was struggling to get in those. And they are huge tournaments for me, and tournaments I've done quite well in in the past, as well, and really looking forward to those. Loch Lomond is a massive event in its own right and obviously then St. Andrews, the WGCs, the PGA. It's fantastic to look forward to those events. GORDON SIMPSON: And you're in most of them until 2016 with the five year exemption. Q. How low were you and when? SIMON KHAN: In Hong Kong after that final round, that was the lowest I've ever felt, and I think because towards the end of the year, I felt like I was playing better but not really getting the results obviously that I needed, and probably just pushing a little bit more -- pushing really hard to try and keep my heart. And then, you know, when it hit in Hong Kong, that's the lowest I've ever, ever felt. Not that I took playing out here for granted but definitely took my eye off the ball from, say, the middle of 2008 until the end of -- towards the end of last year, so about a year, and mentally just switched off a little bit. If you stop doing the habits and the sort of rocks that get you success, then it can easily just slip away. It's just the last few weeks, and I think last week was a culmination of that. It's not a massive secret to it. Just sort of doing the solid things well and regularly and keeping the faith, I suppose. Keep believing. Q. What did you do for your wife's birthday? SIMON KHAN: Well, we were going to go last Saturday and she said, look, we are so tired, we'll just go out to London and sleep in a hotel and come home. So went shopping in Loughton in Essex, which is lovely, actually. You ought to try it out, it's not too bad, note quite Knightsbridge but it's okay. Q. Any other messages? SIMON KHAN: Ian Wright. We had the same agent, he was great, just very, you know, he's a good person to talk to any time, really. So he was really good, yeah. Q. Inaudible. SIMON KHAN: The main thing I got out of Wentworth was I managed to play a final round in a massive tournament like that without any expectations, and you know, I think that was the key to me winning. You know, one of my thoughts was let everyone else worry about what's going to happen. All that mattered to me really was, you know, the moment, and I know all of the golfers talk about it all the time but when you're in contention and in a big tournament -- and I've felt it before -- your mind just wanders ahead. It just happens every time. I remember Lee (Westwood) talking about it last year at The Open, and it does. It happens. Just to get back in that moment is easy to say, really hard to do, and I managed to do it last week. And I didn't think, this is what I've got to do; I've got to play the next few holes like this. I just kept saying the only moment that matters is now really and just hit your shot to the best of your ability. Q. Inaudible SIMON KHAN: I'm not saying -- you've got to think about it. I've sort of always felt recently the only thing I can deal with is what in front of me. If I look back -- I write a lot of things down all the time, and the BMW PGA at Wentworth seems to pop up with a lot of notes I make. It just shows you that things can happen like that sometimes, can't that. Like I said, the big thing I learnt, if you don't think about it, it probably won't happen. Q. Have you written down 'Ryder Cup'? SIMON KHAN: It's not on there at the moment but it's sort of -- always had a good imagination I suppose. I remember when I played with Graeme McDowell in Scotland when he won a couple of years ago, you could see that win in the last few holes, and afterwards, the first thing he said, it was about The Ryder Cup, you could see how much it meant to him, and obviously it was on his mind. I felt disappointed but at the same time I looked at him and I thought, you know what -- and it actually helped me playing with him on Sunday because the last time I played with him he won on Scotland and sometimes you look at little moments like that. But you could definitely see it in his eyes; he wanted that Ryder Cup in a big way. If you don't want it, it probably won't happen. Q. Do you want it in a big way? SIMON KHAN: Of course you do. Everyone who plays on this tour who is eligible has got to -- I hope they all think the same way. You know, listening to Gareth Edwards last night at the dinner, you know, I mean, my dad is a massive rugby man, born in Dublin, told stories of Willie John McBride all the time and he wanted me and my brother to play rugby, and listening to Gareth Edwards, absolutely legend, my dad would have absolutely cried his eyes out listening to him last night. He didn't come up to me, but just, you know, you could see the passion and inspiration he had for obviously his teammates. It's our opportunity to do that once every two years, and what an event, what an event it's going to be here. I think the crowds are going to be unbelievable. Q. Do you have little notes or a more official document? SIMON KHAN: Yeah, sort of managed to get more organised. Yeah, I've been working with Scott Cranfield and he's local to me and I've known him a long time and he knows me very well and he sort of works with me on that side of it. He's got me a folder now. Thoughts are all over the place, but it's a little bit more organised. So, you know, I managed organise it a bit more. You know, you get inspired by a lot of different things and sometimes it can be a quote or something like that. There was something I read the week of Wentworth, I think things that trigger you and help you relax at the same time, that can only be good. I don't know where they quite. Fight came from, I don't know the source of it -- I've always associated the will to win -- it was the will to win and the commitment to excel is more important than what actually occurs. I don't know where it came from, that one, but I've always thought the will to win is actually trying really hard and straining to do it, but made me realise, well, if you do everything you can, then that sums it up pretty well for me. This week, it could be something different. The thing I've learnt, as well, over the years is there's a balance, not saying if you think brilliantly you're always going to do all right. There's a balance and a lot of time in the past, I think technique and working on that is overriding the mental side and I think it's a real -- if you're swinging poorly, then obviously you've got to address it. But you know, I think the guys who win each week have got the most energy and the most feeling to do it that week, and it often happens, doesn't it. There's always a story of someone who wins. I think we all forget stuff, afterwards. Golfers are classic, as well, you sort of forget things at work, stuff that you've done. Just really just how I felt at Wentworth. One of the good things I did at the end of last year was on the plane back from Hong Kong that night was just sit on the plane, and as disappointed as I felt was to just write down everything that I've been working on those last six weeks that I had done good and in the end, I actually thought, you know what, this period has been a bit of a success, really, in terms of how I played definitely compared to the earlier part of the year. And then going into the Qualifying School, that helped straightaway, when I went into the School, rather than feeling sorry for myself and anything like that. It's easy to get down on yourself in this game and think about the bad shots. So you've got to sort of just remind yourself sometimes. It's like when you look at the montage, the clips of The Ryder Cup last night watching that, what a great thing to look at. And for someone like Tiger, you know, with all of the clips of him holing putts and winning shots when they are holding trophies, I think it all helps. GORDON SIMPSON: Good luck this week and keep it going. End of FastScripts |
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