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THE CELTIC MANOR WALES OPEN

June 5, 2010

Marcel Siem

NEWPORT, WALES

SCOTT CROCKETT: Thank you, Marcel, as always, for coming in and joining us and congratulations on another good day Marcel. Your score is improving every day which you must be pleased about as well as your position in the tournament?
MARCEL SIEM: It was my second round without a bogey this week which was really nice so I am really pleased with that because I played very well. I was a little angry after nine holes because the putts weren't going in and I was playing well and when I was looking up at the board I saw that the guys were playing really well behind me. I didn't putt really aggressive, I think that was the mistake on the first few holes but on the back nine I was hitting my approach shots a bit closer and I hit a good putt on the 11th which got me going. After that I hit them a lot closer and I enjoyed it and then made the putts on 14 and 15 today. I saw I was three shots ahead with three to play and then I just made sure I didn't short side myself with any of the putts on the closing holes because, as I said yesterday, if you short side yourself on these greens you can be in big trouble. But the scoring was good today, maybe the wind was not swirling around as much as yesterday and it was a bit more consistent.
SCOTT CROCKETT: What's most pleasing about your game, the fact that you're concentrating well and not letting anything go in that respect?
MARCEL SIEM: I think a bit of both. My technique is coming together now, my long game and my short game, and today I didn't have to use my short game that much. I hit a lot of greens but the wedges were really good.
The concentration, for sure, if you lead a tournament by three shots in that field, I think everything has to come together, because I'm not Tiger Woods or something, to have my B Game on and lead my three shots. So everything was going my way, and I'm really happy.

Q. And now the challenge of Sunday awaits - how do you approach that?
MARCEL SIEM: Yeah, I'm looking forward to it now, honestly, because like I said, Top-10 is good, and I played defensive. I think my course management was defensive today, as well. But from fairway to pin, I was really aggressive, and that's what I wanted to do tomorrow, again. I don't want to play stupidly.
And on the 9th, it's such a dangerous golf hole, it's easy for me to hit a driver or 4-iron and 5-iron, but I still kept my head on and said, okay, it's 3-wood, lay it up, and 18 the same.
I just want to keep doing the same and I really, really want to win a tournament again. It was 2004 in South Africa, 2007 Bernhard Langer with the World Cup, so 2010 would be time again.
So I'm really going to try to stay cool tomorrow and try my best. A good start is going to help, because a few guys are going to definitely make birdies tomorrow. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.

Q. You said you were angry on the front nine which is a little worrying as you did have the reputation for being a little hot headed in the past?
MARCEL SIEM: Yeah, maybe it was the wrong word. I lost my patience a little bit maybe. I'm a nice guy. I'm a nice guy, and I just have to be as nice -- I just have to be nice to myself. I think that's the problem that many people tell me. I don't have a lot of arguments with people at home or on the golf course, and obviously people like me. I'm just really bad to myself, and that's on the golf course.
I'm learning to be nice to myself on the golf course, and then the aggression is not going to come up. I'm 29 now and it's time to learn that. I'm saying that for three years. I know it, and I just have to do it. But I talked a lot with my girlfriend about it and my parents, and you know, my dad has been saying to me, it's difficult to change all of a sudden, but I really want to do it and to become a better golfer, and I think that's the only chance to do it.

Q. And of course the singing helps?
MARCEL SIEM: Yeah, all of the coaches say that, if you're on the course and you start thinking about stuff you shouldn't think, or think -- I don't know the word, the English call it, whistle, just whistle and get into a better mood and start thinking about stuff you shouldn't that.

Q. And the song is?
MARCEL SIEM: I like -- it's called, I don't know if 'I like, I like or something like that, I think it might be by Beyonce but I'm not sure. I'm not that much into stuff like that. I just like the song but I'm not going to sing now, for sure.

Q. And of course you have your two little dogs to think about as well
MARCEL SIEM: Yeah, my two little dogs, my Maltese. I just bought a baby Maltese last year, Gustav and PiÃ±a is seven years old, it's Laura's dog, she brought it into the relationship, ha-ha. (Laughter). And Gustav is a really, really cool dog. You're going to see him in Munich. I'm going to bring him there.

Q. What are the requirements to shoot low on this golf course?
MARCEL SIEM: You have to give yourself really good chances. Today I think the pins were a little bit easier than the days before. The wind was a lot easier, I have to say. The par 5s were not as short as the days before, so it kind of evens out a little bit you feel like.
A lot of scary things around, I think you have to be really, really -- you have to have a lot of confidence in your game and your putting and in your short game, so you can go for the pins.
There's a lot of water around, and the par 5s, if you take advantage, like any golf course, you have four par 5s, we should birdie every par 5. But those par 5s are not that easy, and on the 9th, the tee box was a little bit forward today, and so some guys with a lot of confidence, maybe nothing to lose because they are on level or 1-over, they have to shoot low are going to go for it.
It's a bit like golf courses where you only have rough and you can hit out of the rough onto soft greens and still make birdies. But if you're out of position on this golf course, you still have problems, so it's really important that you have good strategy and make good golf shots. The greens are not that easy to be able to hold all of these slopey putts. You have to be on the right side.

Q. What is the most extreme example you have of losing your temper on the golf course?
MARCEL SIEM: It's a long time ago. Getting better and better every day and every year. I was it was in Cologne 2007 I think. I really wanted to play well on my home course, and with a lot of crowd around, and especially with the kids, I didn't see the kids on the left and I snapped the driver to pieces and I saw the kids on the left, I just felt -- you can't do that.
You can swear, you can break the club when the people are not there and nobody sees it, but when the kids are around, I nearly started crying because I felt so bad about it. And the kids, you know, first of all, doesn't matter how bad I played; the kids still loved me and they follow me and all of the sudden they were like looking on the ground like, oohh, what's this guy doing. And I scared them, it actually, and that was the worst thing ever, and I will never, ever do that again, that's for sure.

Q. Were you fined?
MARCEL SIEM: To be honest, yeah, I got fined there, but when I do it, if I do it, I do it that nobody sees it, so more stories, hearing, talking, nobody sees it. I don't have actually that many fines. People always say that I behave badly. I don't think I'm behaving that badly anymore. Once you hear his name, everybody is talking about it. I don't think I'm that bad. There are guys that are much worse than me on Tour, that's for sure. Just be careful when the steam comes out and make sure people are not there, and especially that the kids are not going to see it.
SCOTT CROCKETT: Thank you, Marcel, good luck tomorrow.

End of FastScripts

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