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THE BARCLAYS SCOTTISH OPEN

July 11, 2010

Edoardo Molinari

LUSS, SCOTLAND

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Edoardo, many congratulation, your first win on Tour today, they don't come much better than The Barclays Scottish Open, you must feel pretty good.
EDOARDO MOLINARI: Absolutely. It was a dream day today to be honest. When we teed off, it was so windy that I thought I didn't have any chance against Darren because he's a great player when conditions are like that. And just got off to a good start, and especially birdieing the third, I was very patient on the third hole, and after that, I just had to play conservative golf, middle of the fairway, middle of green, keep making pars, pars and then all of a sudden I birdied 14 and I went to five back and then ten minutes later I was struggling to make double-bogey on 15.
Then the last three holes, I think I just played great. I hit two great shots on 16 to the heart of the green. I think one of the best 5-irons of my life on 17, and unfortunately I missed the putt and then on 18, after Darren hit the tee shot on the fairway, I knew I had to make four just, I hit one of the best irons of my life and went straight down the fairway where I was aiming, a long, long way, and obviously a good second shot and a great putt.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: You just said it was the best 74 of your life.
EDOARDO MOLINARI: When I saw the conditions this morning, you could have shot any number today to be honest. There were so many holes with the wind, especially like 10, the tee shot on 10, you can stay there half an hour if you don't hit it straight. And then 14 today, I mean, I hit the second shot first, and I hit a great shot first and I hit a great shot, and Francesco missed it short and Darren missed it long, and end up struggled to make five, and it was very difficult and I'm really proud and happy of the way I played today.

Q. To have won this, how does that stand up against your wins in the World Cup and the Amateur?
EDOARDO MOLINARI: I think it's probably bigger than the U.S. Amateur I would say, but I think the World Cup with Francesco was probably second only to a major because to win the World Cup with your brother is something that never happened before and probably will never happen again, unless we can win it again.
To be honest, I think the World Cup -- it's probably a tie. It was very important.

Q. And now he is in fifth place in The Ryder Cup table, top of the Money List, you are only 11 points behind Ian Poulter; he was out there with you today and could be out there with you in October.
EDOARDO MOLINARI: That would be fantastic, because as I said yesterday, I didn't have any expectation of winning today or making The Ryder Cup Team, and then obviously today is a great push toward The Ryder Cup Team, and I think we showed already with Francesco how well we can play together, because I think our games are very complimentary.
We are both very good drives I think, and Francesco is probably one of the best iron players on Tour. And I'm probably one of the -- if not one of the best putters -- I'm a good putter. So like we showed at the World Cup, we were playing the same foursome and fourball, it was almost the same because even at foursome sometimes he was hitting the second shots and I was holing the putts.

Q. It's taken a little while to catch up on Francesco, but what does it feel like now, both of you brothers winning on the Tour, both having Tour titles?
EDOARDO MOLINARI: Yeah, it's taken a little while. Francesco is a very consistent player, very steady. He's improved every year since he came out on Tour a little bit and he still is progressing. While I've been on Tour once, lost my card and played last year on The Challenge Tour and then obviously so far this year it's been a great season.
I think we are very different to each other. As I said to before, we are very complimentary to each other, and to be honest, if Francesco keeps progressing the way he has been last two or three years, he's going to be one of the best players in the world in the next couple of years.

Q. Darren Clarke seemed to have kind of lost it on the third hole, do you know what I mean, would you go along with that?
EDOARDO MOLINARI: Well, obviously after the third hole, all of the sudden instead of having a one-shot lead, I had a four-shot lead, and that's obviously a big turning point. But we still had 15 holes to play and it was very windy and you can have double-bogey on any hole today to be honest.
So I still think that until I hit the tee shot on 18, it was way up and if I miss my tee shot right or left on 18 and Darren hits it -- he hit it to 12 feet, then I'm in serious danger.
So obviously he was trying to come-from-behind, and he didn't putt very well today, but I think he -- it was obviously very, very difficult and I think I handled myself very well 15.

Q. 15 could have been anything.
EDOARDO MOLINARI: Yeah, it could have been any number. Last year I lost a tournament in Denmark, I was three ahead on 17 and kind of similar situation, I hit it in the rough, very bad lie, tried to play it and end up making triple-bogey and lost the tournament by one.
So obviously I didn't have good memories, but I just took my time to find out where I could drop it and I was lucky enough to find a spot about ten yards short of where the ball rolled where nine times out of ten I could hit it out. When I dropped the ball, if I took -- if the ball bounced, I could have stayed there forever.
So I was a little about the lucky, but I think you have to be a little bit lucky to win any tournament.

Q. Do you think this win will register in Italy, will it knock football off the pages?
EDOARDO MOLINARI: I saw one of the first pages in the newspaper a line this morning, there was a small picture with about this much on the first page, and so I think that tomorrow there will be a bigger picture and probably big comments, interviews.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: We don't have much football to talk about now, do we.
EDOARDO MOLINARI: We are still world champions for another half hour (laughing).

Q. How much are you looking forward to The Open next week at St. Andrews given the form that you're in?
EDOARDO MOLINARI: I can't wait to be there to be honest. St. Andrews is a place I've always loved by vision, since the first time I played it. I think it's the course where the more times you play, the better it gets. So I'm quite excited to go there and play a practise round with Francesco again and hopefully be in the final group again with him.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Many congratulations and play well next week.

End of FastScripts

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