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3 IRISH OPEN

August 1, 2010

Ross Fisher

KILLARNEY, IRELAND

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Ross, many congratulations, 3 Irish Open Champion. Just give us your reaction to winning today, an awesome day for you.
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, I mean, don't know if it's really sunk in yet. But yeah, it feels absolutely great. It was nice to be able to enjoy another victory, my fourth one. I got to enjoy, European Open and stuff, so to win another tournament is great, but to win a National Open means a great deal. I've come close in Ireland a couple of times, and to get it done in front of obviously record crowds and to beat Paddy obviously fighting all the way, I'll definitely treasure this for a long time.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: It's a special day, wasn't it, it was great to watch and as you say, crowds happy to see the victory in the Irish Open.
ROSS FISHER: I hope so. I mean, it was difficult, I mean, playing with Shane, obviously the past two days was great. Obviously we had a great crowd and obviously playing with the three Irish boys, G-Mac, playing with Paddy, the crowds were just tremendous. You knew that the cheers were for Paddy and I knew he was going to push all the way to the end.
You know, I was very fortunate to birdie 15 and 16, and had a quick peak and saw he finished 16. So I knew I had to just play solid golf, hit one shot at a time, gave myself a little bit too much work to do on 17 but was very relieved to go to 18 with a two-shot lead and enjoy the walk.

Q. I thought the birdie on 15 was crucial, because Harrington had just eagled 16, is that a fair comment?
ROSS FISHER: I would say so. I didn't realise he had eagled 16. I knew he was obviously making birdies out there, but I didn't realise that he had eagled 16.
Yeah it was coming at a time where I had given myself a good opportunity on the previous hole and slid by and had not actually played 15 particularly well. I've hit driver the first three days and haven't found the fairway, and so I was fortunate that Wobs said to me, I think you can just hit 3-wood on the same line, hit it up the fairway and hit to four or five feet, and that kind of settled me down. And to actually step up there and miss the bunkers on 16 for the first time in five days, I mean, I've hit it in that left trap Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, so that was one place I didn't want to go today.
To finally make a birdie, to open up a gap was crucial.

Q. There was a time where when the Irish Open was one of the premiere events on The European Tour, but that has not been the case for some years; and a lot of the Irish guys are satisfied that it's back where it belongs.
ROSS FISHER: I think it has been for a long time, and for me, personally, I don't think it's ever not been a premium event. I think it's right up there. You know, it's a National Open. Besides majors, WGCs and stuff like that, you know, Wentworth obviously is our biggest event, the BMW, PGA. Besides that, I personally look at tournaments like Ireland, Loch Lomond, Paris, those sort of tournaments as big, big tournaments.
I was just very fortunate that this week fitted in nicely to the schedule. Always nice to come back to Ireland. The hospitality this week and every time I've been to Ireland has been absolutely outstanding. And this week's been no different. I mean, it was a great location. The hotel has been absolutely first class. I know that there's no set in stone that we are going to be back here next year, but obviously winning it, just everything about this week, I really hope it's here for many more years.

Q. You're in The Ryder Cup nine now, this must give you a great deal of confidence for the next two weeks, as well?
ROSS FISHER: Absolutely. That was one of my goals at the start of the season. Golf's been good but results haven't been so good so far this year. So I kind of put a little bit more pressure on myself, having some good weeks in the last sort of month and a half gave me a bit of momentum to push on.
I was very disappointed with my performance at The Open. I felt like I gave myself a chance there which didn't quite come through, and I knew this was coming. I knew I was playing well enough. Just was a case of biding my time and for the game to be as good as it has been to keep going, and obviously the only thing I've really struggled with this year is putting.
But you know, I've putted real solid this week, and it's nice from obviously a personal standpoint. I've moved up the World Rankings, The Race to Dubai and The Ryder Cup is a huge goal for me. It's not over yet and I'm sure there will be some changes and some shuffling around and I know this is the first big week of three weeks in a row for me.
So it couldn't have got off to a better start with winning this week, but I'm going to have to go obviously to Bridgestone tomorrow, look forward to playing there, and the US PGA, two very, very big tournaments and I want to go out there and prove that this wasn't a fluke and I want to go out there and try and contend the next two weeks if I can.

Q. Given you've broken approximately 3 million hearts, how do you feel the reception you got was from the fans? Did you feel it was warm?
ROSS FISHER: I thought the fans were tremendous. Obviously they are going to be pulling for Paddy and the local Irish guys, but you know, even walking onto tees, walking up fairways to play approaches to the green was getting applauded all the way around, all 18 holes.
So for me, I felt very, very comfortable and at home. I felt like there was a tremendous amount of home support for me out there. Obviously, like you say, 3 million or however many fans there were were disappointed that Paddy didn't win, but hopefully they see me and they weren't too disappointed with the champion this year.

Q. Have you always considered yourself strong mentally, just with some of the clutch putting that you made out there particularly on 17?
ROSS FISHER: Yeah, I mean, I haven't really worked with anyone specifically. I did a little bit of work with a guy when I was in the English Golf Union, but I don't know, I guess I've just been very, very lucky to be born with a strong mental attitude.
I approach things very calmly. I think it helps massively this week with Wobs on the bag, he was tremendous, kept me calm, kept me relaxed, one shot at a time, and like you say, there was a lot of clutch putts out there. I holed a lot on Friday in the 61 and the only difference on Saturday was the putter just didn't get warm. I just have to go out there today and be patient and hit some good shots and when I did, try and capitalise. I missed a few, but I holed some good putts today, and like you say, good putt on 15 and two putts on 16 and 17 was obviously crucial. Obviously the lag putt on the last to see it go a foot and a half, two foot, I was fairly confident that I could manage that one.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Ross, many congratulations, 3 Irish Open Champion. Well done.

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