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UBS HONG KONG OPENNovember 20, 2010Ian PoulterFANLING, HONG KONG Third Round 64. 19-Under Total. 191 MICHAEL GIBBONS: Many thanks for joining us. Great finish to another round. IAN POULTER: Nice birdie putt on 2 from about 15 feet and I hit a great second shot on the third, the par 5. Rolled that in, made eagle. And then silly things start going through your mind after yesterday's round of golf, and kind of froze over the hole for about eight holes. It was nice to make an easy 2-putt birdie on 13 and a little bit of patience on the last two holes to roll two 30-foot putts in to go two clear into tomorrow. MICHAEL GIBBONS: You're atop a great leaderboard and you have Mr. McDowell for company tomorrow. IAN POULTER: It's going to be good fun. We had lunch earlier in the week, actually, Tuesday it was, and we was having a little bit of banter in the pub, and I told Graeme I was going to win this week. And then Rory walked in and they had a bit of banter between those two, because Graeme had just gone a place in front of Rory in the World Rankings, so there's been some banter between those two and obviously me telling Graeme. So it's going to be a great day tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it. We had some fun certainly over the last few weeks. You know, Graeme's in good form, I'm in good form, Rory is playing well, Simon Dyson is up there, so this golf course is going to give up a low score tomorrow. So it should be good fun. Q. What is your lowest score ever -- IAN POULTER: 60. Q. -- for four rounds? IAN POULTER: Oh, for four? MICHAEL GIBBONS: 60? (Laughter). IAN POULTER: I don't know. Q. McDowell was in earlier and he said that the preferred lies, he figures it's good for two strokes a round. Do you agree? IAN POULTER: I've got to say, I haven't had many bad lies on the fairway this week. I mean, how many shots is it worth? Don't know. You might even play better if you played the ball down, who knows. You are going to get a tiny bit of advantage, but how can you equate that into a score, I'm not sure. It could be a tiny bit easier if guys are going to prefer it and get a nice little lie with certain clubs. It could help. But how many shots? I'm not sure. Q. Did you choose not to lift it? IAN POULTER: You lift it every time. I mean, absolutely. If ever you've got a chance to clean it, you clean it. (Laughter) you make sure you find the best lie, for sure. As long as it's within the scorecard, it's fine. Q. You said this course yields a lot of birdies but how important is it in a four-round picture to get those last two birdies? IAN POULTER: Huge. I saw the guys get off to a good start and it was frustrating in the middle part of the round to not convert some of those chances I had. With Graeme pressing and Simon pressing, you know, I wanted to make sure that I went into tomorrow with a little lead, so, yeah, it was huge. I felt I hit a great shot into 17 but it kind of pitched on the downgrain and released probably 30 feet. I mean it looked pretty stiff in the fairway. So it was good to hole that. And obviously a huge breaking left-to-right on the last. So that's key, really, to making sure you go into Sunday with taking a nice advantage. Q. McDowell earlier in the interview room mentioned 17-under -- but the winning score is 22-under. So what's your expectation? IAN POULTER: Make birdie on the first tomorrow and let's see and let's go and play golf. Q. So winning score will be? IAN POULTER: Do you know? I don't know. (Laughter). One ahead of everyone else. That is definitely going to be the winning score. Who knows. Q. The first hole, I think six of the last eight players got birdies on that hole and you had I thought one of the best putts of the day. How big was that? IAN POULTER: Just a great start. My tee shot, I pulled it a little bit, four yards, keeps it from being a good drive that's going to be in the middle of the fairway, I have to lay-up, hit a good shot to probably 15 feet and you know, I pulled it straight in the middle, which was nice. It would have been a dampener to make bogey on the first, and I go bogey-free again today. So that's three days in a row. Whenever you can play without a bogey on the card, you should be able to shoot a decent score. Q. Have you ever played three rounds without a bogey before? IAN POULTER: Yes. Q. Four rounds? IAN POULTER: No. I managed to make one bogey in Madrid in 2006, which was frustrating because it was my 15th or 16th hole. Q. The eagle? IAN POULTER: Driver, 5-iron to 12 or 15 feet. Q. Also, you've got such a great match-play record and you have the Match Play champion, is it important to not get into a match-play situation with Graeme tomorrow? IAN POULTER: I don't mind. I mean, as long as Graeme's clear of the other guys and I'm clear of everyone else, then you can get into kind of a match-play situation. You know, this type of golf course, I guess, the amount of birdies it gives up, it is kind of that kind of format where you are going at every single pin and you're trying to make birdie on every single hole. So, you know, I don't mind getting suckered into a bit of that as long as we're clear of everyone else and we can have some fun. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Ian, wish you all the best tomorrow. End of FastScripts |
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