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VOLVO GOLF CHAMPIONS

January 30, 2011

Richard Finch

KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN, BAHRAIN

Q. A 63, joint-course record. Pretty impressive?
RICHARD FINCH: Yeah, slight disappointment going into the recording area. I saw yesterday Todd Hamilton shot 64, so coming down last few holes I was keen to make sure I beat that one. And then Barry in recording informed me that SÃ¸ren had a 63 earlier today.
I'm delighted with the score, even if it's not a course record, you know what I mean. And someone might do better later on.
Delighted. Scored a lot better than the last few days. I haven't felt as if I got out of it how I played, if you know what I mean, so it's nice. To have a run of 1-under par 71s, I was fearing the worst today sort of thing. But yeah, delighted really. Played nicely, off to a great start.
Birdies, got off to a good start which was good and eagled the 9th to reach the front nine in 29 which is probably a first I think in a European Tour event for me.

Q. It is a first; you've never shot that before.
RICHARD FINCH: Right, okay. So that was good. And I thought, well, how about we try this on the back nine and go for 58, and if we fail we do 59, which won't be a bad thing.
So I birdied 10 and I was 8-under after 10 and it was looking good. But 11, 12, 13, 14, that's where I needed to push on and try to make a few more birdies if anything unbelievable was going to happen, as it were, and it just never quite got going that way and was a bit of the struggle at last to scramble a par but managed to do that and hopefully take the form into next week.

Q. SÃ¸ren said he never really considered a 59 out there, but he did try to belt one on the first of those par 5s on the back nine. Did you do the same?
RICHARD FINCH: Yeah, with my tee shot I did, yeah. I said to my caddie, could do with an eagle, and I hit one right around the corner perfect, it was between a 2- and a 3-iron and hit a 2-iron and didn't hit a very good shot and left myself a sort of awkward, helter-skelter pitch shot. Left it on the top of the hill and just didn't quite hit it hard enough. That was out the window really.
But certainly 8-under after ten, if you just happen to -- I think you need a couple of eagles, always helps turbo-charge you, if you like. On a par 72, if you can eagle a couple, it gives you more room for error.
I did sort of think about it jokingly but never really materialized sort of thing in the end, so never mind. I'm just pleased with the round to be honest.

Q. You mentioned that string of 71s; what did make the particular difference?
RICHARD FINCH: Hitting the ball a little bit closer but generally just not managing to get the ball to the hole. I've just not been hitting the putts. They are obviously very slopey as everyone knows and not very quick, so I've just not got my eye in and when you're not hitting it quite near enough as well it's not a good combination. Wasn't quite striking the putts up the middle.
The roll wasn't true if you like, so you've got to certainly hit it out -- yesterday I didn't really hole that much again, but today it clicked in and I started to see the lines and the putts were dropping, which it nice.

Q. Is the course a little easier today? There were four of you at 9-under at one stage. Are the pins in a very kind position?
RICHARD FINCH: They are probably what most of the pros would call sucker pins in that a few of them, if you get the right shot, then you can have yourself -- you can get around it. But if you're not quite spot on, it's tough.
The guys going out leading will probably see the scores that have been shot this morning and think the pins are easy, and it's not. There's a lot on little shelves and ridges when and when you're spot-on, you can certainly get close to the pin. But you don't have to be far off before you're running off into swales and hollows. It's probably not as easy as the scoring would suggest but we are going out there this morning early on with nothing to lose as it were at the bottom of the field, so give it a go and see what happens. For a few of us it's managed to pay off.

Q. The bigger picture, you can take confidence and build for the forthcoming events?
RICHARD FINCH: Totally, yeah, I was a little bit shellshocked the beginning of this week really. I finished last week in Abu Dhabi with a last round of 5-under par and I was hoping to bring the form over here. I played on Tuesday and the practise round was absolutely woeful, and that took the wind out of my sails a little bit.
It's been all right this week. I've played, just not leaving myself too many 15-foot putts for birdie, and when you've not quite got your eye in and you're not holing that many of those, or very few of them, need to just step up a bit, and that's what happened today. Was a bit nearer into the pin and holed a few putts, as well. A bit of everything.

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