	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

COMMERCIALBANK QATAR MASTERS PRESENTED BY DOLPHIN ENERGY

February 4, 2011

Markus Brier

DOHA, QATAR

STEVE TODD: Thanks for coming in, Markus. Some round out there today, 66. You must be delighted with the progress you made up the leaderboard there today.
MARKUS BRIER: Yeah, very much. I mean, I could see in the morning it was a little less wind, and so obviously the opportunities were there. But played solid. Hit enough fairways, not all of them.
But yeah, I kept the ball in play and holed a few two or three really long putts, and that obviously makes the difference between a good and very good round. Didn't make mistakes.
I was lucky on 9 on my last hole with a wayward drive and made birdie out of it; so that's like a two-shot win there. The rest was pretty solid. In the end didn't get it that close but I'm happy, I mean, 6-under, it's great to be up there again and hopefully it stays like this.
STEVE TODD: You just touched on the last hole there, I know you've explained several times outside, but you saved a potentially rocky situation, excuse the pun; if you can just talk us through that one.
MARKUS BRIER: Yeah, I hit it way right, maybe like 30 yards right, or 40 yards right. And you can end up in a horrible lie there, unplayable, everything between the rocks, and I had a good lie fortunately.
And then I moved three quite good, big stones away. Actually my caddie had to help me because the biggest one was like, I don't know, two basketballs or so, so I could hit a 7-iron at least forward. And then had like 200 metres to the flag and didn't really go for the flag.
I just wanted to get it on to the green which I did, and it was a solid shot where I wanted it and then holed it from, I don't know, 12 metres. Horrendous putt.
Yeah, that was the bonus at the end, but even if that one doesn't drop, it's still a good round, so I'm happy.
STEVE TODD: Advantages of having a big caddie there.
MARKUS BRIER: Yeah, that's good. Normally you don't want to have to use him for things like this, but here it can happen, and I mean, the little ones I can do myself, but the biggest one was his size.

Q. What's your caddie's name?
MARKUS BRIER: Max. He's been with me for over five years.

Q. He's your manager, as well, isn't he?
MARKUS BRIER: No, that's my brother. Yeah, we are over five years together since 2006 -- no, 2005. And yeah, we have been good. It's good when you speak German. It helps a little bit with the little nuances of the talk between player and caddie. I think that's why it's a good relationship.

Q. How do you explain a round like today after last season which was probably your worst ever in your career?
MARKUS BRIER: Oh, big time, yeah.

Q. And what was the change?
MARKUS BRIER: What's the change? I mean, at the end of the season, I really had to go back to my roots and play Qualifying School. I knew, okay, I have to start all over again, and fortunately, I made it at Qualifying School. And I said, okay, it's going to be like ten years ago.
Well, that's the good thing in golf, when you get your head free. And actually the first week was pretty good in East London. I was up there again and that helped build up confidence. So still had the odd bad week, but everybody has. And I just feel more comfortable, and the thing; I got my head like really on the golf and not so much on other things or bad things like last year.

Q. What were the bad things, if I may ask you?
MARKUS BRIER: No, just playing golf. Just playing bad golf I mean. I was just not positive, and now I'm more positive and more free and don't think about this or that. I just see my shot and hit it and don't try to over-complicate things.

Q. First of all, congratulations on a wonderful round today. You had a 71 yesterday which I'm sure had something to do; can you compare the two rounds, considering the conditions of the golf course?
MARKUS BRIER: It's pretty much the same. I wouldn't rate the 66 much higher. Maybe it looks better but yesterday was so much more difficult. Because we didn't play in that kind of wind in the practise round. The good thing for me was I knew it in the past; so maybe that was an advantage playing in that strong wind.
You see it on the positions. Yesterday I was lying fifth or sixth and the best round was 3-under. So it was pretty much the same. It was harder yesterday because it was just every shot could go everywhere. And there was no easy hole or anything yesterday.
Today obviously it was a bit calm out there with the wind, so it was definitely easier. If you take your chances, if you make the putts, you can shoot -- I think Thomas BjÃ¶rn shot 7-under. So guys were shooting a lot lower today.

Q. Game plan for the weekend?
MARKUS BRIER: Just keep it simple. Like I said, don't worry too much, don't complicate things, and just stay to my rhythm and that's what I worked pretty much all day.
I don't know, on 9, maybe not. But that's also things -- worry too much about that shot now, because it worked for 17 holes and one bad shot happened so I'm not going to go out there and think, why didn't I hit it right now.
STEVE TODD: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297