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OMEGA DUBAI DESERT CLASSICFebruary 12, 2011Thomas AikenDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Q. Must be satisfaction despite the horror stories at times out there, not necessarily from your perspective but hard work. THOMAS AIKEN: Yeah, that was a long day. It was an extremely demanding golf course today. The wind was not just blowing, but it was gusting and swirling from all different directions. And you really had to take time over your shots, because you can get over the ball and the wind can change direction all of a sudden and you've got to pull back. So mentally very draining. But you know, I played -- I hit the ball very decent again today. I gave myself some opportunities to make a lot of birdies but didn't take any until the 14th hole. But only made three bogeys. In those conditions to only make three bogeys is not too bad, but all in all, it wasn't a bad score. It wasn't the fantastic score that I really wanted, but the position that I'm in at the moment is exactly what I want going into tomorrow. So looking forward to tomorrow. Q. 14th, a cause for celebration there? THOMAS AIKEN: Yeah, I looked and I thought, hey, what's going on here; you're not recognising me. All in all, it was a long, demanding day, and just looking forward to tomorrow. There's a whole other day ahead of us and depending what the weather does tomorrow dictates what the scores will do. If it blows like this again, anything under par is a great score; and if it doesn't, then who knows what's going to happen. Q. Give me an indication of one shot that epitomises what was going on out there? THOMAS AIKEN: On 11, the par 3, it was 146 yards to the front, 152 to the flag, and I normally hit my wedge about 130. And it was down off the left and pitching wedge was the club, so it was playing 20 yards shorter than normal and I got over the ball and my caddie said to me, "Hang on, hang on, hang on," and I looked up and the flag was blowing into. So if you are allowing for 20 yards downwind, and it starts blowing 20 yards into you, you can make a fool out of yourself. And that's just an example of how much it was swirling. The grain on the fourth hole was down off the right, 170 yards, flew a wedge to the flag; It was blowing. Q. Must be a bit strange even in your approach knowing that your score is going backwards but you're maintaining a position on the leaderboard. THOMAS AIKEN: For sure, that's a very interesting one. The scores are going backwards. I don't know what the conditions were like this morning, but it looks as if the scoring was a little bit better this morning. And it's kind of brought everybody together on the leaderboard now, and it's a very bunched field going into Sunday. So going to be very exciting from a spectator's point of view; from a golfer's point of view, not really what you want but you've got to take what you can get. Q. As always, it's in your own hands? THOMAS AIKEN: 100 per cent. Q. Tied for the lead, how do you feel about your day's work? THOMAS AIKEN: It was difficult out there. The wind was really swirling around, and the greens were extremely firm, and so it made things really challenging. But I hit some really good shots, at least I'm still in a great position going into tomorrow. Q. What's the most difficult aspect in conditions like this? THOMAS AIKEN: Knowing that you're going backwards but you're actually moving up the leaderboard. It's really difficult to kind of accurate accept bogeys and not make as many birdies as you normally do, in conditions like these, when you think that you need to be making birdies. But if you look at the rest of the guys who played this afternoon, there obviously were not many birdies out there and it just shows how challenging the golf course is. If you hit it in the rough, you have absolutely no chance of stopping the ball on the green. Even from the fairway downwind, you are doing a good job to stop it with a wedge. It's really demanding. Q. You've spoken about the fact you've been in position to win championships and not taken any; what have you learnt that you can use tomorrow? THOMAS AIKEN: Patience. Don't try and force any issues. Just go out there, play your normal golf. The golf tournament really starts on the back nine, so if you're within three shots going into the back nine, anything is possible. So just stay patient and hopefully some putts go in tomorrow. End of FastScripts |
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