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BALLANTINE'S CHAMPIONSHIP

April 28, 2011

Richard Finch

INCHEON, KOREA

Q. A continuation of China, we spoke on Sunday and you kept it going?
RICHARD FINCH: I did. That was nice. I was hoping that would be the case. Yeah, delighted with a 5-under par first round, and yeah, it's a tough golf course and managed to somehow keep some bogeys off the card, which was nice. It looked fairly inevitable at some point. But managed to get away with a par and then made five nice birdies and no bogeys so that was good.

Q. That was a pretty straightforward golf course last week, and I take it this one is a lot more awkward off the tee and in various other places, as well.
RICHARD FINCH: Definitely. The elevation changes and the slopes, shots are a lot more different, and even the greens, they have some huge slopes and ridges in them.
I just tried to make it a real key to get it on the fairway in the first place and try to get on the correct level with my approach shot. And then if you're on the correct level, you're not too far away and should have a good chance at birdie. I holed my share of birdies today and also holed a few par saving putts, as well. That was nice.

Q. Give me a highlight and an example of how tricky it can be out there.
RICHARD FINCH: Well, the 18th hole, I just finished that. Played that beautifully. A lot of guys are hitting driver over the big rock on the corner on the right, but I'm hitting 3-wood thinking I can still get up on in two. And it was a full-out 5-wood with a Monica Seles-style grunt when I hit it to try to hit it as far as I possibly could, which finished on the back of the green and just managed to stay on the top level and nice 2-putt to finish the day.
But the tee shot on the 18th, 60 yards downhill so you're trying to work out how far it's going to go and what have you. That was a hole I was unable to play in practise due to the thunderstorm. But you've got good yardage books and good caddie on the bag, as well, so does it make it that much easier I suppose.

Q. Wearing a fleecy old jumper here and a shirt underneath looks nice and warm, and it's necessary. You come from Chengdu, which was warm; Malaysia was 33 the other week; it's chalk and cheese, isn't it.
RICHARD FINCH: It is. Luckily I missed Malaysia so I didn't have that extreme of heat to contend with.
But yeah, I remember from past times over down at Jeju Island that can it be cold here, shall we say. So I put in a polo neck and came prepared and also had a tee shirt in the bag in case it warmed up. And I ended up getting a little too warm. You just have to wrap up and luckily today there was very little wind about, which helped, because a cold wind would be less than ideal.

Q. Am I just being a wimp about the cold or does it make a difference when you're out there?
RICHARD FINCH: When you're walking up and down those hills, you soon warm up, let me tell you.

Q. You saved the people of Korea from changing your top on the golf course.
RICHARD FINCH: Could have exposed the un-suntanned body.

Q. The Finch frame.
RICHARD FINCH: Of mass destruction. They don't call me the White Rhino for nothing.

Q. Birdies?
RICHARD FINCH: Started on the third with a bomb that was going 20 foot past until it hit the hole and jumped in.
The fourth, I hit a 3-iron off the tee and a 9-iron on the green and it was about a 15-footer.
Birdied the 11th with a driver and a 9-iron, pin-high right. And then I birdied the 12th downhill with a driver and a 9-iron, as well, 6-foot putt.
Birdied 18 with a 3-wood and 5-wood and two putts.

Q. Three top 11s in your past seven events. The form horse.
RICHARD FINCH: It's been steady really. It was quite bizarre. I played lovely in Bahrain and sneaked up at the end with a good last round there. That got me to about 20 or something. Then Qatar, played nice there. That was a good week.
MÃ¡laga was a strange week, because I had been playing well and not really scoring but that week I didn't play very well and scored brilliantly. That was one I was pleased to have finished as high up as I did, but didn't feel as if I could have done any better than that.
Last week never quite got into it, and scoring was so low, you have one mediocre round -- be, yeah, I was pleased it was a good round last week to move up.
Today I feel like I got up out of the right side of the bed and a few things went my way when I hit putts too hard, and I'm thinking, please hit the hole, and it sort of hit the hole and disappeared and it's like, oh, that's a two-shot swing basically. There is that little bit of the X-factor sort of thing where you do need that little bit of luck and things to go your way. Hopefully I still have a bit left in the tank but certainly took advantage today.

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