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SAAB WALES OPEN

June 2, 2011

Stuart Manley

NEWPORT, WALES

Q. Super round of golf, 4-under par, including four twos?
STUART MANLEY: Yeah that, could have won me a few balls on the weekends at my local course. First time I've got four twos.

Q. No pushover around here, either, what was the key to it? Long putts, good tee shots? What?
STUART MANLEY: Some really nice tee shots and a couple of good putts, yeah, perfect.

Q. How inspiring is it to play at home, obviously born in South Wales, and this tournament here.
STUART MANLEY: Yeah, it's not too far from home, it's great staying in your own bed and I have a lot of support from my local golf club, it's great. I've never had a great week down here so it would be nice this year to push on and have a good week.

Q. You started the season brightly but not so good recently, three missed cuts; any sense this week was going to be different?
STUART MANLEY: Yeah, started the season very nicely, got through Tour School and I was play nicely, went down to South Africa, and I was playing pretty good, scoring very good, putting well, and decided to change my game quite a bit, change my swing a lot.
I wanted to do it probably for a year or so and we thought with 11 weeks off, after the Dubai swing, I wasn't going to play many tournaments, I thought, right, okay, this is the time I can change my swing. It's taken some time and I've lost my confidence really because I've not played as well, but you make a few putts and make a few birdies and the confidence comes back.

Q. Did the swing feel like it's kicking in now?
STUART MANLEY: Believe it or not it doesn't actually. I've been working so hard, and it's not been there, been a bit frustrated really with it, but this week just worked on a few new routines and a bit more discipline on the golf course and that seemed to have worked.

Q. You must be delighted with that round, 4-under, leading Welshman.
STUART MANLEY: Yeah, over the moon to be honest. I've not played well recently, and confidence has been a little bit low but made a few putts today and played quite nicely and yeah it worked out well.

Q. Perhaps a little bit more out there, as well.
STUART MANLEY: Yeah, kind of sloppy bogeys really and I think my first hole of the day, I hit driver and 3-wood onto 11 lovely shot and 3-putted and I ripped a drive on the next and hit an 8-iron to 20 feet and 3-putted again. So I'm thinking, oh, no, here we go.
But I had a good bounce back on the next, I think I birdied 13, so that was nice. And I birdied 14, as well, I think, which is one of the hardest golf holes on the course so, that was quite pleasing.

Q. What would you turn your around in form down to?
STUART MANLEY: Just persistent hard work I guess, a couple of new routines, and it worked well for me.

Q. You didn't have maybe the easiest of conditions, the boys out early scored well but you bucked that trend?
STUART MANLEY: I couldn't believe the greens to be honest, I played here Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and the greens were so much quicker, and today, I think with the warmth and the rain we have had for the last few days, I think it the greens grew so much in the afternoon, they were so much slower, I couldn't believe the first putt I had of the day on 11, I left it from ten feet short, I just couldn't believe it.

Q. Not what you're used to down in Mountain Ash?
STUART MANLEY: No, it's beautiful down there, the greens are as good as they get, you know. So not quite, no.

Q. Nice to play in front of a home crowd as well?
STUART MANLEY: Absolutely, I have quite a few down from Mountain Ash, it's very nice.

Q. I followed you on part of the course, on 5, that drive into the fairway bunker, an absolute majestic shot.
STUART MANLEY: Very annoyed actually that tee shot. It's not that tough a tee shot and just tried guiding it down instead of giving it a good go and probably left it in the worst place I could have left it and got to the ball and thought, the lie is pretty good here. I thought, yeah, let's go for this, and I just pulled off the best shot.

Q. What was it?
STUART MANLEY: 5-iron, 183 yards, so it couldn't have come off any better so I was pleased.

Q. How much would a good week here make up for what happened at the Bluebirds?
STUART MANLEY: Bluebirds, a disaster, really, for me, Swansea going up, as well. Great for South Wales and stuff like that which is not a bad thing but Cardiff, they should have done it again this year, they had a lot of chances and just disappointing. Hopefully they get a good manager, Martin O'Neill or somebody big and just change it around.

Q. Did you go to any of the Reading games?
STUART MANLEY: No, I was in Mallorca. I watched it obviously in Mallorca. Went to Wembley last year against Blackwell, which was a heartbreaker as well. That's just the way it is. Just gutted, a few of us, we went to all of the games. Par.

Q. For Dave Jones, was his time up now?
STUART MANLEY: To be fair Dave Jones I thought has done a good job. I just think they needed a fresh outlook, and just something to change it up. What he's done, he's got us to the playoffs a couple of times, FA Cup Final, maybe a little bit hard done by, but maybe a fresh outlook is a good thing.

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