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THE BARCLAYS SCOTTISH OPEN

July 7, 2011

Edoardo Molinari

INVERNESS, SCOTLAND

Q. Welcome back to the The Barclays Scottish Open, obviously a different venue, can you tell us about the challenges of defending your title in a different place on a different style of golf course?
EDOARDO MOLINARI: Well, I guess the only advantage you have when you defend a title is to play on the course you won, and unfortunately it's a new venue this year. But the course is fantastic. It's a great links course, and I think it's great preparation for The Open Championship, as well..

Q. You proved how much you like it with that score today. Tell us about the positives of this Castle Stuart for you, what do you like most about it?
EDOARDO MOLINARI: Well, first of all it's a fantastic place to play golf because you are right above the sea some holes, along the seaside, and it's a beautiful golf course, and then obviously the greens are quite big, the fairways are generous but still you have to hit some good golf shots to shoot under par.

Q. In general terms, it's been such an eventful 12 months since first had this breakthrough victory at this particular championship, can you describe how your career's changed, obviously winning again in Scotland and then The Ryder Cup? How has the career progressing in 2011?
EDOARDO MOLINARI: Last year was a great year for me after winning Loch Lomond, as you said I won another time in Scotland and played The Ryder Cup, and then I went through a few months of not great golf to be honest. But I feel like my game is there again. I feel like I have been playing well in the last few weeks, just things have not been happening, and hopefully Scotland will inspire me again.
It was a very solid round of golf. I think I only missed a couple of fairways and greens, and made a mistake on 6 where I was just 30 yards from the flag and managed to make six. Apart from that it's been a solid round of golf.

Q. Nice conditions to start your round, as well?
EDOARDO MOLINARI: It was cold this morning but it warmed up and it was fine. We got just a little bit of rain on 6 and 7, apart from, that it was fine.

Q. So what do you think of Castle Stuart?
EDOARDO MOLINARI: It's a beautiful course. It's a stunning location, obviously, just on the seaside, and it's a very good links golf course. I think if anything some of the fairways are generous, but it's good to play some wide fairways once in awhile.
I think with the Open Championship next week, playing a links course this week, and even if Loch Lomond was probably my favourite course on the schedule, it's good to be here at Castle Stuart and hopefully this course by the end of the week will be my next favourite.

Q. I've heard you saying that your form is coming, that you've been playing well enough but without getting any rewards in recent weeks?
EDOARDO MOLINARI: Yeah, you're right, I think I have been playing well but sometimes in golf you just don't get the breaks and you don't hold putts. But you just have to enjoy and just play as well as you can.

Q. Playing with Lee Westwood today, how was he playing?
EDOARDO MOLINARI: I think he played very well. He had a solid round. He had a couple of stunning shots on the par 5 on the back nine, and I think it's always great to play along with Lee. You always learn a lot and he's always a great gentleman, so it's always good fun to play with him.

Q. Can you forecast what is a really outstanding score here? What can be shot around this course?
EDOARDO MOLINARI: Well, it depends a lot on the weather, if it's windy, I think 6-, 7-under is a very good score. If the wind is not blowing, then you can go maybe nine or ten. But I think it takes something really special to go out that low.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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