![](images/spacer.gif) |
Browse by Sport |
|
![](images/spacer.gif) |
Find us on |
![ASAP sports on Facebook](images/fb_icon.gif) |
![ASAP sports on Twitter](images/twitter_icon.png) |
|
![](images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](images/spacer.gif) |
|
![](images/spacer.gif) |
July 7, 2011
INVERNESS, SCOTLAND
Q. How was it?
MARK TULLO: It was great. I enjoyed myself. I hit had some great shots, I hit some terrible shots, and this golf course, the beginning of the week I said you can have a million birdies or a million bogeys and today, you know, thank goodness it was a million birdies.
I had some bogeys obviously, and ten birdies on this golf course I think is very good in these conditions. Thank goodness I had many putts which were like two feet from the hole. I almost made it twice today from a hundred yards.
One of those days I guess you could say, you have some good bounces. This is links golf and you can't control anything. I actually had fun out there. I'm trying to smile more on the golf course. Sometimes I get fired up too easily but I'm trying to smile out there more. I had fun. I actually laughed off some good shots and laughed bad shots.
Q. If we elaborate, you have probably got to smile on a links course, because you will be out at times and not because you played a bad shot, but it bounces off.
MARK TULLO: Yeah, I actually did hit a great shot and bounced, went into the hazard, played it out of there and made a birdie. I laughed about it. Good thing I laughed about it, made a birdie. It's funny, but I do like links golf courses. I hit the ball low, so for me, I'm not sure if it's an advantage but as I hit the ball that low, I don't struggle with the wind.
Q. How much experience do you have of playing a links course?
MARK TULLO: Not much. In Chile, we have one golf course, or two golf courses that play with a lot of wind. I guess the only links golf I've played over here in Europe. I can't say compared to these guys out here playing, I have no experience, but as I said, I hit the ball low, and I have good imagination and pretty good short game.
So I don't want to talk too much, because maybe tomorrow, shoot a bad score. That's the whole thing, I enjoy playing out here and the wind and the bounces, so there's a lot of imagination into it.
Q. Can you recall the first time you stepped onto a links course?
MARK TULLO: It has to be --
Q. Did it really suit you straightaway?
MARK TULLO: In a way. In Chile there's one golf course up north for us and it's hardpan, it's you have to hit the ball low, and I enjoy it. This is totally different. When was the first time I hit the links? A qualifier for the British Open probably five years ago. I don't have much experience but I do enjoy being out here.
Q. That first experience, was it, oh, I can't play this?
MARK TULLO: No, the other way. I love it. To see the ball roll, hit a 5-iron 50, you have to really believe you are going to hit it 250. Sometimes you hit a 7-iron 220. So sometimes it's hard to pitch it 20 yards short but you just have to know it's going to bounce forward.
Q. You're in good form, aren't you?
MARK TULLO: I enjoy it. First time I have a good first day seriously. I always have good last days, good Saturdays, but a good Thursdays, I haven't had this year. So it's pretty nice to see a 65 on the scoreboard on a Thursday in the Barclays.
Q. Maybe it's a result are of those good last days?
MARK TULLO: Last week I didn't make the cut, so sometimes it grabs you by surprise and this is a good one. I've had bad ones, too, but this is a good surprise. I'm glad, sometimes you have good surprises.
Q. Do you feel like an underdog?
MARK TULLO: Players like Westwood, Donald, No. 1, two in the world, I can go on for a half hour here, they are the big names and everybody is looking at them. Obviously the underdog, nobody knows you, and nobody should know me because I haven't done anything and they have done everything. I don't have any pressure on me, probably they don't, either because it's their 150th time playing out here, or obviously not on this golf course but on a links golf course. They are the ones that everybody wants to see and sometimes you know, we get inspired and have a good round. So hopefully it will continue for three more days.
Q. It would be nice if the people of Scotland said the name Mark Tullo a lot more often come Sunday night?
MARK TULLO: The funny thing is my dad said is our name is Scottish, or he thinks it might be. He thinks we have ancestors, from Scotland. I do wear skirts once in awhile so maybe it does come from out there. I do fancy skirts. But do they wear underwear?
Q. No. It's a kilt. Not a skirt.
MARK TULLO: I'm 100 per cent Scottish then.
Q. If you say skirt you'll probably be lynched.
MARK TULLO: Shoot, sorry. Kilt.
Q. Because if we ask about you wearing skirts --
MARK TULLO: On a couple of crazy nights out maybe.
Q. Have you had a kilt on before?
MARK TULLO: I've had a kilt on.
Q. Do you own one?
MARK TULLO: No.
Q. Is there a Tullo tartan?
MARK TULLO: I went to Edinburgh to try to look for one.
Q. But you've not found it?
MARK TULLO: No. You guys have to help me find it. I can put a kilt on if you get me the tartan. .
Q. Sunday night, prize giving.
MARK TULLO: Just get me one of those for that - that would be awesome.
Q. Tell us about your family lineage.
MARK TULLO: English father. Dutch mother. They met in Ireland in a bonfire. My dad was playing the guitar and he sang to my mother. He was trying to be the cool guy and I actually guess he did play the cards right. Dutch ladies are not easy to get, that's what I hear.
Q. But worth getting.
MARK TULLO: They are worth getting, yeah. They do kind of punish you once in a while when you're a bad boy when you're ten years old, but that's what you get for being a rascal.
Q. What song did he sing?
MARK TULLO: In Dutch?
Q. In Ireland.
MARK TULLO: He actually sang in Spanish, Yo Tengo Unos Ojos Negres. I won't sing it because my vocal cords are not the best. They met from there and dated. My dad was in England and my mother was in Holland, they kept dating, blah, blah, they got married in England, that's where my grandparents are from, and then moved to Chile eventually. My grandfather was offered a job in Chile. My dad eventually went to Chile, went to school there, the same school I went to, and then came back to England to work and then got offered a job back in Chile, went back to Chile and went to the States. So you could say we have been around.
Q. What's the name of that links golf course in Chile?
MARK TULLO: La Serena.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
|
![](images/spacer.gif) |