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THE SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 20, 2011Sandy LyleSURREY, ENGLAND Q. Everybody's been saying how long the course is playing - would you go along with that? SANDY LYLE: I didn't realise into the halfway round yesterday, when I looked at the yardage and you know it's a par 72 but started looking at the total yardage and I thought, it's only 7,400 yards and it's a seniors event. This is not a qualifying for the U.S. Open or something like that. They could even make the course longer. Q. It's going to play every inch of that in this weather? SANDY LYLE: It's been dry and fast for many a month now so this is a totally different golf course, whether it had been sort of a month and half, two months ago. So it's playing soft and not much run in the fairways. Greens holding pretty good. It's just playing long. It's going to be pretty raring on a lot of the long irons and it will play into the hands of like a Tom Lehman and the bigger hitters, Woosie, he still hits the ball good distances. So there's a number of players that you have in your mind that will be I would think knocking at the door at the end of the week. Q. The key to stay out of the pesky heather? SANDY LYLE: You have to cross your fingers and hope you get a decent lie. You can do. There are areas where it's not as bad as it looks off the tee and other areas where it's quite severe. I don't think you're going to get much wind, mainly just dark clouds and bits of rain. I've had my eyes on this trophy for a number of years now, and I've never really threatened right now. I think probably at -- when we played Sunningdale, I achieved my goal, which was sort of keep the ball in play, and not get drawn into hitting the ball miles on that golf course, because it will just eat you up. But I didn't putt very well at all. So if I would have is putted half decent, I might have been a threat kind of thing but I finished in the Top-10 or nine, something like that, and that's as good as it's been. Last year was very disappointing at Carnoustie and missing the cut there. That was like a real stab in the heart right there, because I should be able to play around there with my eyes closed knowing the course as well as do I and not worrying about missing cuts in a senior event. But it happened, and it's just a reality check in the game of golf. Q. Wouldn't mind playing as well as is you did at The Ryder Cup -- SANDY LYLE: If I can knock a few of those rounds in it, I wouldn't be getting beat 3 & 2. Q. What were your memories of that week? SANDY LYLE: It was very good most of the time. A daunting week when you look at the American side and the paperwork and the amount of tournaments that that one team have accumulated and Majors and things, and all have very accomplished players, so it was quite a daunting aspect to play against them. But I think as a Ryder Cup Team, The European Team, which was still fairly new, this is only like the second time out we had the European help, and we didn't have Seve that year because he had his dispute with The European Tour. That was disappointing not having Seve on our side right then. It could have been a big help to us. And then to lead after the first round, that was great. I mean, it showed that we could still perform against the Americans, a team that was so good, but we always felt down the line that they might just overpower us down the stretch and in the end it was a whirl wind win for the United States. In my match, it was an unfortunate day that happens, you get somebody like a Tom Kite that I fired lots of birdies against him and he fired lots of birdies and eagles back at me. Q. What sort of shape is your game in at the moment? SANDY LYLE: I think it could have been better. But you never know in this game, things can turnaround very, very quickly, and yesterday's Pro-Am, I'm still working on a bit of a posture change, just to get the ball solid and basically when you finish your follow through, you look up, that ball is in the air space where you imagine it to be, and it's getting better. It's not perfect but if I can just play like I did yesterday, and make some more putts, then in with a shout, at least get under par most days. Q. What do you reckon would win around here? SANDY LYLE: I would say leading score, possibly each day, will be maybe 4-under or something like that at the most. But anything roundabout 1- or 2-under, you would feel pretty accomplished. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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