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WGC HSBC CHAMPIONS

November 2, 2011

Francesco Molinari

SHANGHAI, CHINA

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Francesco, welcome back.
FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Thank you.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Obviously a big week for you, defending champion of the World Golf Championships - HSBC Champions. Give us your thoughts on week ahead.
FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Well, I'm obviously happy to be back here. I've got a lot of good memories from last year.
So I'm looking forward to defend the title. It's a very strong field again. And you know, just have to play some good golf and defend the title as well as possible.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Can you talk about last year's performance? It was a spectacular performance and a great battle with Lee Westwood.
FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Yeah, it was a very good week for me. It was, yeah, head-to-head with Lee for most of the week, and very exciting, obviously, finishing just one shot apart.
So as I said, I've got very good memories and I'm happy to be back here. It's going to be obviously hard to defend the title. But you know, I'm playing quite well here. Just give it my best shot.

Q. Will the rain this week affect your performance? Because compared to last year, it was quite pretty fine last year.
FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Well, I don't know. We'll have to see what the weather conditions are tomorrow. I played nine holes yesterday and the course was in very similar conditions to last year.
Obviously if it rains a lot today, it's going to be a bit softer, but I don't think it should -- it's going to be the same for everyone. So I don't think it should affect my performance in particular, anyway.

Q. As you look back on last year, as you look back on last year, what were you most impressed with about your performance?
FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Well, it was a very solid performance all week. Obviously there was a lot of pressure with Lee challenging me just from one shot behind. So you know I was very happy the way I handled the pressure and the situation, and as I said, I was playing really well.
So you know, I was happy to manage to win the tournament in the end, which wasn't easy, even if I was playing some really good golf. So I would say probably mentally more than, you know, how I hit the ball or how I putted. It was the best performance so far for me.

Q. Well, you won the HSBC Champions here at Sheshan last year, and you were the winner with your brother at the World Cup in China. So do you feel good about playing in China, and what sort of arrangement will you do after you play this week to prepare for the World Cup?
FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Yeah, I like playing in China. I think it's very exciting to be in a country where the interest in golf is growing so much. Obviously I've done well the past year so I'm very happy to be back here.
Preparation for the World Cup is going to be, I'm going to play next week in Singapore and then take a week off before the World Cup. My brother is going to be there next week, and we'll probably try to play as much together as possible to try and get ready for it.

Q. Everybody is talking about the boom of golf in Asia, how this is where the future of golf lies. I wonder if it makes you worry about golf in Continental Europe, what's going to happen there, the number of tournaments there? Do you think about that much or does it make you worried or are you not worried?
FRANCESCO MOLINARI: No, I'm not worried. I think it's going to be different. It's going to be changing through the years. It's been changing already, and we'll probably keep coming here more and more.
But I think, you know, European golf at the moment, it's in a very good place with a lot of talent and a lot of good players.
So I think that, you know, we're going to have still a good number of tournaments, maybe not as many as in the past. But you know, the players still are very good at the moment. That's probably going to be the strength of The European Tour and of European golf for the future years, even if we are going to have play more over here in Asia.
But I think, as I said, it's exciting to come and play in countries like China and Asia in general where you could see that the interest in golf is bigger and bigger every year that we come back.

Q. What are some of the better short par 4s you play around the world, and how do you rate the 16th here?
FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Yeah, I think it's probably one of the better holes of this golf course. It's a very good golf course, but 16 obviously gives you a chance to go for it. It's a very small target, so you're taking on some risks if you go for it with the driver or the 3-wood.
I don't know, comparing it to other short par 4s, I think it's probably one of the best ones we play, because, you know, it gives you a very good chance to go for it. There's water right, but there's big enough room to go for it if you want to go for it.
So I think that some of the par 4s, some of the short par 4s sometimes are a bit too hard if you decide to go for it with a tee shot, while 16 here gives you a good chance if you decide to go for it.
Obviously last year in the last round, I didn't go for it and it was probably a good move in the end. So it's a tricky hole, and I think it's fun both for us playing it and for spectators watching.

Q. Y.E. Yang won here in 2006, and right up until 2009, the week before he won Asia's first major, he was still saying that that week for him was the perfect week, and that he still tried to keep the same emotions and mentality at every single tournament. Is that the same for you from last year; that that week is the week you try to repeat every time?
FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Well, yeah, definitely, I think any time you win, you know your very good memories and very good feelings that you try to recreate in other tournaments when you play after the win.
So especially when you win a tournament like this against such a great field and against such great players, it gives you a lot of confidence.
The thing is, it's not so easy to recreate the same thing week-in and week-out. So you just try as hard as you can, and obviously last year, here in the HSBC set some very good standards for me. And it's not always easy to go and to reach those levels.
So I'm trying to do it, and hopefully I'll try to -- I'll be able to play as good as I played last year, you know, in another event.
MICHAEL GIBBONS: Francesco, many thanks for joining us, good luck this week.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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