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COMMERCIALBANK QATAR MASTERS PRESENTED BY DOLPHIN ENERGYFebruary 4, 2012Paul LawrieDOHA, QATAR MICHAEL GIBBONS: Paul, tell us about hitting 67. PAUL LAWRIE: I played very good again. I'm hitting the ball just beautiful tee to green, hitting a lot of fairways, and hitting it a good length, so any time that you play as solidly as that and knock a few putts in, there's a fair chance that you're going to play well. Kind of felt as though I left a couple out there again, as you kind of always do, but when it's breezy like that and the greens are quite grainy, it's hard to hole them all, but overall very pleased. Played nicely. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Could have been 66, except for what happened on 10. PAUL LAWRIE: Yeah, 10, I've never ever done that before, and I did it last week as well in Abu Dhabi. I went to put the ball there and dropped it on the coin, and last week in Abu Dhabi I got lucky that Duncan, the caddies saw it and said the coin never moved. But today, no one saw it, sky didn't have it from the telecast, and I wasn't looking at the coin. I was looking at the hole when I dropped it. So when our referee came over, he said, you've got to be 100 percent sure that the coin never moved. Well, I couldn't be because I didn't see it, and nobody else saw it. So you just gotta take a bounce and just kind of kick off. Not much you can do. It was just one of those freak, stupid rules. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Didn't affect you to leave it. PAUL LAWRIE: No. I holed the putt. Knocked it in for a 5 and then birdied the next. So I didn't ‑‑ things like that are not going to put you up. It's just one of those freak accidents and you just move on. Q. What sort of checks did you ask for? PAUL LAWRIE: I just asked the two camera guys that were following us, and he checked with the compound, and they said they didn't have it, that nobody had seen it, so not much you can do. Q. You say you were looking at the hole. How come you dropped it? PAUL LAWRIE: It was just an accident. I just dropped it or it just kind of fell out of my hand. Q. It fell out on the coin? PAUL LAWRIE: It fell out on the coin. Q. And as you say, you're not sure if it moved or not, but because you're not sure, you have to take the penalty? PAUL LAWRIE: You have to be 100 percent sure that the coin did not move. Q. And you didn't know? PAUL LAWRIE: I didn't see it, so I couldn't tell, and nobody saw it, so you've got to take the penalty in that position. Q. You said it's a daft rule. Do you think the rule should be changed? PAUL LAWRIE: Well, there's so many of them, it's impossible to get the rules perfect. There's so many rules, but it's one of those, I'm not getting an advantage even if the coin moved. I'm not trying to drop the ball on the coin. I'm not trying to do it. It's just an accident. It's like Poulter in Dubai last year, same thing. It's just one of those many rules that could do with changing a little bit. I can't see a player purposely throwing a ball on a coin to knock it closer to the hole. But it happens. So not much you can do. Q. You don't want to get ahead of yourself tomorrow, but it would make it sweeter if we were sitting here again tomorrow? PAUL LAWRIE: My job is to be on the first tee tomorrow and hit the best shot I can off the first and then move on from there. Certainly no thoughts about sitting here or sitting anywhere. I'm looking forward to getting a bite to eat, I'm quite hungry. I'll sleep well, and I'll try and hit the best shot I can off the first tomorrow. That's all I'm thinking. Q. Talk about the Back 9. You had that penalty on 10. You came down strong and then you birdied on 18. PAUL LAWRIE: Yeah. I birdied 7, 9, 11, 16, 18. So you know, I played very strong coming in, hit a lot of really good shots. I don't feel like I holed a lot of long putts. I don't know the longest putt hole. I hit a nice one on 11, I holed about a 15‑footer there. So a lot of good shots. So I think the course was scored about right today. Q. You're on a run really, from stretching back to Dubai. Do you know the wrong way you've played on the other courses? PAUL LAWRIE: Well, I've been playing this way for a long time, but I've been struggling with the putter. And any time that you have 33, 34, 35 putts, it doesn't matter how good you played. You still gotta make the cut. Any tournament you enter 30, 31 putts, you got a chance to win the tournament. So I'm not playing any better and I'm not playing any different. I'm certainly playing nicely, but I've been playing that way for a long time. But just two or three less than I was for the previous two or three years. And that's the difference. I mean if you can take two or three shots off your score with your putter, if you're a decent player, you can have a chance to win more often. Q. Have you done anything, changed putters? PAUL LAWRIE: No. Q. Or done anything, worked on putting? PAUL LAWRIE: I've always hit good putts and I kind of pushed it all the way through with my stroke. I've always done that. So I decided I would try and screw it up a little bit and at the end of last year worked on it hard over the winter. So that's been a bit of a difference, but I've never been a poor putter, but all of a sudden I'm two or three a day less than I was before. Q. Obviously Dubai, Abu Dhabi, you were in the mix. It's about time for a win. PAUL LAWRIE: Yeah. It is. We'll see what happens tomorrow. It's a long day tomorrow, a lot of good players here. Anything can happen, a lot. I'm looking forward to getting a good shot off the first if we can. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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