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June 28, 2012
PORTRUSH, NORTHERN IRELAND
PAUL McGINLEY: 3‑under is a good score. Never easy when you have to stop and start all over again. Wind direction made it very difficult. Annoyed at the straightforward 30‑footer, knocked it eight‑foot past. Bad bogey to finish with but overall a good day's work.
Q. To some extent the fact that you went off because of the lightning threat, was it possibly in ways a benefit to interrupt you because it was such heavy rain at the time; were you relieved to get off?
PAUL McGINLEY: Not really. My momentum was good at the time. I had just made two birdies in a row standing on the 9th and 10th, which were both downwind at the time. When we came back out, both were into the wind.
So with a bit of rain, I would have been happy if the shower had of stayed and played the next 45 minutes in the rain because we would have been downwind those par 5s. But pleased; 3‑under par is a good score.
Q. Your thoughts on the day and the occasion, it's been so built up; what are your overall feelings of the day?
PAUL McGINLEY: One of immense pride as an Irishman, for us to host a tournament of this size on a golf course of this quality that the players are all raving about as we knew they would.
And for the crowds to turn out in the middle of a recession to pay big money like they are paying to come in here that makes me mentally proud to be Irish that we can stage something of this size. We go to a lot of countries around the world, a lot wealthier than Ireland, not going through the economic downturn that we are in Ireland, and yet we have record sellouts here, and we have it nowhere else in the world, even the so‑called very wealthy countries.
Makes me very proud to be Irish, and long may it last.
Q. Going back to your own position in the tournament, about middle of the pack, but a lot of low scores today, how do you feel your positioned in the tournament?
PAUL McGINLEY: I think that the week will stretch out a little bit when the winds get a little bit stronger. But like any golf course, no matter how difficult it is, when you get it soft like we have with all of the rain and you have benign winds, no matter what the links course is, you're going to have good scoring when you have the quality of players like you have now on The European Tour. That's just the quality that we play week‑in, week‑out in terms of the quality of player.
Q. In terms of your prospects tomorrow, do you want to wake up tomorrow morning and see it windier?
PAUL McGINLEY: Yeah, I like the wind; I'm comfortable in the wind.
All I'm concerned about though right now is getting rest to be honest. It been a long week already, The Open Qualifying already on the back of a big week last week; and then eight hours on the golf course today is not much fun, either.
So I'm a bit tired and a bit fatigued and the most important thing now is to get a bit of food and get to bed as quick as possible.
Q. What happened on the last‑‑
PAUL McGINLEY: Yeah, but I had it in benign conditions, virtually no wind, a little bit downwind, didn't made a great drive but still hitting a 5‑iron in. Made a good second shot actually to be honest, 30 feet from the hole, fell asleep to be honest, no excuse. Bad concentration. Knocked it eight‑foot past well.
Q. Mental tiredness or is that physical tiredness?
PAUL McGINLEY: Mental and a bit of physical, as well, too. But when you're physical and mental, it's been as I say a long week already, and the last thing I wanted today was a rain delay but I can't complain. 3‑under is a good score. It's always not nice to finish with a 3‑putt.
Q. But game is good?
PAUL McGINLEY: Yeah, I played solid. It was comfortable. I was pleased. It was a comfortable round of golf. As I say, it's a great thrill to play in front of such huge crowds and have the support I did today. It definitely gave me a bit of a boost.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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