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COMMERCIAL BANK QATAR MASTERSJanuary 22, 2013Jason DufnerDOHA, QATAR MICHAEL GIBBONS: Welcome to Qatar. JASON DUFNER: Thank you. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Many thanks for joining us here at the Commercialbank Qatar Masters. Your Middle East journey continues, Jason. JASON DUFNER: Yeah, second week. Last week played decent, had a good day on Sunday and moved up the board a little bit. I'm starting to get adjusted to the time change and feeling a little bit better. In Qatar this week and ready to play another event. MICHAEL GIBBONS: How was the Pro‑Am this morning? What did you make of the golf course, first impressions? JASON DUFNER: Very good golf course. Good variety from tee‑to‑green, green complexes are quite large and a little bit tricky, getting the ball close to hole locations might be a challenge, and I've heard the wind can be pretty tough this week, but today was relatively calm, so the golf course, you were able to make some birdies out there. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Did you come here with expectations on yourself or is it more a voyage of discovery, first time out? JASON DUFNER: A little bit of both, new experience for me to play golf in this area. Seen a lot of it on television. Seems very similar to what we see in the States out in the desert in Phoenix or Palm Springs or Tucson, and it's been a little bit different than what I thought. Last week the rough was up a good bit. The fairways were obviously a good bit more narrow than what we have seen of desert golf in the States. Same case here, a little bit more room to play with the fairway width, and the rough is up a little bit and if the wind picks up, it could be quite a challenge. Q. Inaudible. JASON DUFNER: Yeah, last week was pretty good for my game. I thought I did pretty well tee‑to‑green. Last week the fairways were pretty narrow. A premium on hitting the fairways, especially the first two days. This week you have a little bit more room to play but the green complexes are a lot bigger here, so you can hit good shots and hit it 30, 40, 50 feet away at times. I think the challenge is going to be trying to position yourself, so just have to make more birdie putts. The golf course, it's a fairly long golf course, so you're going to be hitting a lot of good irons in and long irons in on the wedge holes. Q. (Is your caddie here this week)? JASON DUFNER: No, he didn't make the trip. Just had it set up through my agency, a guy that is a member. Brian was a member out at Abu Dhabi. He was not going to be working that week and got a chance to work inside the ropes and caddie. Q. Inaudible. JASON DUFNER: I go into this event like any other event, trying to figure out how I can play the golf course, shoot some low scores and have a chance to win. No difference from just playing in the States or if I'm playing internationally. Obviously I've never seen this golf course before, so had to do some practise and trying to figure out a strategy of trying to play some holes of what may work, what might not work so that I can shoot some low scores. Q. Inaudible. JASON DUFNER: Yeah, I've done it pretty much the last four or five years, I've played internationally two, sometimes up to five events a year. I like doing it. The travel is obviously tough traveling from the states, that's the hardest thing. The golf is the easiest thing. Golf doesn't change too much whether you're playing in the States or Asia or Qatar; golf is golf wherever you go. I think it's good just for me to kind of experience the world playing in different locations, playing a different field, and I think it's good for the game of golf. When you had higher‑ranked players in events like this, it broadens the horizons of the tournament, brings notice to the tournament and gets the local folks something to be encouraged about through the game of golf. Q. Inaudible. JASON DUFNER: Never thought about that one. That would be nice. Q. Inaudible. JASON DUFNER: Yeah, definitely they are among the top contenders, ranked very high in the world which means they have had good form for the last few years or so. Louis has been playing some great golf over the last three or four months. Playing with Justin, he was close to winning last week and Louis is not too far removed from Durban, so obviously their games are in good spots and it's going to be tough to compete with players of their level. Q. (You are paired with Branden Grace and Matteo Manassero the first two rounds; have you played with them before)? JASON DUFNER: I played with Branden two times last week for two days in Abu Dhabi. That was the first time I had played with him. Obviously heard of him. He had a pretty good stretch of golf last year out on The European Tour. Matteo I just got to know last week, played with him on Saturday, and we are both clients of IMG, so it's easy to get to know him. Q. Inaudible. JASON DUFNER: Yeah, you know, I haven't had much of a break, so I kind of felt like I was rolling in from last year to this year, no big changes as far as equipment goes. No changes in the style of my play or anything like that. It's been nice to play well but I kind of felt like I didn't have that many question marks coming into the start of the season because I played so much at the end of the year. I'm looking forward to just continuing to play well and I'd like to try to win one of these two events that I'm over here, so this is my last chance. Q. Inaudible. JASON DUFNER: Yeah, obviously I didn't play as well as I would like. I'm sure they are a little disappointed in their results. I don't foresee them playing too terribly for the rest of the year. You don't worry about those guys. They are going to have a lot more good golf during the season, and I'm sure they will be back in form shortly. Q. Inaudible. JASON DUFNER: I think just being consistent with my practise, consistent with my preparation, learning from experiences that I've had playing over the years whether they be good experiences or bad experiences, taking something from every event that I played and just learning to be, you know, a better player out here. It's a big thing for me, being consistent with a lot of things, what I practise and how I practise and how I prepare for events each week. Some of my near close‑calls as far as winning events were playing well in Asia and gave me a lot of confidence last year. Just start believing that I can play at that level. Q. Inaudible. JASON DUFNER: You know, I don't think I'll ever put it behind me. Still disappointed in it. The thing about The Ryder Cup is it's only every two years, so if you happen to lose The Matches, you kind of have to sit on that for two years. I think I'll use it as motivation to be part of that next team representing the United States. You have to put it in the back of your memory and realise what it felt like and how you would like to turn that around for your team and for yourself and the country that you represent. I think I'll hang on to it a little bit longer and carry it with me and hopefully be on that team in 2014. MICHAEL GIBBONS: Thank you, Jason, good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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