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BALLANTINE'S CHAMPIONSHIPApril 28, 2013Brett RumfordICHEON, SOUTH KOREA STEVE TODD: Well, Brett, first off, many congratulations and hopefully you've caught your breath after what was a breathless day, but just try and sum up the emotion of today and how good this victory feels for you. BRETT RUMFORD: Well, it's exciting, I know that. It was a roller coaster is what it was for me. I guess the last nine holes from yesterday and then the first nine holes‑‑ the last five holes yesterday and the first nine today sort of put me into the position of just playing steady coming home would pretty much wrap up the championship. The greens were getting quite difficult to putt on late in the afternoon. But you know, that's just golf. One shot can really turn events, and obviously 17 proved that. Seemingly had everything under control, but although I was thinking, it's just two good drives coming home and then obviously hitting two in the trees wasn't my ideal finish. But obviously Peter in regulation play, having the opportunity to close out the tournament, obviously hard luck for him, but obviously that opened up the door once again to try to capitalise on winning this championship. Funnily enough, after chipping out on 18 in regulation play, my divot was only about three feet away. Hit a 5‑iron the first time around. Pulled it, but looking at where the ball pitched, it was just the perfect number. So had a quick chat to Pete Cowen, my coach, in the U.K. Hit a few shots off the first tee, and just got a quick swing thought, which obviously helped things in the playoff. So many thanks to Pete for that. And yeah, it's great to be in this position and obviously it's an honour to win the Ballantine's Championship; obviously with Blackstone, it's a great combination. It's a really exciting venue. It holds a lot of birdies, a lot of opportunities there, and yeah, it's just‑‑ I've enjoyed playing here and it's just an honour obviously to win this championship. STEVE TODD: This is your fourth European Tour victory and your first in nearly six years, so I guess that makes it all the sweeter. BRETT RUMFORD: Yes, as I said, it's an honour to win any time, and it's only getting harder and harder. Obviously as the years go on, I'm getting older and there's more and more young guys coming through with really big games, and the face of golf is changing with technology and obviously the fitness of these young guys coming through, the ball going so much further. Yeah, it's just I've had my opportunities, but it's really tough and obviously today, I pretty much once again let it slip through my fingers. It's obviously what the best players in the world‑‑ they capitalise on these positions in which they get themselves into over the last nine holes. It's hard to do, but fortunately enough and luckily enough I was able to do that today. But yeah, the last couple of years have been very difficult. I had twins two years ago, it's coming up their second birthday on the 7th of May. Go Back to China next week and back to pick them up before I go to Europe, so that's been really testing. So the last couple of years, trying to be the best father as I can and helping out my wife, Sally, who has been a tremendous support, it's been very, very difficult. But you know what, we are through the hard part. We are sort of through that first six months of having twins, if anyone's experienced that, it's possibly the hardest thing you'll ever do. So now I'm just looking ahead, obviously just getting my game back to where it was in 2010 and just try and really kick on from here. That's what my goal is. STEVE TODD: You're in the playoff there with Marcus, obviously a fellow Australian of yours, and after Adam's victory at Augusta, it's been quite a few weeks for Australian golf, hasn't it. BRETT RUMFORD: Scotty has been a huge inspiration, and obviously Greg Norman pre‑ that for so many years. Yeah, look, I was up all morning watching that, and yeah, look, Scotty is such a fantastic role model for all Australians, and I've looked up to him ever since‑‑ for having wins and to have so much success and not for it to change a person, he's got to be commended for that. And I think that's the most successful attribute I think Scotty retains I think in amongst all his successes. For the Masters to come along, I think that's why it was celebrated by so many because of how nice a guy he is. He's just‑‑ he really is a down‑to‑earth, typical Australian, represents everything that we are as a country, and, yeah, so he certainly inspired me, that's for sure. Q. I'm from China, I wanted to ask for the playoff, you had a short practise and you made a phone call; would you like to tell us who is the person, and did that help you? BRETT RUMFORD: Yeah, I was obviously struggling coming home. Yes, I was obviously struggling coming home, and obviously having the opportunity of just having maybe that 15 minutes before the start of the playoff with Peter having to sign his scorecard and do the interviews, I just quickly ran to the tee. It was just a matter of just making a quick phone call. I hit the first tee shot and was still feeling really stuck. Instead of just trying to play around and just trying to get a few bits and pieces, I just presumed that my coach, Pete Cowen, would have been watching in the U.K. and so I gave him a quick call just to say, hey, Pete, just give me a one‑minute lesson, mate, before I go on. So that tip, I will keep to myself. Will I be able to sell it maybe, I don't know (laughing). No, it was just a simple little thing through transition, which obviously just turned things around straightaway. It definitely made a difference. I could feel it straightaway, just with the remaining four or five holes, and I hit it down the first hole, and the rest is history, as they say. Q. In light of Adam Scott's win at the Masters, what was it like playing today with Marcus Fraser, and against Marcus Fraser? BRETT RUMFORD: Yeah, look, Fraser is a great competitor. He's been playing great golf for such a long while, and obviously being a pre‑champion of this event, not around this golf course. But nevertheless, he's always played well around here and he's been playing well for a long while. It was great to obviously have Fras amongst us. But we are all fiercely competitive, us Australians. Although there was a bit of banter, it was business for most of the day. Yeah, look, he hung in there nicely. He played well. He kept the pressure there or thereabouts all day, and obviously it was just one shot away, which I proved on 17, which got him back in the golf tournament. Full credit to him. All the respect in the world for Fras. He's great player and a great guy. Q. So ever since winning the trophy back in 2007, as mentioned earlier, you did not have any victories during the past six years, and now you again lifted up that trophy. So during that six‑year period, what did you focus on in order to improve your performance in terms of swing, mind controlling?  And my second question is: Who are you going to bring Ballantine's 41 with? BRETT RUMFORD: Okay, first question, look, it's a constant progress that you're trying to achieve in this game. It fluctuates all the time. But it's just hard work. I changed coaches at the beginning of this year to Pete Cowen. I also started working with Kevin Duffy, who is a fitness trainer in the U.K., KevinDuffyGolf.com, I believe he's under. And yeah, through that, I just started to get more professional with what I was trying to do and employ the people around me, and also Warren Kennaugh, who is my sports psychologist so to speak. He's not a sports psychologist, but I'll call him that; I'll refer to him as that. I just try to get a team around me that just obviously enables me to give me the confidence, the backup, just to progress. As I say, you never know, and it's sort of when you go from one coach to another, whether you're going to find success, you don't know, because the game is so difficult and you're only talking about fractions for the majority of the guys out here. They are all good enough to win. So not winning, it's a fine line. I led by two shots in a championship two years ago; I won't mention the title sponsor through the respect of this one. But yeah, look, the guy behind me, Edoardo Molinari birdied the last three holes. I've had many opportunities to have won, but obviously it just doesn't happen and it's really, really difficult. It's a tough game. It's a tough, tough game. But I'm privileged to have won four times now on The European Tour, and you know, exception to the rule for maybe just a few players like Tiger Woods and a few of these guys that seem to pick and choose their events in which they want to win and they win three, four, five, six times a year. That's all good and well, but for the majority of the players out here, you never know when your next win is going to come along. So you really have to capitalise on that and it's only getting tougher and tougher. But it's just, you know, for myself, I'm just surroundings myself with the right people that I believe that is going to help me enable to play the best golf to extract the best out of my talent. And so far as this bottle of Ballantine's, 41 Years, I'm not too sure. I'm not a drinker. I haven't drunk sincemany, many years ago, coming up on seven years, so I don't drink. I appreciate the gesture no doubt, and I'm sure I'll find someone or have a nip of it, anyway, for sure down the road, whoever I celebrate that with I guess, I'm really not too sure but I look forward to it though. Q. You mentioned about the double‑bogey that you committed on the 17th hole. So when you actually did that, did you still have hopes that you would be able to win this championship? And my second question is: You've been emphasising the importance of being fit, so I understand that you have several cycling machines at home, which one is it and how much are they? BRETT RUMFORD: The 17th hole, I guess I had‑‑ that was a pretty tough blow, because it was just a par there and it's a comfortable walk up 18. But obviously it's never over, and obviously 17, 72 holes counting a golf tournament, only played 70 and a lot can happen in those last two holes, which it did. I just tried to compose myself. It didn't really faze me. I knew I was back to tied with the lead, but it was just a matter of just trying to compose myself. I didn't put a very good swing on it on 18, either. Apparently having a chat to David, my manager, he said it clipped one of the trees on the way down and caught an unlucky bounce. It wasn't that bad of a line off the tee. Could have got a bit luckier but from that point, with Fras being in the middle of the fairway at 11‑under, it was really‑‑ the ball was in his court. I chipped out sideways and I hit 5‑iron into the green, which is not a great position obviously with Fras in the middle of the fairway. So yeah, obviously it didn't come off for Fras, not making a birdie there with a putt that ran past the edge of the hole which could have ended it for me. Yeah, look, it was pretty hard to swallow but as I say, it didn't really faze me. I just went on about my business and tried to finish it off. Although, I thought, I guess the biggest positive coming out of 18 in regulation play, after the 72nd was holing that putt from 12 feet to potentially get in a playoff. So I took that positive on the last green, having missed that would have been my opportunity and obviously not a very nice taste in the mouth finishing double‑bogey, bogey, to lose a golf tournament. Holing that, it just enabled me to, some kind of hope in which that transpired with Pete missing.       So that sort of gave me a boost. When that happens, I think when you actually‑‑ for myself, anyway, when I felt as though it was mine to lose. It felt as though it was mine most of the day; that sort of inspired me more so than thinking about the‑double‑bogey, as well. So I really tried to knuckle down and really tried to play the best possible shot, and when I was walking up in the playoff to my second shot, I was thinking that a three was going to need to win this. We could be making fours all night here, and lucky enough, obviously I've hit the right shot for it. My bikes, I love my cycling. That's a passion of mine I've had for many, many years now, maybe when I was much, much younger. So I follow cycling, all the cyclists and obviously Cadel Evans is another huge inspiration, as well. I think I would have to put Cadel Evans' win of the Tour de France up there with Adam Scott's. I think that was another Australian sporting moment I think for Australia that really had huge significance and had a massive impact. My hat's off to Cadel and I follow his career closely. He's been a huge inspiration, as well. But so far as my bikes, I've got a couple of Cervélos, an s3 and r3 and also an S‑Works specialized and those bikes go in the vicinity of 10,000 to 13,000 Australian dollars, around the 10,000 dollar mark, when they are coming out.       But of course wheels and grip sets, that varies, if you know your cycling. But the frames are all the mid- to the top-end range, but all of the accessories and everything else, you can really start to spend a lot of money on bikes, which I love. I just love that sport. Q. So when you made the second shot during the playoff, I saw on TV that you were like hugging your caddie. So is it because you placed your ball very close to the pin on the green, or did he in any way contribute to making that happen? BRETT RUMFORD: Yeah, that was a really strange moment, because the golf tournament was really not over. Not really knowing how close it was, obviously it was a great reaction from the gallery. I think it was just more the success of the golf shot I think; the application, the process in which we went through to get the golf shot right was what we were celebrating rather than the actual win or the potential win. So it was just a matter of the joy of actually‑‑ it's a great feeling when you do all of the numbers, from a caddie's perspective, when you're running the numbers and you're trying to calculate elevation, wind, temperature, as well as adrenaline, landing areas, where you want to leave it. There's a lot to it. He's calculating numbers, and his number is changing all the time. And I think it changed from 191 to 188 depending on the wind he's telling me over the golf shot. So for that to come off, I don't really have that much control to tell you the honest truth. When I'm in that situation, the amount of adrenaline that's running through my body, I'm taking it on board. It was just a reaction. It was just a golf shot that came off and I guess with the emotion and I guess what we were experiencing at the time, we got a little bit out of control. But our responsibility is to pull our heads back in line. And Marcus Fraser was five metres up the fairway and he turned around and gestured his hand back and gave me a high‑five, which was a tremendous gesture, and obviously in the spirit of Australian sport, which I commend him for. But it kind of felt strange for me, him doing that, because it was certainly by no means over. It was a great golf shot. It was difficult. There's a couple of situations there with obviously the emotions going at the same time, it was really quite hard to try and just compose and obviously just get myself back into just expecting nothing and just having to go up there and hole the putt and finish off the golf tournament. There was a couple of weird moments. Q. What do you think of Adam's Scott's victory in the U.S. Masters? Do you know him very well and is it a dream for you as well to win another major for Australia? BRETT RUMFORD: Yeah, definitely, I've known Scotty since I was mid teens, early teens. But Scotty always possessed that extreme ability and talent, even shun through back in those days as juniors. Yeah, look, it's been really inspiring to see someone obviously come through the process, start here in Europe for a few years and then obviously work his way through the ranks of professional golf. He's just done it with so much class and style, and so much grace, as well. At the British Open, obviously that was hard for all Australians to take, and I'm sure it was just as hard, more so for Adam. But it just was probably just as inspiring to actually see Adam, the way he actually took defeat at the British Open, I think that was just as inspiring and commendable is what it was in his victory and how much want he has to win. You could see that from his first major and that want still would have been there at the British Open. And to actually lose it like that, yeah, look, he took that amazingly well. Chin was up, shoulders back and just took it. And to come back so soon, as well, it's just, it's incredible. You can't talk highly enough of the men. Hopefully this obviously enables Scotty to move on from here. Obviously with this win, as well, I need to build my own game and my own confidence. Obviously that's a level that's ‑‑ seemingly getting into the majors is what you need to do first, so that level is what I need to achieve. Obviously getting Top‑50 in the world, that's my next goal, and obviously just to improve my golf game just in general and all‑around, obviously to be able to compete in these bigger events. STEVE TODD: Well, you gave us plenty of excitement today and I know there's a lot of people back home who want to congratulate you, so thank you for your time. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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