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SMURFIT EUROPEAN OPEN

July 3, 2005

Kenneth Ferrie

STRAFFAN, IRELAND

GORDON SIMPSON: Smurfit European Open Champion, I'm sure that has a nice ring to it, and you certainly beat a quality field today to achieve that.

KENNETH FERRIE: Yeah, I was really, really pleased, like I was just saying before, to win the Open de Espana as your first big win on Tour is obviously an achievement, and to win again, the next step up, winning one of the more prestigious tournaments we play in Europe. And to beat the guys you've played against, to see the names on the trophy, I'm feeling pretty good.

GORDON SIMPSON: Did you have a sense that it was going to be tough on the finishing holes?

KENNETH FERRIE: Not really. I think everybody, I figured there would be one or two people who would be able to go and make a few birdies towards the ends and luckily for me, nobody did.

Q. Did you think you had a chance shooting 2 under today to win?

KENNETH FERRIE: I did feel I could. The golf course is playing pretty tricky as it proved, and I didn't think 2 under would be I thought maybe if I could get to like 4 or 5 under maybe, and if Thomas didn't quite run away with it, I would have a chance but at the start of the day, I never would have dreamed this.

Q. Were you watching what happened to Thomas on 17?

KENNETH FERRIE: I think by the time I walked out of the locker room, I saw. it

Obviously that kind of meant I was in a very good position, but you don't wish that on anybody. If you play golf long enough, it will happen, maybe not to that extent but it's happened to me before I've had a terrible last couple of holes and cost myself winning. That gave me the opportunity, and it gave me the win.

Q. An interesting week after qualifying for the Open at Sunningdale.

KENNETH FERRIE: Yeah, it's strange, it happened last year, as well. I had a pretty poor start, I just didn't really do much at the start, qualified to play in the Open and had a Top 30, top 5 and that kick started me. I had a good Loch Lomond, played well in the Open, and had a couple of good tournaments after that. So it's funny how almost the Open qualifying kick started me yet again same as last year.

Q. Since you won a few years ago, can you talk about how much lighter are you now?

KENNETH FERRIE: I'm about 16 stone, around middle of last year, I was about 20. So at most it's about four stone, three and a half I've lost in the last year.

Q. Did you think that would help your game?

KENNETH FERRIE: I obviously I knew it wasn't going to particularly help my golf, but obviously gave myself a better feeling. People comment on it and it makes you feel better about yourself and you can wear better clothes and people give you compliments and you feel better. There's more of that than this is going to make me a better golfer. I don't think it particularly has.

Q. What happened to Thomas, have you ever had a finish like that?

KENNETH FERRIE: Like I said, not to that extent. As I say, that happens to everybody, I've had a bogey or double bogey at the end when I've been in contention. There was one a couple of weeks ago in France where Sam Little finished bogey, bogey, ten to miss the cut by a shot. And to him that was as important as wining a golf tournament just to make the cut. Everyone has that at some point during their career.

Q. What does this do to your career?

KENNETH FERRIE: I don't know, obviously the five year exemption, I've been worrying a little bit this year about my form. It's not exactly where I wanted it to be and worried about what was going to happen next year: Would I be playing; would I be keeping the card? And it's something that I shouldn't be worried about because I'm too good of a player to be worried about that.

But you can never be completely secure and completely happy with where you're going. So a five year exemption, that takes me through a long time, 2011, I'll be 31 by the time the exemption runs out. Obviously it's financial security for the next five years and obviously you win the World Ranking points, the Order of Merit points.

Somebody said before that I'm for certain in the Seve Trophy now. If I can get in that, that would be a dream come true to play at The Wynyard, it's only 15 minutes from where I live, that's a dream come true. To play in the Seve Trophy would be unbelievable and for northeast golf, it would be unbelievable. Also Graeme Storm -- he lives about five minutes from The Wynyard. It would only be a benefit to the Seve Trophy to have local interest which will get people wanting to come and watch. Like I say, hopefully, keeping my fingers crossed, keep this good form up and hopefully I can play.

Q. Has it sunk in yet, what win this means for you?

KENNETH FERRIE: I don't know. I'm sure it will take a few days. It will take a few days to sink in. It does definitely right now, I don't feel any different this morning now than this morning when I got out of bed. Tomorrow I'll probably realize it happened. When I woke up after winning in Spain the next morning I asked myself: did that happen? I had to take a couple of seconds, glance over, see the trophy, and then will probably reassess a few things now. This gives me an opportunity to take a few weeks off, gives us an opportunity to plan the schedule. I'm sure it this will bring us into many other tournaments, maybe a couple WGCs, there's a tournament out in China at the end of the year. I'm sure the next few weeks we'll look at that, and as I say it will take awhile to sink in, but I'm sure it will.

Q. Would you like to come back here in 14 months for The Ryder Cup?

KENNETH FERRIE: Yeah, it will be nice to be in a position that I want to come back.

I learned quite a lot about myself and my career after I won and just about how to react to and how to deal with it more than anything. I feel like I kind of wasted my exemption last time, like I could have maybe tried, not tried harder, that's probably the wrong thing, but rather than rest on my laurels, I really could have gone on and something special happened. A five year exemption, I'm hoping this time I cannot take it for granted and I can really push on and maybe go to the next level and move my game to the next level, and like you said maybe next year, be back in this tournament; and that will be a realistic goal to get into the Ryder Cup rather than just a pipe dream.

Q. Have you heard from Bobby Charlton yet?

KENNETH FERRIE: Not yet. There are a few people who come from Ashlington. It's just a little mining town and it's produced the Charlton brothers, Jackie and Bobby, and Jackie Milburn and Steve Harmison. To be mentioned as coming from Ashington and in the same breath as these people is a great honour.

GORDON SIMPSON: Well played. Thank you.

End of FastScripts.

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