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THE IRISH OPENJune 29, 2013Joost LuitenKILDARE, IRELAND STEVE TODD: 66 today, one‑shot lead, good day at the office. JOOST LUITEN: It's good, yeah. It's always good if you have a round with no bogeys, especially today, it was quite tricky there with some rain in the beginning and some strong winds in the afternoon. So I'm quite happy, yeah. STEVE TODD: You are wearing the Irish green there and you've been in great form of late, I guess you go into tomorrow's round feeling pretty confident. JOOST LUITEN: Yeah, I'm playing good the last two weeks, the last three weeks actually. Yeah, you just need to go out there tomorrow, and try to do the same, and hopefully that's enough to win the trophy. But, I mean, still, a lot of golf to be played, so I think that you have to be patient and take it easy and take it one shot at a time. STEVE TODD: Give us an overview of the day, important putt on the last there. JOOST LUITEN: I made some really good par putts, on 12, holed a long one out of the bunker. I came short out of the bunker and holed a long putt from like six metres, so those things were really important to keep the round going. I think that was the biggest difference compared to yesterday, that I made some putts today. Hit a few in close, which gave me easy birdie and rolled in a few for birdie. Q. (What's the key to playing this course)? JOOST LUITEN: It's a tough one, I think off the tee you have to make sure that you stay out of the fairway bunkers, I think that's really important, if you want to play well on this course, you have to stay out of the fairway traps, because they are really deep. I haven't been in any fairway bunkers at all this week. That's the game plan. Sometimes it's better to hit it way off‑line and to miss the bunkers than just off‑line in the bunker, and from there you just have to hit the greens. Yeah, I think that's what I've done pretty good, hit a lot of greens, and if I missed them, I missed them in the right places, so I gave myself some nice up‑and‑downs from relatively easy spots. Q. Your form has been particularly good the last few weeks. Is there any particular reason for that? Your form has been good, but the last few weeks, better still; any reason? JOOST LUITEN: Well, I've been working on the swing for a long time. I've been fully fit now for a long time, as well. I had some little issues that I couldn't practise that much, and the last two or three months, I could practise a lot more, and that will help you, as well, and I think that's really important that I can make my hours on the practise range again and I think that really paid off. Q. What sort of issues? JOOST LUITEN: I had some shoulder issues. Q. Did you have an operation? JOOST LUITEN: No, I could still play with it but it was always there, and you always had to make a decision to practise; do I practise or do I give it rest. That's been there for a couple months and it's really good now and it feels strong, and now you can make your hours on the practise range and that pays off on the golf course, as well. Q. Some really good names behind you and they are going to make it obviously tough for you tomorrow but does it make any difference that guys like McIlroy and McDowell and Harrington are not on the leaderboard? JOOST LUITEN: Well, I can't say because they are not on the leaderboard now. I don't know, but you still have to go out tomorrow and play well. Doesn't matter who is behind you; you still have to make some birdies and you still have to hit some good shots, so I'm not really bothered about who is behind me, as long as they stay behind me. Q. Having won earlier this year‑‑ JOOST LUITEN: It's always good to have a win under your belt. It makes things easier. I think you can maybe go a little bit more for the win; you have one in the bag already, so you've got nothing to lose, and that's how I'm going to go out there tomorrow, and hopefully will play good like today. Q. Have you had a chance to celebrate your win in Austria? JOOST LUITEN: Yeah, I did, because I didn't play the week after. So I went home on that Sunday night and all my friends were waiting on the airport, so we went to a nice little bar and spent a good night, yeah. Q. Inaudible. JOOST LUITEN: I didn't get the trophy to take home with me‑‑ I could hold the trophy. No trophy yet. So hopefully the third one will get me a trophy. Q. Does it help that you had the chance to win‑‑ JOOST LUITEN: I think it's always nice to have a week off after you've won so you can enjoy everything. Last time I won in Malaysia, I had to go straight to China, so I didn't know what was going on back home. So it was really good to see that and to enjoy it, yeah. Q. Inaudible. JOOST LUITEN: There are some great holes, we had a lot of crowd out there, and 17 is great with the whole grandstand around it. It's like a football stadium you play in. This tournament is always great. I think it's the tournament with the most crowd, and it's always fun to play in front of them. Q. Inaudible. JOOST LUITEN: If you can get the people to the course, do it. It just creates an atmosphere out there. Grandstands out there, I think it's great if there's an opportunity for it and there's a nice hole to do it, why not, it's great. Q. Back home, where did you rank in terms of sport in your country? Football is obviously big. Are you recognised as one of the top sports stars? JOOST LUITEN: It's funny, golf, because it's the third biggest sport in Holland, if you look at how many people do it. But, I'm more famous as a golfer, when I go to the golf course, people recognise me, but when I'm in the city or anywhere else, nobody will recognise me. So only the people that plays golf, they know me, and outside, it's pretty quiet. So I quite enjoy it actually. But now I think when golf is Olympic, it will be and get a lot more popular now the next few years hopefully, because I think that's good for the sport, as well. Q. What's the No. 1 sport in Holland? JOOST LUITEN: I think it's field hockey. I might be wrong, but I think it's field hockey. Yeah, there's a lot of young kids play hockey, so yeah. STEVE TODD: Best of luck tomorrow. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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