|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
RICOH WOMEN'S BRITISH OPENJuly 31, 2013Catriona MatthewST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND COLIN CALLANDER: We welcome Catriona Matthew, winner of the 2009 Ricoh Women's British Open, who is obviously well known in these parts, and, in fact, did very well the last time the championship was here, I think I'm right in saying you finished tied seventh. You've come into this championship in a good run of form, you must be looking forward to it. CATRIONA MATTHEW: Yeah, really looking forward to it. Played well in all the major this year. Nice to be back at St. Andrews, always one of my courses to come and play since amateur days. Yeah, we get a buzz no matter when you are playing, coming up 1 and up 18, so excited about the week. COLIN CALLANDER: Is there anything in particular you like about playing at the Old Course, or is it just the vibe of the place? CATRIONA MATTHEW: I think it's just the vibe of the place. I don't think it matters when you come to play it, whether it's January or July, there's always people around 18, and I think 1 and 18 are just always how you pictured them on television and it's great fun to play here. Q. How many times have you played the Old Course, and what's your history here then? CATRIONA MATTHEW: I don't know the exact number I've played.  We had an amateur tournament, the St Rule Trophy, I maybe played in it, maybe, eight or nine, ten times, and won it, I'm not quite sure, a couple of time I won it. Obviously that was awhile ago now but I played again in '07. So I've probably played, I don't know, 30, 40 rounds on it. Q. You've been playing in more than one tour for a year now. What's the difference in the standard. There seems to be a great raising of the standard all around. At the same time, your performance is up, as well? CATRIONA MATTHEW: Yeah, I think definitely, this is my 19th year on Tour now, and on the LET and the LPGA the standard and depth has increased dramatically from when I first started. Maybe when I first started there were maybe 30 people each week who could win, and now I would say that just about everyone who is teeing it up has a chance of winning, and certainly the LPGA is a world tour now and more and more people are gravitating towards it. So if you don't keep improving, you're going to be off the Tour, so it kind of spurs you on. Q. I imagine there's both benefits and challenges to playing on home soil; familiar surroundings, but a lot of attention. How do you weigh that, and is it an advantage? CATRIONA MATTHEW: Overall it's an advantage. There's obviously added pressure of playing at home, and obviously you want to do well. Obviously putting pressure on myself to do well in front of the home fans, but you don't often get an opportunity to play at home and so you've just got to try to enjoy it the few times I do manage to play in Scotland. Q. This is the first big test with the changes to the course made over the winter. Can you talk us through them, and did you notice anything in particular that catches your eye? CATRIONA MATTHEW: I came up to play probably a month ago and I probably wouldn't have realized there would have been bunkers to the right of No.2. I think that change, the bunkers there, makes the second shot a little harder. 11, again, subtle change. I don't think you'd notice that unless you'd played the course a lot. 17 is probably the one I would have noticed the mounding to the left of the Road Hole bunker, but again it probably just takes out the going left if the pin is on the back left because you never know what kind of kick you'll get. Overall, I think the changes are pretty subtle. Q. There was a bit of controversy at the time, but in terms of changing a course like the Old Course‑‑ CATRIONA MATTHEW: I think the changes were so‑‑ I honestly don't think‑‑ they were so subtle. I think probably if you look back to, what, 150 years ago, the course has changed a little bit over the years, so just a natural progression. Q. From the different occasions you've played this course, what's the difference of playing it with grandstands and other tournament fixtures, as opposed to playing it in your amateur days? CATRIONA MATTHEW: The difference that stands out‑‑ it's probably one of the courses where 1 and 18 don't really change a lot with the stands because there's not much room for stands. So there's sort of not a whole lot of change. But the quality on the course ‑‑ inaudible ‑‑ it always just adds to the buzz I think when you see the stands out there and people are out watching, so it makes it more exciting I think‑‑ Q. Is it easier when there is stands to aim at? CATRIONA MATTHEW: ‑‑ The TV tower certainly helps, yeah, because lots of the drives, you do probably struggle to find somethingto aim at, so the TV towers are certainly very useful. Q.  Your record obviously speaks for itself on links but what would you say makes you a good player on links courses? CATRIONA MATTHEW: Well, up until Lytham, I had not played particularly well on links courses. Obviously I grew up on them‑‑ maybe you're used to playing more of the bump‑and‑run shots. Especially if the weather gets back, maybe you hang in a bit more, you're used to playing in that kind of weather; don't try and let it get you down. Just know that playing golf in Scotland, it might be 70 degrees one day and blowing a gale the next day. I suppose that's the challenge you've just got to accept I think. Q. Can you speak about the kind of qualities as a player that you need, especially on your first visit to the course? CATRIONA MATTHEW: I think certainly playing links golf, you've just got to accept perhaps that you're going to have maybe the odd bad bounce, because the fairways are undulating and it's going to kick, and know that you're going to get a bad kick. So you have to accept that and think that you can get a good kick somewhere else and you can get in get bad lies in bunkers. Overall you just have to try and ‑‑ I know it's kind of what everybody says; you have to stay patient and not let the course annoy you and just try to get on with it. Q. As much as you might not want to, I wonder if you can go over the closing half hour or so at Rochester. I wasn't there, but I'm curious from a context of Inbee and as well as she's playing, just how much everything has to go perfectly right for someone to be at this stage of doing something really grand. CATRIONA MATTHEW: Yeah, obviously to have won the first two Majors for Inbee is just a phenomenal feat; for anyone to come in with a chance of winning a fourth one is amazing. Obviously she's got a big element of luck, I think on that Sunday in Rochester, we played 36 holes on Sunday, and from what I heard she had not played particularly well in the second round and hadn't hit many fairways and had been struggling. And I just kind of came out of the pack and had a really good two rounds and ended up‑‑ it wasn't actually until I got to 18 green and I realised that if I holed two putts‑‑ I left myself a long one, and two putts, and I might have a chance of a playoff. And she came out and played really well in the playoff and hit the shots. So I suppose that's why she's world No. 1, she managed to put behind her kind of her bad play on Sunday in the second round and played really good in the playoff. The first playoff hole, I hit a really good drive, and hit just a little 7‑iron and I thought it was perfect and it just ran up, probably a yard less had run back down the hill and been pretty close. Yeah, just little things like that that happen. Q. You talked earlier about how players have to keep improving. Your game obviously wasn't shabby four years ago, but would you say you're a better player now given all the work you've put in the last few years? CATRIONA MATTHEW: I think so. I mean, obviously I still feel that I can improve. I think when I get to the stage where I feel that I can't improve anymore, I guess that's when you should start getting worried. Yeah, I feel as though I'm still working on things. I think golf is always an ongoing process. I don't think you ever feel as though you've ever mastered it. I still work hard with my coach and there's all these little things I'm trying to work on. I feel as though I'm probably hitting it as well and swinging it as well as I have done, so hopefully I can do that the next few days. Q. In a few weeks is the Solheim Cup, and you've already secured your place; what does that mean to you at this stage of the career? CATRIONA MATTHEW: Yeah, I loved the Solheim Cup. That's probably the best week of every two years. It's just such a different atmosphere: You've got teammates and you're not out there on your own. It's always great fun. I think this year we are going to have a really good team with a slightly different look. I think it's going to be a fun team, so new youngsters coming up. I think match play just can be more exciting sometimes, so it gets you away from the 72‑hole stroke play. I just love it. Q. Going to be a hell of a lot of support for Inbee this week; does that motivate you at all, and is it a bit daunting the thought of being the one who spoils the party? CATRIONA MATTHEW: I wouldn't say it's daunting. Obviously for women's golf, if she won it would be an amazing story and the media would be kind of all over it. So for women's golf, it would be fantastic if she won but obviously we are going to be out there trying to stop her. I think a lot will just come down to the last few holes on Sunday and hopefully you're in the position; and if she's there, she's there, and if she's not, she's not. But the way she's playing, I would think she's going to have a chance. Obviously she's the one to beat this week. If you can beat her, you're going to be in there with having a chance to win it. Q. You know the history of golf well; how would you rate the achievement of four consecutive Majors in the history of the sport? CATRIONA MATTHEW: Oh, it would be unbelievable. Well, Tiger did it but not in a calendar year, and to do it in a calendar year would be a phenomenal feat, one of those feats you would think maybe could never be repeated. But there always seems to be someone who comes along who defies the record books. Q. Your career spanned Annika, Lorena Ochoa, and now Inbee. How would you compare the three, different strengths? CATRIONA MATTHEW: It's always difficult to compare different players from maybe different eras. But Annika was a fantastic ball‑striker. I think if she putted as well as Inbee or Lorena did, she really would have been unbeatable, and she just about was unbeatable. But putting was probably her weakest part of her game. Inbee and Lorena's putting is probably the strongest part of their game. It's not that they hit the ball badly or anything, but it's all relative when you're No. 1. I would say Inbee's putting this year has been phenomenal. Q. What would you say is the strongest part of your game, and is any part of your game that you're still working particularly on? CATRIONA MATTHEW: Still working on all of it. Probably pretty consistent. I would have said I'm a pretty good driver of the golf ball. Putting tends to be perhaps a little bit streaky. So I was working on my short game and I think that's always somewhere where I can improve on, so short game and putting is usually where I'm trying to work the most. Anyone, you just watch golf every week, it's the person who holes putts in the end. When you get to the standard where everyone is capable of hitting the ball, it's who makes an up‑and‑down at the right time or who holes a putt for birdie or to save par is always usually the person who makes a good save or putts well this week that wins. Q. You've carried the flag for a number of years for Scotland; slightly disappointing that there's only two this week? Is that kind of the lowest number you can recall for a while? CATRIONA MATTHEW: Yeah, it probably is actually. Very disappointing there's only two of us. Carly did well qualifying at Kingsbarns. Yeah, I don't know what‑‑ I think there's some good youngsters coming up. I played with Connie Jaffrey yesterday, the Scottish Girls' Champion, a good player but just seems to be struggling with that position from amateur into the pro ranks. Hopefully we'll get a few in the next years. Q. It was suggested that you were perhaps, as a world‑class golfer, one of the most underappreciated in women's sports; in terms of denying Inbee her bit of history this week, do you think that would change and you would finally get the recognition that perhaps your career has deserved? CATRIONA MATTHEW: I mean, obviously to win, for me personally to win at Scotland and at St. Andrews and to beat Inbee, yeah, would be a big deal. When I won the British the last time, I just had Sophie, my second child, so that was quite a big deal, so maybe I need the big occasion to win‑‑ think I'll stop at two. (Laughter). COLIN CALLANDER: Thank you very much and good luck this week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|