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PORTUGAL MASTERSOctober 9, 2013Tom LewisALGARVE, PORTUGAL SARAH GWYNN: Welcome back to the Portugal Masters. You're in a place where you've won before and you've secured your card for next year, but be quite good at the moment. TOM LEWIS: Yeah, good for me to have raid well last week. Check he can takes pressure off of this week. Kind of thought this was maybe the start of my European Tour, and then coming back here and maybe losing it; so it was a bit of ironic. But you know, Dunhill is always going to be a good place for me. I think there's a lot of good courses that suit me, and obviously this week, coming in here with some form, if I can play like I did last week, then there's no reason why I can't be up there on Sunday. SARAH GWYNN: This place must have great memories for you from 2011. How did that‑‑ what did it mean to you that year? TOM LEWIS: I think it just happened so quickly that I didn't really appreciate what I did. And obviously starting from the Open, I thought life was like that for everyone. But it wasn't really that way for the last sort of 18 months. I've learned a lot from it and I've come out of it a stronger player and a stronger person, and obviously last week was more like I can play. And if I can keep my head down and keep working hard, then there's no reason why I can't play like that week‑in, week‑out. Q. Sets you up nicely for next year. TOM LEWIS: Yeah, obviously the Dunhill is good‑‑ I was looking at it, and The Race to Dubai, etc., and obviously I need a good week this week to be able to kind of help me into that week. But you know, really last week has given me a lot of confidence going into next year, and I've learned a lot in the last sort of 18 months, two years of my career, and obviously the win here two years ago gave me that experience. I was always going to take a little longer than everyone maybe expected to learn, and I feel like I've learned a lot in 18 months, and obviously I'm going to always carry on learning, but I think I've learned the tough part now. And if I can carry on playing like I've been playing the last couple of months, then, you know, who knows where I'll be this time next year. Q. How much do you enjoy the Algarve, and the course where you won the tournament‑‑ or even other amateurs, because know it's very important‑‑ TOM LEWIS: I think actually European Men's was played here before the actual‑‑ I played this event when I won, and I wasn't able to play. I think I had something else on or there was a reason why I didn't play on that six‑man team. I remember them telling me how hard the last few holes were, and then how they missed out on the top flight, and I didn't realise that until I won, and I was like, how did they mess up the last. I think they were hitting 3‑woods into the last; the weather was completely different. But I've always liked coming here. I've come here as an amateur, training and stuff, and the weather is always nice, and the courses are always in great condition. And the course suits me, so whenever you've played well somewhere, it's always going to be nice to come back to where you have good memories, and this place will always be special for me, because obviously it set me career. Q. When you say "the course suits me," could you elaborate? TOM LEWIS: Every course is different. Some people suit certain other courses, and just through their game, either they hit it well, or their short game is not great and courses that are wide open and longer suit longer players, etc. If it's a tight course that you can't really hit many greens, then it suits people with great short games. But this week obviously, it's a driver's course, so if you can drive the ball very well, then you're always in a good position to go ahead and make birdies. I feel like I'm a good driver of the ball, and the way I've been hitting it recently, it sets up for me and if I can hit a lot of the fairways then I'm going to give myself a lot of birdie opportunities. Q. The year with you won here, a young Portuguese amateur was having a good result here, he just became pro this year and he didn't have an easy time, missed four cuts in a row but finally he's doing some cuts in The Challenge Tour. Could you tell us exactly how difficult it is to come from a very good amateur to starting your pro career? TOM LEWIS: The way I thought was slightly different to other players. When I was an amateur, I tried to prepare like a professional, I tried to stay in nice hotels and stay as close to the course as I can. I had a good supporting team around me and family that sort of trained me well as an amateur so that when I turned professional, I was doing exactly the same thing, whereas I feel like when players and amateurs start off, they start to do everything slightly differently. They might not prepare as well as they do‑‑ as they try for professional events but when they do turn professionals, they think it's something different, so they try harder or they spend more time on the range or they try and concentrate harder, etc., so they actually don't do the same as what they did when they were good as an amateur, so they really shouldn't change anything. It's just a slightly stronger field and courses are slightly better conditions, and that's literally it. Pedro is a good player and a really nice guy, so he'll probably have a really good week. I saw him on the range this week and he looks like he's hitting it well and he's always a good chipper and putter. I wouldn't‑‑ might take him a year or something, but there's no reason why he won't be here in a year or two. But, like I say, I think for me, I was able to train and prepare well as an amateur, so I didn't know anything different when I turned professional. Q. You said you feel like you've learned the tough part; what would be the toughest thing you had to learn, and were there any moments in the last 18 months‑‑ TOM LEWIS: I think for me, I expected things quickly, every three weeks a win, every three weeks a win, I thought that's the way it was going to go. I obviously quickly realised that's not the way it is. I was getting frustrated with myself and my game because I felt like my game was as strong as all the guys out here, but I was getting no results, and that kind of wound me up a little bit. I was getting myself down and beating myself up and then I had done that for so long, probably couldn't take anymore and I kind of accepted where I was. It was nice to fall back into the pack and nobody cared what I did, and I could just focus on what I needed to do. And then I went over to America and worked with Butch and worked on simplifying my swing out, and that worked for me. My dad took a lot of confidence back in himself, as well, because he always helped me as an amateur and we always kept things simple. Earlier on this year I worked with Dave Alred and tried to work on my performance and get away from technique and such and try and score and practice more with a purpose instead of maybe spending hours on stuff I didn't need to spend time on. It all kind of fit together. I have basically a good team behind me, alongside Bob Rotella, I've kind of worked with everyone you can think of and I couldn't have asked for a better team. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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