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ABERDEEN ASSET MANAGEMENT SCOTTISH OPENJuly 10, 2014Russell KnoxABERDEEN, SCOTLAND Q. Russell, your first competitive round as a professional golfer in your home land. How special was today? RUSSELL KNOX: Yeah, it was great. I went out with the mindset of just to enjoy my day, and didn't really care how I played. I mean obviously I wanted to play well, but just wanted to have a good time with my playing partners. And I'm thrilled with my score. Q. How well did you play? RUSSELL KNOX: Yeah, I drove it nicely. I made some putts, which was very important, obviously to shoot 3‑under. You gotta stay out of the bunkers, which I did all day, I think, and off the tee. And a couple times I drove it in the thick stuff and just took my bogey and moved on. You gotta have a good mindset to play out here. It's tough. Q. I know that you had a choice between professional fútbol and professional golf. This course played a part in making that decision. What was that? RUSSELL KNOX: Yeah, I finished‑‑ this is one of my first good amateur finishes in Scotland, Scottish stroke play. I think it was in 2005. And that was kind of where I‑‑ I think I almost Top 10'ed, and I'm like, yeah, I can do this. I'm not too bad. I'm not too far off where I need to be. And then I played nicely the next week at the Scottish Youth. So that really helped me decide that golf was going to be a good idea. Thankfully I made a great decision. Q. Your sister was introduced to sky view earlier in the year we did a feature about you. Foxy Knoxy, as she's known, the DJ on Radio Clyde, was introducing that feature. Is she coming along to support? We'd like to meet her. RUSSELL KNOX: Well, I appreciate the Foxy Knoxy. I'll let you guys decide that. No, she's here actually. She was walking around with my mom and dad and my wife's here. So there's a few nice people rooting for me. Q. Good luck tomorrow. RUSSELL KNOX: Thank you very much. Q. Russell, just when you think you've tamed this old course, she showed some teeth at the last. RUSSELL KNOX: Yeah. I mean that's one of the toughest holes, 18, out here. I mean if you drive it out of play, you're struggling and probably attempted a shot I shouldn't have, but got away with bogey and pretty pleased with the day. Q. I guess that's the mindset. You got away with bogey. You just have to put that to one side and focus on tomorrow. RUSSELL KNOX: I mean everyone's going to make a lot of mistakes, a lot of bogeys out here. It's just not doing anything really dumb and making a double or triple. Once you drive it in the rough, you have to accept a bogey. I mean you hope for a par or better, but if you walk to the next tee, in this case, lunch, not too disappointed because I played 16, 17 good holes. Q. For those 17 holes, looks like you've never been away from Scotland, the old links master. You never lose it, do you? RUSSELL KNOX: No, it's in there. It's like riding a bike. It brings out the creativeness in your thinking and your game, and it's a joy to play. Q. When we spoke to you earlier in the week we were talking about how you haven't played much links golf, but as you say today, that never showed at all. RUSSELL KNOX: Well, I mean I grew up playing. I played thousands of rounds in links golf over my life. So yes, it's not been eight years, but I've still played more links golf than I have golf in America. So it's still in there. Q. What were the conditions like out there this morning? RUSSELL KNOX: It was very cold to start with. I mean there was just a testing breeze. It wasn't too difficult. But I mean you had to be on top of your thinking. It was tough to land the ball so far short. And that's something I definitely had to adjust to. It's doable. I mean there's good scores out there. It just shows that‑‑ and they set up the course very well. They moved some tees forward, so it wasn't too brutal. Q. And when we spoke earlier in the week, we talked about the fact that maybe in terms of a home winner, people were focusing on Steve Gallacher, maybe Paul Lawrie. And you kind of crept in a wee bit under the radar, but I guess people will now be talking about you as a serious contender for the home winner. RUSSELL KNOX: Yeah, I mean winning is obviously the goal. To be under first round is a million miles away from thinking about winning obviously. I mean I'm very happy with my opening round, and if it was to happen, then great, but got a long way to go. Q. And I gather that you were once in the grips of Inverness Cale Thistle. Can you tell us about that and when you see a round like today's round, it shows you made the right decision to ditch fútbol and play golf. RUSSELL KNOX: I mean fútbol is nearly every Scottish boy's dream growing up. I mean I played for Cale Thistle youth teams. I was never on the books, but I enjoyed playing for them. I mean I played golf and played a little ice hockey, believe it or not, too, and fútbol, and decided to stick to golf, and luckily I made a great decision. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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