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BARCLAYS SCOTTISH OPEN

July 6, 2005

Thomas Levet

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND

SCOTT CROCKETT: Thomas, welcome back. Let's start by looking back to last year. It was a memorable day for you winning last year. Just talk us through that final day.

THOMAS LEVET: The memories, I remember, I'm not shouting, I'm not going to say his nickname gain. Paul McGinley in breakfast, and we were joking about you need 62, 63 max to have a chance. It's funny that it came out that way, because I was playing really well during the week, but my putting was off and suddenly it came out on the back nine. Just it's like nothing dropped and suddenly all that didn't drop, dropped on the back nine. That was funny.

I remember the finish, you know, probably forever, and it's nice. The first thing I remembered when I came here was that I arrive at the same gate I left at the airport and I remember where I was sitting for like 45 minutes waiting for the flight to show up and it was nice, nice memories immediately coming back and it's the same, familiar course; it's nice to be back.

SCOTT CROCKETT: You feel very comfortable.

THOMAS LEVET: Yes, especially last week I had a very nice week. I had not seen my kids for five weeks before that. It was nice to see my kids. I played golf every day but relaxing golf. We played maybe two, three hours of golf and they left me on my own for like an hour or so and I could work on my game a little bit. It came back a little bit. I haven't played well this year so far. I've played on and off. I make the cut, and that's basically what I do and that's good enough.

SCOTT CROCKETT: Did the children take money off of you?

THOMAS LEVET: Big time. I tell them if you 2 putt that one, you win a golf ball. They 1 putt basically instead of 2 putting. They did a little bit but that's okay.

Q. Your president is not very keen on Scottish food -- how are you finding it?

THOMAS LEVET: It's a little bit overcooked I would say. I like rare food and it's not the case up in here in Scotland, that's for sure. But it's okay for one week, (laughter) actually, two. So this week we are okay and next week we start suffering, but it's okay. You've got the same on our food; you call us frogs and things like that and we call you rosbif, it's okay.

Q. And haggis?

THOMAS LEVET: I have some friends that experimented with that for me. Apparently I heard what they said and I won't try it. It's okay. I have tournaments to play, you know.

Q. Why have you not played well this year?

THOMAS LEVET: My driving is a little bit off basically and puts me just not off line, comfortable, but just in the rough. Like at the French Open, I put it only once in the big, big thing and otherwise, I was lots of times in the rough. I just from there, you can't control the ball that much. And so you spend your time like 30 feet away and then you 2 putt all day long, and at the end of the day, what do you do? You do the scores like I do, sometimes under par, sometimes over par. But it's not far off, but it's not there yet.

The only few rounds I played low scores this year, I had some really good ones at the Houston Open and at Hilton Head, but they were where I didn't miss a fairway and I put myself in birdie situations, so that starts from the tee. That's why I'm looking forward to this week here, because the fairways are a little bit bigger. I could be if I keep on, you know, the same mind that I had the last few weeks, I wasn't playing that great but I just hang on and try to do my best and just don't panic because the driving is off, then I did okay. But if I keep on this, with bigger fairways, I might touch more fairways this week than previous weeks and I could be all right. Especially I have good memories from that one, so usually it comes back really quickly.

Q. Was it your driving you worked on last week?

THOMAS LEVET: Last week I worked on that a little bit. I found some avenue on the backswing. I tried to make it a bit longer so I got more time to organize myself on the downswing. It's little things, just the timing is a little off. It's not that, bad but it's not that great, either. It's just basically medium and puts me in too much trouble.

Q. Where did you play?

THOMAS LEVET: I was southwest of France, just north of Biarritz. That's where my kids spend the early days every year for like two months with their grandparents.

Q. Does it matter to you to play on an inland course the week before the Open on a links?

THOMAS LEVET: That would be great to play more links courses, that's for sure. But when you look at the quality of that golf course and the field that is here, it tells you that you have a great golf course. Everybody comes no matter what the tournament after that is. So of course, you would like to prepare more for a links course but we have enough experience to come back to a links course without having to practice for it that much.

I'm lucky enough that where I practice in France, it's windy already and the courses are bouncing at the moment because of water shortage. So it's a little warmup, but you would never find the conditions of the British Open anywhere else. It's tough for a golf course to say, look, we're going to set the golf course up like the British Open. The members would yell at you forever probably. But when you have a course like this, I wouldn't mind playing golf courses like Loch Lomond every week. It's okay for me. It's okay for everyone the field I think.

Q. Where would you rate this course on The European Tour?

THOMAS LEVET: It's pretty high up, I would say. Just tell the weather to hold up a little bit, you know, to not be that wet and you will have probably the best one of the best golf courses ever on The European Tour. I would put it with in my mind, you have two or three golf courses that match the quality of that one, the design and the toughness of it. Because whatever the weather is, the winner is not 25 under par. What is very important is that every year the winner is around 12 under and the last place guy is around 12 over and level par is around 35th, so it means that the golf course is very well balanced. So that's one thing that I consider a very good golf course.

But probably for the people that played Chantilly in France, one of the great golf courses on the Tour, has not been played there for many years, but I'm one of the guys fighting for it to come back because I don't like Le Golf National that much. But don't tell the French guys, please. They know about it anyway.

I would put probably Ballybunion in that category of great golf courses that change from one day to the other; it could be a monster or it could be an easy golf course. But on the day it's easy, if you don't take it, if you don't do a good score, you're out of the tournament.

One of my favorites probably, I've got bad memories on that one is Muirfield, you know. I played shit over there. It's one of those courses that shows you don't need that much length. Or Troon is the same; you don't need that much length to make a golf course difficult.

I played lately, I played Muirfield Village where Jack built his golf course, and the toughest hole on the course was a par 4 that was 390 yards. And we're hitting like 2 irons and sand wedges, but at the end of the week it was the toughest hole every day. Why? Because it's protected the way it should be. It's not like you build fairways that are wide like an airport and build the greens the same way. You look at, oh, yeah, the pros, the cut was minus four. Of course, there were no bunkers and nothing to stop you from hitting driver off the tee. You put pot bunkers immediately, the guys they back off the tee and then the golf course becomes longer and naturally [] added some length that always we'll need it.

All of these courses, they don't need that much length to be difficult. It's the same case here. You have holes that are protected enough like No. 11, No. 10. They are protected enough by big trouble if you miss it off the tee or the second shot. So that's the way it should be and not put the next par 3, 350 yards if we go on like that.

Q. Do you think French people are expecting to be awarded the 2012 Olympics?

THOMAS LEVET: They know it's going to be tough. It's apparently very, very tough to say. Any paper I read about that said that it was too close to call it. But they really know about the situation and they really want the Olympics, so we'll see. It's an hour to go, not even 45 minutes to go, so it will be exciting. I hope they are going to do the announcement. It's delayed so we could see it on TV. That could be I don't know.

But anyway, if it's not France, it's neighbors anyway. One guy said in the race, why don't they share it. We could put the best of both in the Olympics anyways, only an hour on the train. It takes you more time to cross over Paris than go from London to Paris on the train, so why not.

Q. Have the event in France and the food in the U.K?

THOMAS LEVET: Yeah, yeah. (Laughter).

Q. Do you support golf in the Olympics?

THOMAS LEVET: I think it's not probably for countries like here or America or Japan that don't need it, you know, because there are not enough golfers like that. But when you look at the European Tour or most of Europe and Asia, some countries they depend on the Olympics for their sports. If, let's say golf is in the Olympics, just be careful with the Chinese people, they are going to build golf courses everywhere and you are going to have like a million Chinese invading The European Tour. No, that's the way it will be.

Some countries like Russia and China they live on the Olympics, and any sports that is allowed in the Olympics, they have millions of people playing in it, and so it would be great for the game. It's not only here in this country where everybody plays golf. In France it would be a huge boost for the French Federation and probably for the youngsters because the Olympics is probably the most famous thing to play as a sportsman.

Q. Still your intention is to play both in America and Europe?

THOMAS LEVET: I will see. It depends if I keep an exemption for the majors and World Championships. If I do that, I will play both tours. If I don't, I will have to choose one. So far, I moved to America, so probably if I don't, I will probably choose the U.S. Tour but I'm not sure about that. It depends if you keep your card, how you feel like. I will see how my family likes to live over there. If they don't like it, I will not stay. If they like it, I will, I don't know. It's just we are experimenting and I will see what it is.

For me it's more important to enjoy what I do and my family to be happy. If they are not happy, I'm not playing well. That's always the way I've seen it and that's the way I will follow on. If they like it, we'll see.

Or I could drop the U.S. membership, too, if they don't like it. But I hope I'll be exempt for all of the majors and all of that next year so that I can keep both memberships, because I always love to come back here. I have a five week spell here to play in Europe. I think it's normal to support The European Tour because that's where I come from as well.

Q. Thoughts on St Andrews?

THOMAS LEVET: It's not my best Open venue. I'm going to drop the bookmakers' price now, because it's like compared to Muirfield or Troon, it's not like you need to hit it straight that much. The fairways are big. You don't need to put the ball this much in position. It's not as important as the other courses and it's much more a putting, you know, golf course. You need to putt really well at St. Andrews, and if not, just look at the stats; it's not my best part of the game. It could be. It could be. I might surprise everybody next week. But I'm not a favorite on putting.

You know look at the guys that won it the last few times: It's been Tiger Woods, John Daly, Michael Campbell almost won it in 1995, wasn't it, and they are extremely good putters these guys. Seve won it; Jack Nicklaus won it; extremely good putters, and not that straight off the tee, you know. They are, of course, otherwise they would not be, but they are more known for their really good putting than their straightness off the tee.

Q. You would love to play the Ryder Cup next year?

THOMAS LEVET: Yeah.

Q. What did you think about what happened at The K Club?

THOMAS LEVET: Oh, we try to forget these things quickly. What's going on with the leaders at the moment? Everywhere in the world, I've seen Retief at the U.S. Open, I've seen Michelle Wie at the women's tournament, and last week as well. It must be somebody is against the leaders basically at this time.

The course is tough, that's a good thing for the Ryder Cup. The course is set up tough, but you don't want that much bad weather, you know, to show up. Otherwise it could be extremely difficult.

SCOTT CROCKETT: Thomas, thanks as always. Good luck this week.

End of FastScripts.

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