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HSBC WORLD MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

September 16, 2005

Paul McGinley

SURREY, ENGLAND

MICHAEL GIBBONS: Well played. You defeated a top class opponent yesterday and another today -- you must be very pleased?

PAUL McGINLEY: I'm obviously very pleased. Luke is a world class player as we know. He had a lot of support out there being a local boy, that's only natural, and it was good to come through against obviously a very difficult opponent.

MICHAEL GIBBONS: You must be happy with the way you played, as well?

PAUL McGINLEY: Yeah, I knew could I play well. As I said yesterday, you don't get any soft greens in this tournament. You've got to play well in order to get a win. I feel I did. I played well yesterday, I played well today, and going into tomorrow try to do the same thing.

Q. Padraig Harrington has said that you make fewer putts than anyone bit you have made a few this week?

PAUL McGINLEY: Yeah, I wouldn't say I'm putting the lights out, but I am putting well. To have any success in this game, you've got to putt well, but I'm not as bad a putter as Paddy thinks I am.

Q. For someone that said they were surprised to win yesterday, how do you feel now?

PAUL McGINLEY: Who said that? (Laughter.) I don't know, it's a lot of fun. 1 down after 18, nobody wants to play (laughter.) I'm obviously pleased.

You know, I had a chat after 18 holes, I'm 6 up, but I realized that Luke is going to come at me in the afternoon. I realized that match play is such a fickle thing and momentum is massive, and if he managed to get momentum on his side early in the second, and with the big crowd support that he had out there on the course, it could have been a definitely day. Particularly the way last, six, seven holes are playing with a strong wind, anything can happen.

So I was very much aware that I had to keep my foot down as hard as I could the first five or six holes, try to just keep him at arm's length and fortunately that's what happened. And I was able to do that, halved a few holes, won the odd one, and I ended up winning 9 & 8.

I don't take anything for granted in this game, nothing at all for granted. I've been disappointed too many times to take anything for granted and I certainly didn't take anything for granted after 18 holes today. I said to my dad, I said, it's like a boxing match, after 18 holes, I've hit him so many times that he looks like he should be down but he wasn't down, and that's exactly how I felt. You have to I was very much aware that he could have come back in the afternoon. As I say, to get momentum on his side and get the crowd support behind him, which the crowds were actually huge, we had a huge following all the way down. I'm just glad that I was able to finish him off and as everybody knows, he's a class player.

Q. He must have been down after that putt on the fifth?

PAUL McGINLEY: Yeah, well, it was one of those, if you're lagging it up, I've got a 45 footer straight down and I know it's extremely quick and he's knocked it eight feet by before me. I'm just lagging it down to the hole, maybe I should try to lag more often instead of just try to hole it. Just one of those things that it goes near the hole. All I was trying to do was get the pace right and get it down and make him hole his putt for a half, so I can't take a huge amount of credit for that.

Q. You looked slightly embarrassed?

PAUL McGINLEY: I did, as I say I was trying to lag it down to the hole and it goes right in the middle of the hole.

Q. You holed a good putt after he chipped in?

PAUL McGINLEY: I did. That was what I'm saying about letting him get moment on his side. He chipped in on the fourth and was able to hole a good, 8 , 9 footer for a halve, and I was very, very aware that I didn't want him to get any momentum on the second 18.

Q. Did you have similar feelings to that at the start of the match?

PAUL McGINLEY: Yeah, I mean, of course, you want to the first few holes are tough at Wentworth. You've got a tough par 4, you get off to a 4 3 4 start at Wentworth, you can do decent, and fortunately I did that this morning and I did it again this afternoon. Once you do that, you're very unlucky to be down after three holes if you start 4 3 4.

Q. How much time have you spent with Jos this week?

PAUL McGINLEY: Yeah, I have. My relationship with Jos goes in and out and he's been a big influence on my career. And I've learned a lot from him, a hell of a lot from him. We don't spend a huge amount of time with each other, ten minutes here, ten minutes there and that's about it. He's a very big influence, yeah.

End of FastScripts.

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