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THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 18, 2015Paul LawrieST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND MIKE WOODCOCK: We'll make a start. We're joined by Paul Lawrie this afternoon. Paul, a 2-under par-70, two shots off the lead as it stands. Must have been a long day to get that result. PAUL LAWRIE: Yeah, played pretty much the same, to be fair. Played pretty solid. Struggled a wee bit when I went back out. I had to hole a couple of decent putts for pars and then should have birdied 18, really kind of hit a poor chip at 18, but apart from that, played solid. 70 was about right, kind of kept it going on the way in. Q. On the break you responded to yet another slur about your 1999 win. Would you like to run it down that particular person's throat on Monday? PAUL LAWRIE: Not in particular, because it's -- there's obviously been quite a bit of it since it happened, and it's kind of -- the way that I won, obviously you can see how a lot of people kind of see it. But come on, I mean, it's 16 years ago. Give us a break, just a wee bit. I mean, it gets a wee bit kind of monotonous after a while. But that was a particular poor article in my opinion. But now and again you're going to get boys who kind of want to write something and kind of make a bit of controversy about it, but you move on. No big deal. Q. You talked about holing those par putts. How important is that for you going into the next two rounds because that's obviously been the part of your game that you've bemoaned more than anything? PAUL LAWRIE: Moaned? Me? Q. Bemoaned. PAUL LAWRIE: Yeah, it is important, obviously. When you've got a chance to win any tournament, to grind it out a little bit when you're not at your best is one of the most important things that we do. When I went back out, I was about 30, 35 feet behind the pin at 14, down the slope, and putted to about three feet. The wind was still whipping a wee bit, so I hit a lovely three, four-footer for par there, and then 15 I totally misjudged the slope there. I had about 30 feet for birdie and left it about eight feet short and knocked that in. Again, cross wind. 16, I've hit a nice second shot just short of the pin, and again, misjudged the speed up the hill and holed a good three-footer for par there. So putts like that, sometimes it's the difference. So I could easily be sitting here 5-under and not 8, so that's the positive thing. Obviously I've been working really hard on my putting. I've got a new putter. Last week I put it in the bag with different grooves that the putter company I'm with, Caledonia, they rolling a lot better, and it feels great. So these putts are hugely important if you're going to win tournaments. Q. Most international players like yourself don't play that many tournaments in links, windy conditions like this. I'm wondering how much you're being from Scotland is an asset here this year. PAUL LAWRIE: Well, we certainly know or we should know what to do when the conditions get like they are today. But these guys are great players. It's not rocket science. They just -- you stick the ball a little bit further back in your stance and you take a little bit of speed off your swing to make sure it comes out a little lower and the ball is going to roll a bit further as opposed to stop. All these guys know that. It's not something that's a secret or a great surprise. But playing it more than they do probably is a slight advantage. But these guys are all great players. They all know what to do in the wind and know how to play when the conditions get tough. Q. Do you still play more links golf than most of these other international players? PAUL LAWRIE: I play -- not really, no. I don't play much golf when I go home. I tend to kind of work on my game a little bit when I go home as opposed to play. Apart from the tournaments we play on links, I probably only play another four or five rounds a year maybe on a links course. Not just an awful lot. When we go up to Skibo Castle where I'm attached, it plays -- it plays linksey, but apart from that, no more than four or five rounds. Q. You were taking some ferocious stick from Messrs. Clark and Poulter today. Can you tell us a wee bit about that and just how much the atmosphere and the banter among the boys keeps you going during a lengthy delay? PAUL LAWRIE: Well, the first mistake I made was spotting that there was a spare seat next to them when I came in in the morning and decided to sit next to them, which I won't do that again. I mean, it was great fun, but I'm not the best on my phone. I'm not very good at using my phone properly as my 16-year-old will tell you when he grabs my phone off me half the time. And then I kind of was on my phone and Poulter noticed that I had something that -- why do you do that? You should do it this way, then they were taking pictures of me scratching my head and it did look as though I was a complete idiot. Which I probably am with a phone to be fair, but it was good fun and that Periscope stuff was kind of -- that's amazing, I picked up so many followers just from that five-minute Periscope with Poulter. It's amazing how -- but he loves it, and it's good for the fans to see you all sitting and having a bit of banter and chatting away, and he did it again about 10 minutes later, but I left. Once was enough for me, to be fair, but he's right into it, so it was good fun. Q. The Ryder Cup boys always have that bond and you're always going to -- PAUL LAWRIE: Absolutely. I don't see them an awful lot to be fair because Ian stays in America as you know, Westy now stays in America, but when you play in Europe you kind of see them in the clubhouse and get together and have a bit of a chat and a bit of banter. I know I make them off worse certainly when Clarke is there, but you've got to take it on the chin and move on. Q. I know it's only the halfway stage, but have you any kind of thoughts on what it's going to take in terms of scoring to win on Monday, and in general where do you think you're at in the tournament in terms of maybe getting it done? PAUL LAWRIE: Not really. Haven't really thought that far ahead to be honest. I've always prided myself on kind of you are where you are as opposed to where you would like to be. I think it's important to just -- halfway stage, there's 36 holes to go. There's a lot of world-class players in there. I think if you start getting ahead of yourself is when you start kind of making mistakes and tripping up. All I'm thinking about is getting off the first tee tomorrow, into position, and pick my line that I want to hit it on, and make a good swing, and then you move on to the second shot at the first. I know it's boredom, but as soon as you start getting ahead of yourself and dreaming of things is when disasters happen. So one shot at a time. I know I'm playing good. I know I'm swinging good and I'm certainly putting better, but there's a long way to go. MIKE WOODCOCK: Paul, thank you for joining us. Best of luck on the weekend. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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