DUNHILL LINKS CHAMPIONSHIP

September 25, 2003

Simon Yates

GORDON SIMPSON: You are on top of the pile here at St. Andrews. And for a Scotsman from Glasgow, you are looking particularly cold. You are not used this, are you?

SIMON YATES: Certainly not. That's one reason why I play on the Asian Tour. I'm used to playing in 95, 100 degrees out there with no wind.

GORDON SIMPSON: So given all these factors, why did you shoot so well today?

SIMON YATES: I actually played very good on the back nine. I think I might have been slightly lucky with the wind when I started off. You're playing a crosswind, but it was not really strong. When I got to the turn, sort of 18 and 1, it changed and got a little stronger. I think we had a little bit of an advantage there.

But when it's so cold, normally I don't play well. So, yeah, I was very happy at the end of the day making birdies. I don't think I had any bogeys. Six birdies and that was it. My last tournament? It was in Thailand. I haven't made a cut there in five years and still haven't -- they are not the greatest greens in the world. It's not like playing perfect greens.

Q. You played here last year?

SIMON YATES: Unbelievable. Yeah, I shot 79-73.

Q. Too cold?

SIMON YATES: Actually, that's just going around by the side of it. It was windy actually but hot obviously. The second day was actually all right, but the conditions of the golf course --

Q. You played well there?

SIMON YATES: I did. I found it too cold. It was perfect weather last year. Just didn't play very good, really.

Last time I played here -- yeah, first time I ever played St. Andrews was last year, yeah. I was down at the Royal Burgess in Edinburgh for five years and you can't believe that I didn't come up here for five years and play this golf course.

GORDON SIMPSON: What was it that prompted you to stay out there? A lot of people have gone out there for a few years and came back.

SIMON YATES: I thought about qualifying for the European Tour but it just doesn't interest me. I just have a great condo out there, a great condo on the beach. The quality of life in Thailand, I really like the life out there. I'm a bit lazy, actually. I don't like to play too many weeks in a row.

Q. What's the average temperatures?

SIMON YATES: Where? In Thailand, probably 32, 33 degrees -- 19 to 33 degrees. My granny is South African and I just like the heat. You just feel looser. I find when it gets cold and windy, you suddenly start feeling stiff and I don't feel like I can really rip the ball.

GORDON SIMPSON: So you don't have an affiliate membership of the European Tour?

SIMON YATES: No, thanks. Nothing at all.

Q. What took you out there?

SIMON YATES: I went out in '93 to the place where I stay, two hours south of Bangkok. I went out with a guy called Kenny Walker who was like No. 1 in Scotland for a couple of years. Went out for holiday for six weeks. And then I went to Germany in '95 and got a teaching job and at the German PGA Championship which I went in for and won it. Sven Struver and these guys were playing in it, too. So Germany, they wanted to sponsor you, and ever since then I've been out in Asia, '95, '96.

Q. Good to be up there on top?

SIMON YATES: Yeah, it's quite good. A lot of people have obviously never heard of me. It is nice to come back and have a nice round, and hopefully I can keep it going.

As you say, yeah, it's nice to show people: Okay, this guy, he's Scottish, but never realized he played out there. I played with Ernie Els in the last round of the Singapore Open -- I finished 10th, had a bad last round, but that was a European Tour event. I enjoy playing the courses. I got an invite to Dubai as well, which was nice playing with McGinley.

Q. What's your career best performance?

SIMON YATES: Hole-in-one winning at Lexus, actually. I did that in Thailand actually in '97.

In '98 I won the Mercedes Masters which was nice and I've had eight second places in the Asian Tour.

Q. How long were you a top downhill skier?

SIMON YATES: Three years. There's no money in that game, even if you're Top-10 in the world. Skiing is a great sport. I really enjoy it. I still ski every year. My brother lives in France, in Chamonix, and I go back for holiday every year.

Q. How did you get into it?

SIMON YATES: You know it's a funny story, my dad was a good golfer, he was a scratch. He went to Millfield School and my godfather's brother is Brian Barnes, so obviously my dad played golf -- I didn't start until I was about 15, 14.

Q. Your brother's name....

SIMON YATES: My brother, Nick Yates, Nicholas Yates. My dad's Chris, he used to work for the BBC, actually.

Q. Where is he now?

SIMON YATES: He's coming out, he spends six months in Thailand. Must be the heat, too.

Q. What was your career best performance In skiing?

SIMON YATES: What, skiing? Actually, when I was 14 years old, they had the British Artificial which was held in Edinburgh. I was fourth overall combined in slalom and giant slalom. My brother won it two years running actually. That was when Martin Bell and Graham Bell and all of these guys were skiing. That was over the weekend -- the plastic (ph) are a little better for me because obviously if you're smaller rather than bigger and muscular you go faster.

Q. What did you win?

SIMON YATES: The British Ski Artificial, Artificial Championship.

Q. Is it fair to say you have low ambitions?

SIMON YATES: My ambitions aren't really, really high. I take them as they come and, you know, when you're playing golf -- I started late and stuff. I wish I had more confidence playing golf than I did skiing. I can go on a British ski lift for two years and get on them and feel like I've never been on them.

Golf is a funny game. It's not like one day to the next can be totally different. So it's very difficult. But again, if I suddenly get good and people say to me, go to the U.S. tour qualifying, that's more toward what I would like to play in weather-wise. You're not getting bad weather: One day wet, cold. I just can't play in it. What was it, two or three days ago, it was really cold.

Q. Will you be interested in a card is you do well this week?

SIMON YATES: Sure if you get into a few big tournaments, sure. In Dubai I think the top six Order of Merit go to Dubai. I played all right. Johnnie Walker, I finished 18th this year. But I finished 26th or 27th I think in Dubai.

So it would be nice just to play -- no doubt, I do appreciate playing in them and playing for more money than we play for. I obviously know that the European Tour players, it sort of goes Asian Tour, European Tour and U.S. Tour. I think there are a lot of good players out in Asia, maybe 35 good players and then it drops off.

But anyone can win on the European Tour as you've seen this year. Anyone can win. So hopefully it's me.

Q. What was your biggest check?

SIMON YATES: $55,000 cheque in the Volvo China Open in 1999, U.S. Dollars

Q. Will you play in the Johnnie Walker?

SIMON YATES: The Johnnie Walker, yes - travel from home.

Q. Do you speak any Thai?

SIMON YATES: I speak a bit of Thai. You probably think I speak well but I don't really. I speak it well enough to get by, as you say, but not fluently. I don't sit there and watch Thai TV.

I live right on the beach. I live in a condo. I bought the penthouse three, four years ago, and it looks over the ocean, right by the hill, 280-degree view. That's one of the reasons I just love it there. It's beautiful.

Q. You seem not to be too ambitious?

SIMON YATES: I just go down to the beach. Every once in a while -- my typical day in Thailand: I'll get up, have breakfast in the condo. I'll go to the golf course, practice for two or three hours. Because it's hot you can't practice all the day out there. It comes to lunchtime, 12,00, I drive back to the beach. I have a regular restaurant there and I have my regular Thai food there for a pound total with drink, and go back up and watch TV or go and swim or whatever I need to do. So it's a very relaxing life. I like it.

You can get thunderstorms. You get some good thunderstorms because it gets humid. This time of year, it's sort of -- it's a little bit humid. It's the rainy season, September, October. And then November, December, January, March is clear, blue sunshine, perfect. It's in Hy-hea. It's about two hours south of Bangkok. I chose Thailand because it was very central in Asia, it's the best food there, great place for good weather, very central.

Q. Details?

SIMON YATES: No. 1, I hit it to the right side of the green and made a 40-footer. I didn't really snake any others. I hit it pretty solid. Last few holes I was struggling a little bit with the left-to-right wind and I had a couple of dodgy shots, but otherwise it was okay.

End of FastScripts.