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January 29, 2016

Lee Slattery

Doha, Qatar

Q. 69 today, how does that compare to expectations before you teed off?
LEE SLATTERY: I think it was a lot windier on the range this morning, and I found it harder to keep my ball flight down. So it was tricky out there. I got off to the dream start, birdied the first two holes, and you know, from there on in, it was a bit of a battle. But just managed to play pretty solid.

Q. Tour players are used to having to deal with all sort of conditions and they have to learn to do so. How much of an advantage is it to be a guy that's growing up playing at Hesketh, so you've been doing it since you were a little boy; does that really help when it blows like this?
LEE SLATTERY: I think so. We maybe have more variety of shots in our bag, to guys that grow up in perfect climates on perfect golf courses. We had to deal with wind maybe six, eight months of the year, it was so tricky. I'm very, very used to it. I think being on Tour, you sort of forget what it's like to play in winds, but then when you do get a windy day, it comes back to you again. Certainly there was a variety of shots in the bag today.

Q. Last year with your win, you went from being a winner on Tour to being a multiple-winner on Tour. Does that have an effect on confidence when you put yourself in a position to win again?
LEE SLATTERY: I think so. Well, it sounds good, anyway. But I think it does. I think doing it for the first time, it was tough. I almost threw that away. The second time, I was so relaxed coming down the stretch, knowing that I had won before. I think every time you do win a tournament, it helps.

Q. So based on that, tomorrow, the aspiration, sincerely to get the win?
LEE SLATTERY: Yeah, I think the less you care about this game, the better you seem to do. I'll just go out there pretty chilled out tomorrow and see what happens. If it's a win, great. If not, hopefully it will be a great week and take that into next week.

Q. This is almost an exam question: How do you compare and contrast three rounds of 69?
LEE SLATTERY: Well, I think I came here this week fairly low on confidence. Although I had put in a lot of hard work and practice over the off-season, shooting a high score, I shooting a high score, where I shot 83 second round last week, I'm not saying I'd have shot that had it of been with a chance to make the cut, certainly.

But I think coming into this week, yeah, the expectations were a lot lower and I think sometimes you need that. So I went out the first day, just tried to play really controlled golf. Played really solid. Second day, played solid again. But felt like I left chances out there. But today, to shoot 3-under out there today in this wind was a great score.

Q. This suggests there's a grittiness about you, a resilience to get things done.
LEE SLATTERY: I think it's growing up on links courses my whole career, and having to play in the wind a lot. You just can't give up. It's that sort of weather today. You just have to keep grinding away. You're not going to hit every green. You're not going to hit every fairway. You're going to have some bad breaks, as well. You just have to stay patient and hopefully not make too many bogeys out there.

Q. Everybody knows how to play in the wind, but for you, presumably there's a little bit more -- I don't know whether it's muscle memory, but you immediately step up to the course and play the right shots.
LEE SLATTERY: I think so. I think there's more variety in my game. Like you say, growing up on links golf courses, you need to play a different type of game. By the seaside, we played six to eight months in the wind back home, and it is really, really tricky. There are days at home I've played golf in tournaments that have been twice as windy as that and it is really, really tricky.

But today, this is certainly the windiest I've played for a long time and I've heard it could be forecast again tomorrow, similar day. Just try to do the same things, keep the ball under control.

Q. When you're shooting like this, forget last week; the confidence does come back?
LEE SLATTERY: I think so. I think nowadays, I think the guys are technically so much better than they used to be in the old days. We don't panic; if we have a bad score the swing coach is just around the corner and you can find it within minutes. And it's the modern day game and the modern day equipment and the technology that goes with it, it just allows us to find things easier. Certainly this week on the Tuesday, sort of stood on the range, I was struggling and by Wednesday morning it felt great. So just another example.

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