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THE SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY ROLEX

July 24, 2016

Paul Broadhurst

North Berwick, Scotland

GORDON SIMPSON: Paul Broadhurst, winner of The Senior Open Championship Presented by Rolex. Lovely sound to it, Paul. You've won in Scotland in your first appearance as a 50-year-old and your first appearance in this incredible championship. It's a bit of a game changer today, isn't it, for you.

PAUL BROADHURST: It's massive, absolutely massive. I'm not aware of how big it is yet honestly. I'm trying not to think about it. Beyond my wildest dreams to be honest. This sort of thing doesn't happen to players like me normally. I've won a few tournaments over the years, but nothing anywhere near as big as this event. I feel very, very privileged to have won this event.

GORDON SIMPSON: And anyone who gets around Carnoustie without a bogey probably deserves this. It's a hard thing to do, as you discovered on day one.

PAUL BROADHURST: Absolutely. I struggled on the first day. Putting was really poor. Even the front nine the second day, I was still struggling. I was 4-over par for the tournament after 27 holes I think.

I was obviously concerned about making the cut. 12 and 14 were big holes for me. But my son's been on the bag, Sam, all week, and he's trying to keep my patient. I'm not the most patient of players. But his words of wisdom worked and we made a few putts coming down the straight and came back in 30 second day.

Then I carried that on yesterday morning. Played lovely the front nine holes. A 3-putt on No. 8 which dropped me back a little bit but at that point there was no real thought of winning the tournament. I was still quite a long way behind.

But today was, well, unbelievable, really. Four shots behind, didn't really think I had much chance of winning. I thought it was too big a gap, really. Highly unlikely that I was going to shoot 6-under around here again the last day of the Senior Open. Things like that don't normally happen.

Miguel gave me a little chance at No. 10. He hit the tree and it went back in the water and made double and I rolled a birdie putt which got me right back into it.

GORDON SIMPSON: And the last two holes to get up-and-down from the sand.

PAUL BROADHURST: Yeah, two poor iron shots. I guess I was pretty in control of my emotions all the way around until I holed the putt at 15 to go one ahead, and then suddenly reality hit and the swing got a little bit faster and the heart rate got a lot faster.

But I played two good bunker shots and I made a massive putt on 17 from about ten feet just to stay one shot clear. Then the important shot for me, really, was the drive off 18, and I hit as good a drive as I can hit down there. Then just try not to hit it out-of-bounds left. Don't hit it left of the flag. That's all I was thinking. Hit it a little bit heavy and pushed it down the right side but Miguel made it a little bit easier. Glanced on the scoreboard and Scott McCarron had bogeyed the last.

When Miguel didn't make four, I knew I could get up-and-down in three from the trap, which made it a lot, lot easier than if I had to up-and-down it.

Q. Three up-and-downs, really, wasn't it, 16.
PAUL BROADHURST: Yeah, I didn't hit a bad shot at 16, but it's such a hard hole. It was always drawing away with the wind a little bit, so it's going to release and roll down the slope. I made a nice 4-footer for par there, yeah.

Q. A big test, the final four holes here. Did you steel yourself particularly for that approaching it?
PAUL BROADHURST: I guess I was chasing at the time. On the 15th tee, I was one shot behind. So I wasn't really thinking of winning at the time. I was just trying to get it in play and create a chance if I could and I hit a perfect drive at 15, a great 7-iron to about four feet and rolled it in for birdie.

It was then, really, that I thought, wow, I've got a realistic chance of winning. It wasn't until then that I really gave it a thought of winning.

Q. Can we just check the age of your son?
PAUL BROADHURST: 19.

Q. How many times has he caddied for you before?
PAUL BROADHURST: He caddied for me in the British Open in 2012 and at the US PGA this year, so the third time.

Q. Obviously you won in Scotland last year in your debut. At that time, did you think you were going to make anything in seniors golf?
PAUL BROADHURST: I think my last Tour event was 2012 British Open at Lytham, and since then, I've sort of dedicated myself to getting my game in better shape than it was when I finished on Tour. I work with a guy called Tim Rouse now, and I've been with him three years and we've done a lot of work on my game.

Q. After Scotland last year, did you think it was going to be something you would continue with?
PAUL BROADHURST: Yeah, I was hoping to get off to a good start. I had been playing pretty well, in the mid land region, I've been shooting good scores in Pro-Ams and Invitational events. I was hopeful I would get off to a good start. I knew that my best, I was capable of winning a tournament. Got fortunate in the Scottish.

Yeah, you know, I was hopeful that my game would be good enough to compete.

GORDON SIMPSON: It's good you're going back there in a few weeks' time to Archerfield.

PAUL BROADHURST: I'll definitely be going back to Archerfield to defend. Looking forward to that. It will be great.

Q. You've won six times on The European Tour. How does this rate against those six, any of those six?
PAUL BROADHURST: Bigger than all of them I think, a lot, lot bigger. I played some of my best golf this week. I really hit the ball nicely. My iron play today I thought was really good. I hit some top iron shots into 10 and 15. Yeah, the hard work I've put in paid off this week.

Q. What did you hit into 15?
PAUL BROADHURST: 190 or something, 186, landed 175. Hit an absolute dream shot straight at it.

Q. Bigger than The Ryder Cup, as well?
PAUL BROADHURST: Difficult to compare that. Personally this is the biggest achievement of my career. Yeah, getting in The Ryder Cup was massive, but that was a result of a load of performances. Not necessarily winning big events, but an accumulation of points that got me in there.

I think this has got to rank higher than The Ryder Cup.

GORDON SIMPSON: How difficult is it when you get to that mid-40s period, because a lot of people have been in that hiatus waiting for 50. Was it tough for you?

PAUL BROADHURST: Really difficult. I didn't know what to do for three or four years. I've got X amount in the bank. Obviously that's gone down quite considerably, four years, not playing on Tour, with four kids to feed, as well (laughs).

This is massive. Four years away from the game; I obviously didn't really know what I was going to do. I thought about going into coaching, but I'm not the greatest coach in the world. I wanted to carry on playing. I just accepted that I wasn't going to make too much money playing golf in the next three or four years, but I wanted my game ready for the Senior Tour.

Q. I just read a report that one of those kids apparently said in a supermarket, you used to be a good golfer; have you proved a point?
PAUL BROADHURST: Well, he aspires to be a professional one day. Hopefully shows how good you've got to be.

GORDON SIMPSON: You've gone to the top of the Order of Merit, so a lot of things fall into play.

PAUL BROADHURST: I'll wake up in the morning and reassess it then. I've got a six-hour drive this evening. So I'm sure the phone will be busy all the way home.

GORDON SIMPSON: Congratulations once again. Great performance.

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