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ALFRED DUNHILL LINKS CHAMPIONSHIP


October 6, 2016


Matt Ford


Carnoustie, Kingsbarns, St Andrews, Scotland

MATT FORD: The front nine, I only had 11 putts. I was 5-under through the front nine.

Q. One of your better putting rounds?
MATT FORD: Yeah, I holed a couple nice ones, nice length. I had 16 putts on the back nine. The one that I holed, I stiffed it on one of the par 5s, tapped in for birdie and on 12 I holed from probably 50 feet for birdie and 30 feet on the first. Holed a couple of nice -- haven't had that all year, I would say.

Q. Been struggling on the greens this year, have you?
MATT FORD: I wouldn't say I've been struggling. I just haven't been holing the putts. Missed one here or there but I wouldn't say I've been really struggling but the stats have been average, shall we say. I know when I'm playing my best and I know when everyone is playing their best, the putting stats are good.

I've changed putter a couple weeks ago.

Q. Staying in the bag then?
MATT FORD: Yeah, that's not going anywhere.

Q. Enjoy it out there? Looked like quite tough conditions at times.
MATT FORD: The wind is tricky, as you expect links golf, but I love links golf. Brings out the best in me, but yeah, it's tough. It's tough to get it close. There's not that many holes where you can really attack flags or you've got to hit two perfect shots on the par 4 or par 3.

So you have to be patient and sometimes you are going to be 40, 50 feet away and luckily I holed a couple of those today which kept me going nicely. Did I think I hit quite a lot of greens today, which again is something I haven't necessarily been -- my stats haven't been that good at. Hit more greens and holing more putts.

Q. Bit of a bizarre incident on the last.
MATT FORD: Yeah, I hit first, hit mine to 15 first and then Jim hit his shot in and he's pitched on my ball, my ball was shut to the back, gone through the green and his ball has come back nearly into the hazard. So I mean, he's hit a pretty decent shot to land 15 feet from the hole and he's nearly back in the hazard, unfortunately, and didn't get up-and-down and made bogey. He would have been under par.

Q. But you can replace your ball, right?
MATT FORD: So my ball goes back. His ball has to play -- mine is replaced. It was okay for me.

Q. You can use a good week here given your position in The Race to Dubai; has that been on your mind?
MATT FORD: I think you would be inhuman to not know the scenario and not know what you need. Yeah, so it plays on your mind, of course it does. But yeah, just about trying to deal with it as best as you can. I probably didn't necessarily deal with it that well until the last week of the season last year, so I've been trying my hardest to make sure I can do something before that. For whatever reason, it has not worked out so far, so I've been giving it my best to have a good week it week.

Q. And knowing did you manage it last year, I presume that gives you heart this year?
MATT FORD: I know what I've got to do. But at the end of the day, a lot of this game is sometimes not in your control. Especially when you're playing links golf. So yeah, it's not in your control. You just have to control what you can do and hopefully the golfing gods are watching and you can hole a few putts and things go your way. I'll just be doing the same thing and keep myself -- the mental side of it is huge at this point of the season, whatever position you're in, especially when you're in my position.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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