home

jobs

	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 14, 2005

Mark Hensby

ST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND

STEWART McDOUGALL: Ladies and gentlemen, Mark Hensby, 67, second place in the first round of The Open Championship.

I know it's 8:00 in the evening, but I don't think you'll be too displeased with your opening round in the championship. How do you feel?

MARK HENSBY: Pretty good. I played well today, considering the weather got kind of ugly. I got off to a slow start, but once I made the eagle on 9 I kind of got it going.

Q. You seem to have got a crack on how to play in a major championship. Do you change the way you play as you approach it?

MARK HENSBY: Not really. The majors require a good short game. And most of the time I've got a pretty good short game. I don't usually hit a lot of greens when I play regular events, so I get to chip a lot. Probably most of the guys don't chip too much. So when it comes to chipping, it's tough. Especially in this major you need to chip the ball well and putt. I think that's what helps.

Q. Have you played much over in Europe or Britain at all? What's your experience with links golf?

MARK HENSBY: I have none. No, I've never played over here. This is the first time I've played a links course.

Q. This may be a very old story, and you may have told it many times. I saw the story about you having slept in your car in 1994. You slept in your car for a couple of weeks. Can you tell us about that?

MARK HENSBY: That's an old story. Wherever I go someone asks me about it. The point in time when I first came to America, I was struggling. I lived with some people that lived in Chicago. They moved back to Australia and I had nowhere to stay a little bit, so I just slept in my car a little while at a golf course called Cog Hill. And that's pretty much the story. I stayed there off and on for six weeks once in a while and slept in the clubhouse when I could get in. It's kind of a funny story, really. That's about it, though.

Q. Could you talk a little bit about your decision last year not to come to The Open? Obviously that got a lot of attention and whatnot. Did you regret that at all, particularly now that you're here and seeing how well you're doing right now?

MARK HENSBY: Not really, no. I don't know anyone in the White House. I didn't have my passport at the time and I checked flights, and the earliest I could have got here was Wednesday. It was obviously a difficult decision, because I tried to qualify and I missed by a shot, and then it at the Western Open I finished third and missed out by a spot because Steve Lowery got in.

I was trying my best to get here, but it never turned out. It would have been my first British Open. And I checked all avenues to get here and give myself time to prepare for something like this. I didn't just want to come over here and show up. No, I don't really regret it at all.

Q. Just as a follow up, do you feel there was a perception of you that you didn't care or there was lack of desire to come here at all?

MARK HENSBY: Exactly. But if they did their homework and saw that I tried to qualify and missed by a shot and then obviously at the Western Open I missed by a spot. So it's there's definitely no lack of desire to play in a major.

Q. You said that this is your first time playing links golf, but how come you seem to have adapted to it very quickly? What is it that you like about the game that they play here?

MARK HENSBY: Well, it's not really different than any other golf. Everybody says it's so different, but it's really not. You try and hit a ball at a spot and you go from there. If you don't hit it at the spot, it doesn't really matter whether you're playing links golf or any other golf. Obviously you can land the ball short a lot more in links golf and you can run the ball up, which I kind of like. Around the greens you have a lot more options, which is a lot of fun, because America is very one dimensional, except for Pinehurst, obviously, this year.

So I don't really believe that there's any big difference. If you look at all the great players that play the game, they've played well in The British Open. I don't really see there's that much of a difference.

Q. Back in Australia it was said you have an imaginative short game and hardly missed a shot. That's a pretty good recipe for winning championships. Do you think that's helping you around the course at St. Andrews? Is that something that sort of you've been talking about or not?

MARK HENSBY: No doubt. But there's some spots out there that you can't get the ball up and down. So you really play to a spot where you're just trying to 2 putt. You can be silly, too. There's a point in time where you've got to make a decision whether you're going to go for a pin or not. I had two today where I chipped 30 feet from the hole, trying to make the putt that way.

Even though I've got a really good short game, I think that to play this tournament well you also have to be a little not so much too aggressive on the lines, even with chip shots.

Q. Despite the fact that you did so well in Augusta and also Pinehurst, you were very low odds at the start of the week to win here. Did you have a gamble on any of it did you know that and did you have a gamble on it?

MARK HENSBY: No. I don't look at those sort of things, no. No one expects me to win any tournament. I didn't do anything spectacular. I'm a decent, all around player, but I don't hit it 330 yards like most of the great players of today. But it's a case of just getting it around the golf course. Augusta I never really had a chance to win. I was just playing, so I had a good finish there. I felt at The Open I had a little chance. But the bottom line is, if Tiger's on or Vijay or the big hitters are on, you really don't have a chance, you just really play. So, no, I don't look at that stuff.

Q. What are your expectations now?

MARK HENSBY: I don't have any. I'll just go and play tomorrow and hopefully have a chance on Sunday. But I don't dwell on any expectations because I just don't.

Q. How would you explain the improvement in your game, given that you had six years on the Nationwide Tour and you're now contending in majors consecutively, how has that come about? Is it in your head or is it technical or what is it?

MARK HENSBY: Everything is in my head. You know, I don't think so. I think it's just patience more than anything, which we all get frustrated. But I used to get pretty down on myself. And I think that you need confidence to play at this level, and especially against those players that I was just talking about. I really can't put my finger on it. I haven't played majors before, so I don't really expect to do that great.

I just go out and play, and it just so happens this year that everything has gone well so far. But I've prepared well, though. I've taken time off and I've played a couple of tournaments and I've kind of peaked at the right time so far this year in the majors. It's been kind of nice in that respect. I think setting a schedule has been a lot easier since I won last year.

Q. Just getting back to the scenario last year, how difficult was it when you realized you wouldn't be able to put it all together with the passport and everything? Did you wonder what you were missing? And now that you're here, you know, what's the vibe of this major like compared to The Masters and what you've been in before?

MARK HENSBY: Well, that's kind of a hard question. All the majors are such people make such an importance of them. To me, you know, and I'll be honest, I feel like I'm playing just a normal tournament. That's the way I try and treat them. Obviously when you have a chance to win you get nervous in any tournament, but I don't treat a major any different than I would any other event. I said that at the U.S. Open and people laughed at me, but it's true.

I believe that you go out and you do your best, whether it's a major or any other golf tournament. And I was competing last week at the John Deere Classic and playing well on Sunday and felt like I had a chance. And I was as nervous as I was there. I was nervous probably more than the U.S. Open. They're all great events. Every event is great.

Q. If you win this event it changes your life in terms of exceptions and whatnot.

MARK HENSBY: Exactly. If you win an event you get a five year deal or whatever it is. But in a way it's good and in a way it's bad, because most guys who have won events kind of disappear a little bit because they get too relaxed or whatever, or go the opposite way and try too hard. My goal is to win a major, no doubt. I might be afraid to say that that's my goal now. I hope I can give myself chances.

Q. Was it difficult for you just backing up, was it difficult for you last year to sit this out when you were wherever you were back home?

MARK HENSBY: Yeah, especially when you're sitting, watching it on TV, you know. Yeah, knowing that you're in the field, there's no doubt. But it just wasn't happening. And then someone tells me through the Tour that they would have got me a jet and so on. Well, they could have told me that before I said no, you know. But anyhow

Q. You've not played much in Australia, and harking back to the comment of sleeping in your car, was that indicative of the fact that you were determined the U.S. Tour was where you were going to be and where you needed to make it? Do you intend to play a bit more in Australia?

MARK HENSBY: Well, I'm going to play the Australian Open this year, and the (Australian) PGA or (Australian) Masters, one of the two. But in Australia it's very hard to get ahead. If you're from there, I don't know where you're from, there's not a lot of events, and even if you go to the qualifying school down there you're not necessarily going to get in any of the events.

The Australian Tour has lost a lot of sponsorship over the last few years. I won't say that I haven't tried to play down there, but never got the opportunity to play down there, unless you're a top 100 player in the world and you if I'm on the Nationwide Tour they're not going to give me a spot to play in the Australian Open or anything like that. But then all of a sudden you're top 100 in the world and then they expect you to play. So what do you do?

Last year was the perfect example. I committed to Korea, because I'd never been given a chance to play in the Australia Open, and then I got bagged for not going. So you can't win.

Q. Where do you live most of the time?

MARK HENSBY: I live in Phoenix.

Q. You said you don't treat the majors any differently than regular tournaments. Jack Nicklaus, I think, treated the majors differently than the John Deere Classic; Tiger Woods, same way. Why do you approach it the same way? Is it because you're new at the majors or taking pressure off yourself?

MARK HENSBY: They're bigger, maybe. Maybe that's the reason why. Obviously the bigger events. But my caddie used to caddie for Tom Kite and he put it in perspective real quick for me. He said, "If you can treat the majors like any other event, you'll do better in them." Because Tom used to get so wrapped up in getting practicing so hard for the majors. He said, "He should have won six or seven but he tried too hard." So when he started with me we talked about that. And that's kind of the way we approached it. And so far it's been pretty good.

Q. You put up a pretty good number in conditions that were much more difficult than the leader faced this morning. How much better do you think your round could have been in better conditions?

MARK HENSBY: Probably no better. I think that I had a few chances towards the end and to go a little better and didn't take advantage of them. But sometimes when it's windier, actually it's a little easier, too, because you're playing holes sure the ones into the wind are difficult, but it was more of a crosswind.

It got easier for us playing the back nine, because a lot of the holes were more down and a little out of the right. Sometimes when you play it that way it's a little easier. I doubt I would have played any better, really.

Q. Colin Montgomerie was saying that looking at the leaderboard and seeing Tiger at the top, he used the word ominous, with Tiger being up there and with what he did in 2000. Is there any intimidation factor for you at all when you see that name up there and having had such a good round so early?

MARK HENSBY: Tiger and I are kind of friends, so I'm not intimidated by him, that's for sure. But Tiger is the best player in the world. I mean he's not even close to me. Vijay has done extremely well the last couple of years, but when Tiger is on, he's impossible to beat. We all know that. And I don't care. People are scared to say it, but it's true. He's the best. If he's playing well, everybody knows we're playing for second. But intimidated by him, I'm not. No, not at all.

Q. Is there a fear that he's been playing well of late, and obviously he comes out and shoots 6 under. Is there a fear

MARK HENSBY: I was watching TV, and Mike (Carrick) said, Maybe if he wins this week, and we played well, we'll get in the Grand Slam, you know, at the end of the year. Because he was 7 under through 12, and he had a couple of easy holes coming up that he's going to shoot 8 or 9 or 10 under. He's obviously playing well. He played well in Chicago. He won The Masters and finished second at The Open. I don't have to sit here and explain how good he is. We all know how good he is. And if he plays well, we're definitely playing for second, there's no doubt.

STEWART McDOUGALL: Thank you very much.

End of FastScripts.

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297