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WGC HSBC CHAMPIONS

October 30, 2019

Francesco Molinari

Shanghai, China

BRIONY CARLYON: Francesco, it's great to have you here at the WGC-HSBC Champions again.

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Thank you.

BRIONY CARLYON: You're a former winner of this event. Just give us your thoughts on how you've seen this event grow since obviously taking the title a few years ago.

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Yeah, well, obviously it was a nice event, pretty great event since the beginning, but yeah, it's been nice to see obviously the field getting better and better through the years, and the course maturing, as well, and the crowds getting bigger.

Yeah, it's become a nice appointment every year. It's nice to come back every year and knowing that it's going to get better year after year. The course is world-class. Everything about the event is world-class really. I think that's why you see some of the world's best players coming back every season.

BRIONY CARLYON: It's been obviously a busy year for you, as well, in the States, and back in the Europe this last swing, obviously in Asia, and then back to Europe in the coming weeks. How does the game feel at the moment, and how much are you looking forward to obviously a few more tournaments and then a bit of a break?

FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Yeah, well, it will be nice to finish the year strong. Obviously it's been a learning year, especially since April, obviously things have not gone how I was hoping.

Yeah, just trying to learn from how it's been, and get back where I was at the beginning of the season or last year. So yeah, it's been, like you said, a busy season, and still a busy stretch coming these next five weeks, all big tournaments and it would be nice to finish the year well and build some momentum going into next season so that it doesn't feel like I have to start from scratch next year.

Q. Curious on the year that's not quite over yet, as you look back on it, especially at the Masters, did it take momentum away from you, and if it does, how did it do it?
FRANCESCO MOLINARI: I don't know how, but yeah, in hindsight, obviously it's easy to see after that, the results haven't been quite the same. Yeah, you know, it's tough, like in any sport, I think when you lose a tournament or a game or something like that, it takes a toll mentally.

And yeah, I guess I was coming obviously through a period, an extended period of a few months where things were most of the time going my way, so yeah, it just happened.

And then I tried to kind of do the same things after that, and you know, keep pushing and keep improving day by day, but yeah, I don't know, I think something obviously changed that week in a way.

Yeah, since then, I've been trying to get back to where I was. I think simply my game hasn't been as good as it was at the beginning of the season or from -- since May, June, last year. It's as simple as I need to hit the ball better and putt better and to do basic things better.

Obviously with confidence everything comes a little bit easier, and like I said, in golf, and I think in any sport, when you lose a tournament or a game, you lose some confidence and you just need to build it up again.

Unfortunately I think it takes longer to build up the confidence than what it takes to lose it in circumstances like that.

Q. I just remember in early 2018, before you even had great results, you found yourself getting better, improving. Have you found that in the last three or four months? It sounds like you're working harder than ever to kind of get that back. Have you found improvement or are you having to convince yourself of it?
FRANCESCO MOLINARI: No. If I have to be completely honest, since April, May, no, I'll struggle to build that momentum and to get better day by day.

Obviously the higher you go, the harder it is to get better; the less margins, just you're getting closer to the feeling, let's say.

I haven't for a while. In the last few weeks, I think it's been changing since before Wentworth, really. Wentworth and Safeway, I had two decent tournaments, nothing special, but felt like things were on the up again, and then obviously Italy the result wasn't what I wanted.

Still, I think there were some signs. So yeah, I think the last month or so, things are -- have started to change, last year is a great example, the feeling of getting better every day before the results actually started to show it. So you need to be patient, and like I was saying before, do the basic stuff day by day, hit the ball a little bit better day by day and putt a little bit better day by day and then in the long term, it shows in the results. But it takes a lot of patience, yeah.

Q. Is winning a major as disruptive as it is huge?
FRANCESCO MOLINARI: No, well, I think if you look at me losing, it was harder than winning in a way. Obviously after The Open last year, I think it takes a toll for sure because of the -- you know, off the course stuff that you need to do that you didn't need to do before winning. But I think I did a good job of kind of absorbing that last year, and started the season this year pretty much where I left off last year.

Like I was saying to Doug, Augusta definitely took a toll, and you know, I'm not the first guy that it happens to. We've seen Rory or Jordan in the past going through similar things.

The main focus for me is, like I was saying, having good processes day by day and hopefully soon getting back to where I was before that. To answer your question, I don't think winning a major is as disruptive -- it's huge as it is -- obviously the positives, obviously it's a lot bigger than the downside. I would be very happy to deal with that a few more times in my career.

Q. When think of some of your big ones, and Carnoustie was kind of big, I was thinking of your 62 as Quicken Loans and your finish at Bay Hill and things you've done in your career. Where do you rate the battle you had with Lee here, how you played for a week, does that -- where does that rate amongst some of the wins in terms of your quality of play throughout the week?
FRANCESCO MOLINARI: In terms of quality of play, I think pretty high. I don't know, it's hard to obviously make a list of the wins, but yeah, the way I played that week definitely was at the time by far the best golf I've played. It seems a long, long time ago now, so fading memory in my head.

It was just an incredible week tee-to-green and putting well. Up there, yeah, together -- in terms of quality of play, definitely together with Carnoustie or Quicken Loans. I think Bay Hill this year, I probably didn't -- I mean, I played well but I didn't quite play as well as some other weeks.

So yeah, right up there.

Q. You were saying earlier when you get better, it's harder to keep getting better still. The work you do with Dave Alred, you know how he gets you initially hitting within six feet of the hole or whatever it is, does he keep reducing the circle, and if so, what stage are you at now?
FRANCESCO MOLINARI: Well, if you keep reducing the circle, at some point, you can't do that anymore.

Yeah, we've tightened the margins through the years. There's still room for going forward. I think like Dave's philosophy, there's no limit on how much you can improve and you keep going forever, but you realise that you keep going up, it's going to get harder and harder to keep going that way.

I think in golf, what we always said with Dave is that if you want to stay where you are, you know, in the rankings or in terms of level compared to the other players already to stay where you are, you need to get better because everyone is getting better and there's new players coming in the whole time.

Already maintaining a certain level I think will be a sign of improvement. Yeah, you know me, you know my team, we like to push ourselves and to try to prove everyone wrong. We'll keep doing that, and see how far we can get.

Q. Could you put a number on one of these things, when you say you tighten the margins, when you started, how big was the circle and where would it be at now?
FRANCESCO MOLINARI: We haven't actually narrowed the margins. With Dave, for example, if it's doing things out of ten, or we do a lot of drills that we need to complete a certain task, however many shots it takes you to complete that task. So there's really -- you can't stop improving on that unless you do it in one shot. But we've not been there yet, so yeah, if we started, let's say, at 15, now we are around 10, so there's still a good margin to go.

BRIONY CARLYON: Thank you, Fran, for your time. All the best this week.

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